A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

15th February 2017

*Sponsored post in association with American Express®.

As you may have seen, I wrote about us taking a trip to Whitby for a few days over Ava’s birthday and that Ava would be documenting it in her own unique way via photography and video, as part of my collaboration with American Express.

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Filled with inspiration for both parents and children on how to get the most out of your family holidays, American Express has created a Family Travel Hub. Included as part of this is the ‘Whipper Snapper’ activity book – a fun guide that encourages children to use photography to document their travel experiences and ignite their passion for travel along the way.

Well, we had a really lovely few days away with the family, and Ava absolutely adored being the one in charge of the cameras. We constantly had a camera in our faces, and she loved documenting and sharing our experiences whilst we were away. We definitely need to work on her keeping the camera still until the photo has actually taken, and taking a few less pictures of herself – but she enjoyed it, so that’s what matters, right?! I love looking back at photos of our travels and remembering the experiences we had together, and it’s been great to see some from Ava’s perspective.

Whilst we were in Whitby we took trips to the beach, went for fish and chips (of course!) and to the amusement arcades on a rainy day. On the day of Ava’s birthday we gave her a few ideas to see what she would like to do, and she chose for us all to go to Scarborough for the day and visit the Sealife Centre there, which was really fun (but absolutely freezing!). The Sealife Centre in Scarborough is quite a bit different, with more animals outside and the centre itself does a lot of rehabilitation, so it was really interesting, and the kiddos loved it.

Ava took these photos…

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Up close to the penguins at Sealife Scarborough – Ava loved watching them being fed.

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Here she is – queen of the selfie herself…

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Ava loves playing with filters on photos she has taken.

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Here are a few more of the photos that Ava took…

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Ava ordered Grandma to stand still and pose for a photo!

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

We absolutely love travelling together as a family. When we’re at home, we have all of the mundane tasks that are part of everyday life– but when we’re away together, we can be focused completely on Ava and enjoying ourselves together. As a family, we love experiencing a new place together, or going back to one we have fallen in love with before.

We love Whitby – having a family home there means we get to go as often as we want to, and it’s a lovely seaside town to enjoy whatever the weather. Ava loves to don her wellies and waterproofs, and splash about in rock pools or in the waves of the sea, getting soaked through until we have to drag her away so that she can get warm and dry again. It’s funny that in a place like this where we enjoy the beautiful surroundings and fresh air, she mostly ignores that and is intent on having as much fun as possible in the water! Funnily enough, new research by American Express found that whilst parents said their favourite things about holidays are enjoying time with their family in local surroundings (51%), and relaxing (48%), the most important things to children are jumping in the pool (50%) and staying up late (46%). Over 1/3 (35%) of children also said that their ideal holiday destination was the beach (35%)*. This is definitely something we can relate to with Ava – our favourite part of our family trips to Whitby is watching her having so much fun whereas, as you can probably tell by the photos she took, Ava is more focused on splashing about in the sea!

Most of the photos from the beach were taken when we visited Robin Hood’s Bay, which is a lovely little cute quaint place that we always make a visit to when we are there. Ava took some of the photos, but she was having far too much fun in the moment getting absolutely soaked through to stop and capture the moment on film (memory card doesn’t have quite the same charm does it!).

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

She absolutely loved splashing in the rock pools at Robin Hood’s Bay.

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Ava is very into taking selfies! She took this one of us at the beach.

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My DaughterA Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My DaughterA Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My DaughterA Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My DaughterA Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My DaughterA Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Another one of our favourite things to do when we are in Whitby, is enjoying the best bacon butties in the world from a local butcher. We also always have one of our evening meals in the pub across the road from the cottage – the perfect location for strolling home after filling our bellies. As we have done for a few years now, this year we went for dinner at the pub on the evening of Ava’s birthday and as always had a lovely time with some brilliant food and wine.

As parents, we hope that Ava remembers these traditions and special memories that are so important to us when we travel as a family. Passing on our passion for travel, exploring new places and capturing everything through photography are things we really want to instil in Ava as she grows up.

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

The birthday girl and her Daddy.

A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My DaughterA Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter

Here is a little video from our trip if you’d like to see:

So what have I learnt from this experience? Well I now know that my five year old daughter is the absolute Queen of the selfie, especially if she can add a fun filter on afterwards (thanks VTech Kidizoom camera!) She also very much enjoys filming herself singing, and that a child’s ability and desire to take photographs or film is fully dependent on the mood they are in! We had a really good few days away with the family, celebrating Ava’s 5th birthday, and it’s so nice having some of it documented by Ava for once and seeing familiar places through her eyes. I’ll definitely be handing the camera to her if she fancies taking some photos on any upcoming family trips, which I’m sure she will as she loves it.

It has been a great experience, and has really made me see things more from my child’s perspective, and think about how she sees things differently to us. She really loved being in charge (at least some of the time!), and it has definitely furthered her love of photography.

* Research by American Express of 1,000 parents with children under 10 in the UK were interviewed in November 2016 by independent research agency Censuswide. The survey was conducted from a random sample of UK parents via an online panel.

Promoter: American Express Services Europe Limited has its registered office at Belgrave House, 76 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W, United Kingdom. It is registered in England and Wales with Company Number 1833139 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

One response to “A Family Trip to Whitby, Documented By My Daughter”

  1. Oh this is lovely! I love seeing the world through kid’s eyes, and Ava has he beginnings of a very good photographer!

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