Welcome back to another week of my Behind the Lens guest series. I have the lovely Leyla who blogs over at This Day I Love featuring today. Leyla has a beautiful family with two girls, a little baby boy and two crazy dogs.

Today she shares her story behind this photo of her youngest daughter.

Every time I look at this picture I can feel the warmth of the evening sun on my back.  I can smell the sea air and hear the ship getting ready for the evening.  In June 2014 we set sail on a Disney cruise from Barcelona.  It was to be a week of firsts for all of us, our first holiday abroad as a family, my youngest daughter’s first time in a plane and our first time on a cruise ship.

I look at this photo and I can remember how happy we were that evening.  We had spent the day at shore and returned to the ship to get ready for the evening and dinner.  We rarely ventured up to the very top deck as there was little shade for the kids but as we were ready early we ventured on to the very top deck to explore.  My youngest daughter at 2 years old was simply fascinated by the people below her.  Directly below her is the adult only area of the ship and so she had not seen this part of the boat before.  She began watching and asking questions as to why she could not go down there too.

Our Disney cruise is still the most talked about holiday we have ever been on.  The girls grew in confidence from running scared every time they saw a Disney character to running around the ship with Peter Pan looking for Tinkerbell.  You could see a real sparkle in their eyes every time we went on a shore excursion, wondering where our adventures would take us.

Before our cruise, I was incredibly nervous as I suffer from bad sea sickness.  I only have to look at a boat to feel ill and so I was apprehensive how a week at sea would make me feel.  I only ever felt the boat move once, and that was the first time we left port.  As I stood there on the top deck watching my youngest daughter I knew there and then I wanted to explore more of the world with my children.

This photo might not be perfect in a technical sense but every time I look at it I long to be back aboard that ship.  I long to be on the very top deck looking out over the ocean and wondering where in the world we will wake up in the morning and what adventures we might have.  This photo reminds me of all the magic a Disney Cruise can bring and I hope to take my family back there one day.

You can find Leyla online:

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