I participated in a Influencer Activation on behalf of Influence Central for AVEENO. I received product samples as well as a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

Our family seems to take really great photos. We hire a photographer once or twice a year to take pictures of our family. These pictures always seem to turn out beautifully and we put them on our Christmas cards and coffee mugs and blow them up and frame them and hang them on the wall.

As great as they are however, they’re usually not our most cherished photos. They are amazing pictures, for sure, but there isn’t necessarily a special memory associated with them. We never really sit around and reminisce about “the wonderful day we all went and posed for pictures.”

Some of my most cherished photos aren’t necessarily the ones that are the best quality, the highest resolution or the ones with perfect white balancing. My most cherished photos are the ones that happened unexpectedly while we are going about our day, enjoying life and making memories. Photos that, when viewed, take me back to the day or event in my life and let me relive it in my mind.

A recent survey by AVEENO found that I’m not alone in this. In fact most parents said unscripted moments were more beautiful than those that were perfectly planned. They have created an #UnscriptedBeauty Movement to encourage parents to embrace the beauty in life that doesn’t always go as planned.

Take the picture above, for example. Last weekend we were having a birthday party at our neighborhood pool for my son who was turning 4. We had snacks, juice, pizza and candy on hand for the party goers to take as they desired. I happened to be watching the pool, waiting for any chance to do my best Bay Watch rescue impression when I heard some laughter from behind. I turned around to see my 1-year old walking away from the snack table with a mouth full of candy and multi-colored drool pouring off of his chin.

He was so proud of himself for “sneaking” some candy and he was walking around strutting his stuff. He was completely oblivious to the mess he had made all over himself. I scrambled to grab a camera and get in front of him for a shot.  After a few blurry tries I was able to snap a keeper.

Now every time I look at this picture of him with his blue and red drool streaks I can’t help but smile to myself. I can just see him walking away from that table grinning ear to ear while he was chewing with his mouth open and drooling all over himself without a care in the world. I could learn a thing from him about enjoying the simple things in life. I must have eaten a minimum of 4 handfuls of candy that day but I didn’t enjoy any of it nearly as much as he enjoyed his 4 pieces.

When we got home he went straight into the tub so I could wash off the sticky. In hindsight, this might have been part of his plan all along. He loves the tub just as much as he loves candy!

Do you have any beautiful moments that weren’t exactly as planed? Share them on Facebook or Instagram and hashtag #AVEENO & #UnscriptedBeauty. If you wish to be entered into the contest to win a professional photo shoot make sure to include #Contest. Check out others’ moments at AVEENO’S Facebook page.