My Forever

 Everything that could have gong wrong with this family photo shoot, went wrong. Except for one thing that saved everything. The people. Every one in our family had the best attitudes this night and it changed everything! 

You'd think I'd be able to plan a photo night better than I did because this is literallly what I do for a living but finding free nights is hard! So we did it on a whim. 

When I say it all could have been a dister, im not exagurating. Penny and I took so much time and curled our hair to perfection. I painted both our nails, all the little details that make you feel better in photos but are rarely noticed in the picture was done. All was good. 

We put outfits together that day and ran to the store for an extra t-shirt and my dress. We planned to get there for the golden sunset hour. 

And then... life happened. Mother Nature Happened. It was just over an hour drive to get to Barrier Lake, one of my favouirte locations! So it wasn't just in the backyard. We had so much rain and mudslides that we weren't sure how it was going to go but tried anyway. 

We got there at 8:25pm but the forest fire smoke was heavy but it said it should be clear by 9pm. No problem, the sun will set at 10pm so we just waited in the car until 9. It did clear a little as we watched the time pass by but not completely. 

At Barrier Lake, you have to walk quite a ways around the water to get to the sand on the other side. The water was high because of all the rain so we really had to take the longest way around. We grabbed our tripod and started the trek however we were getting EATEN ALIVE by an apocolyptic amount of mosquitoes! So, we started running through the tall grass around the water thinking that by the time we made it to the sand, the mosquitoes would settle. They didn't. At one point, Carter had a minimum of 50 mosquitoes on his shirt. We couldn't take photos like this. We couldn't stand still. It was as bad as Ive ever seen it! Within 30 seconds on that sand, we called it. There was no way we could take photos while being eaten alive and we didn't think to bring bug spray. So, we ran as fast as we could again.. back to the car. 

I'll admit. I felt sad. The effort to get everyone ready, the make up and hair, everything worked against us. Ecept one thing. Our kids. Bentley was the real MVP here. He suggested we run to the highway gas station and get bug spray and try again. Reminded us that we had nothing to loose and that if it didn't work out, no problem, we just try again another day. 

So, we ran to the store bought two tiny travel size bug sprays for a totaly of $37 (barf!) and went back. The problem now though was that the sun was setting in 20 minutes. It was at least another 7 minute run to get there and set up. The sand was full mud because of all the rain, Carter spilt whip cream on his back t shirt (front and center.. thank goodness I could edit it out), our once pretty curly hair was flat and fuzzy now. We were sweaty and gross and sticky from bug spray. Everything was a mess but our family worked as a team and showed up beyond measure that night! 

The mosquitoes miraculously left us alone (Bentley told me he said a silent prayer in the car after we got bug spray that it would all work out and that the bugs would settle, bless his heart, God heard his prayers!), we ignored the mud on our white shoes, embraced the smoke covering those pretty mountains, ignored the whip cream/black shirt mess and just settled into our family photos and they turned out perfect. 

Not because they are perfect but because despite all the challenges we had we showed up and made the most of it. I will be proud and happy to hang these beautiful photos on the wall!

This year, for the first time ever, we brought our dog Kobe with us! This could have also been an absolute disaster but it wasn't, not even a little bit. He was amazing. Sat and smiled at the camera like he had done it every time before. Because the weather was crappy not another soul was there that night so he could be off leash and was just such a good boy the entire time we rushed through these photos. The kids even grabbed the camer and snapped some pictures of Brian and I. We had plently of time, somehow, to take all the photos we wanted to despite the sun setting! 

We even got to hear "Mom, Dad, can I take a picture with just you?!" It was happy. We were happy and we definitley don't need to re-do them or try again. These photos are filled with joy, even with everything working against us, and I will cherish them and the story behind them forever more!