It was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life.
When my wife and I, along with five other couples, traveled to Kenya to go on safari a few years back, I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. Two weeks later, I had memories to last a lifetime and more than 5,000 pictures in my camera. I wanted to share what I’d seen with my friends and family, but I couldn’t very well have them sit through a slideshow of all my snapshots!
I knew that you could make books on the Internet, so I ordered a photo book, but it didn’t capture the awe I’d felt when I 
took the photos. Then I found another site, Blurb, and there I created a 60-page book called The Africa We Saw (you can check out a preview of it for yourself).
It commemorated what had been a once-in-a-lifetime trip, but it also brought the whole experience back for the other people who had been there—and for my children, who had only heard us talk about it. We gave each of them a copy of the book for Christmas, and it gave them a deeper understanding of what their folks had been going on about.
I thoroughly enjoyed sorting my photos, but I didn’t have a lot of time to spend on it—I just selected the templates I liked, and Blurb went into my photo library and turned them into a book. Figuring out how I wanted to organize pictures was both easy and fun; amid all the lions and elephants and giraffes, for example, I also had a section of just birds. Small, but so striking in their own right.
A lot of people are looking into creating their own books these days; people want to share their experiences, thoughts and legacies with their friends and families. It’s so important to preserve these true inspirational stories for future generations. Writing a book can take a long time and a big commitment—but creating a picture book is something anyone can do in an afternoon.
Gather up some of your favorite pictures of your children or grandchildren; be sure to include some shots of you with them. 
Create a photo book with Blurb, print copies for members of your family and I guarantee that will be a gift everyone will be talking about—and one they’ll keep coming back to.
Once you create a book, anyone can see it; you just send them the link and they can take a look. Maybe a cousin or neighbor wants a copy for themselves—through Blurb, they can easily order their own. It’s a way of sharing your feelings through pictures, even for people who weren’t there.
After creating The Africa We Saw on Blurb, I knew I wanted to preserve another inspiring adventure we’d had, a breathtaking golf trip around Scotland. I’m pretty sure that won’t be my last book, either. It was so easy, and the end result was something that I was proud of and everyone around me seemed to really love.
And that was a gift to all of us.
