Urban Outfitters had a contest for Mother’s Day looking for the original style icons, asking people to send in photos of their moms and their unique style back in the day.

I swiped a sampling of some of their favorites for my blog, but you MUST go check out the complete gallery. It’s a very cool collection of photos of real moms back in the day.

It got me thinking about my mom and her own sense of style, energy and vibrance captured in photographs from another time. When my parents first got married, my dad went to Hawaii A LOT on business and my mom would tag along. I love this one, if there was one photo that would portray my mom’s personality perfectly, it would be this one. She’s so happy, confidant and about ready to just jump right out of the photo. She loves to laugh, dance, move fast, fully experience life and be outdoors. She HATES being cooped up inside, so I would say standing at the ocean with sand in her toes and the wind to her back is right up there to be one of her top places she would like to be.

Work it mom! I don’t think I have the same skin as my mom because I have NEVER been that tan.

My girlfriends joke with me about how I have (used to have, before the pregnancy) freakishly strong (looking) arms. Well, mine are nothing compared to my mom’s! I’ve always joked that she can chop down a tree one handed. I’m seriously only half joking, the woman is STRONG. I remember when I was a kid, one summer she wanted to make a tiered staircase of railroad ties in some landscaping out by our pool. I watched as she moved probably ten railroad ties to make a little retaining wall ALL BY HERSELF. Those things are HUGE and heavy. So yea, check out her amazing arms. She has great legs too, but I didn’t get to inherit those, darn it. Still, thanks for the genes mom!

In this photo, I was EIGHT MONTHS OLD! Go mom! (Again, thank God for her amazing genes that helped me bounce back after Miles was born. Let’s just hope I didn’t use all those good genes up the first time around. I’ll need them again in a few months!) That dress was AWESOME! I wore it one year for Halloween in High School. Man, I would LOVE to still have that dress. We lost everything in a house fire right after I graduated, so it’s gone. Thankfully my sister had many of our photos at her house, so these were saved. Phew!

Happy Mother’s Day to you mom! Hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane. It’s fun to look at these photos and see the things I remember from my childhood; a mom with lots of energy, sass, confidence and joy.

Oh, and of course, I have to post one from the present that I took on her birthday. ) You can bet somebody got this photo framed today. 😉