This interview is a part of a new series that highlights the story of the Traveling Umbrella. Each project participant is mailed the Traveling Umbrella and asked to keep it for about a week. They use it as a photography prop before they mail it on to the next person on the waiting list. Learn more at:

 www.TheUmbrellaThatTraveledTheWorld.com

Participant: Nicole Galloway

Location: Southern California, USA

Find Her on Instagram: @coco.loren

Interviewed by: Rachel Fergus

To Nicole, the most important and impactful part of having the Traveling Umbrella is the way it has helped her and her sons bond.

“We’ve had a handful of times,” Nicole wrote, “where we would come up with something different that had yet to be done. Our very first spot was up a tree. A very old tree that is in a park nearby our home and I knew that was where we had to go”.

Nicole has been very creative with the photos she takes with the umbrella. She takes pictures of her sons in trees, sliding down railings, exploring at sunset, and much more, all incorporating the brella and of course, her two boys. Nicole’s son even “jumped off a table which was cropped out of the photo so it looked as though he floated through the air between trees”.

And it’s not just Nicole that comes up with the ideas for photographs; the creativity bug has also bitten her boys. And Nicole loves it. She says she can’t think of anything better than her boys “wanting to express an idea of their own from their creative outlets”.

When Nicole’s oldest son discovered they still had the brella, he declared, “we still have it!!?” It is not hard to see that Nicole and her sons love the traveling umbrella and how it impacts their family. Nicole explained, “I've had a special bonding experience throughout each time we've brought the brella out”.