2021 Family Photos

A big shoutout to Victoria, who captured my precious family in these photos with such beautiful color! Click on any of the pics to enlarge. Taken at our favorite canyon in “our backyard” where hiking here has been a joy for us. Our new pup Roxy had a blast running near the spring waters for her first time at the canyon. The kids actually looked forward to photos this year to show Grandma and Grandpa pics with their new dog!

Didn’t put much thought into clothes until the day of… Lily looks so grown up in her new faux leather dress! That, and Roxy’s dog sweater are the only things I bought! Outfits ended up on the dressy side this year, and we probably wore the wrong shoes for a muddy river adventure today. Victoria brought fruit snack rewards for the kids. Her sweet 7-year-old Audrey helped hold branches out of the way, kept track of the camera bag, and carried a squeaky toy for the dog. My favorite moment was doing a couple shot and little Audrey goes, “Awww! That’s a real love selfie!” We all busted up laughing, and got relaxed for sure!

Jer saw me editing (what he calls “doctoring”) photos, and we got to talking on this process being “fake”. Earlier I’d told him my outfit was a lot dressier than what I’d normally wear. I think we make an effort for pictures, and though it may be different than our ordinary days, I wouldn’t call it fake. It’s wonderful when you can use photos exactly as they were shot, but it’s hardly ever the case since I’m a real amateur. Getting us all to look in the same direction at the same time is a big enough job, haha! There’s always that stray hair, the lighting that’s just a little too dark, the horse poo in the shot, or the kids making a funny face. Editing saves photos from distractions that would take away from the point—our family looking and feeling our best. I don’t worry about the small imperfections when shooting, and that shows in the expressions that can’t be Photoshopped and will always be true.

This family of mine! I love these visual reminders of our closeness and joys, how each of us has grown and changed. My silly Lilly has become more confident from her first year of soccer; she laughs without restraint and grows more beautiful within and without each day. And her hair! I can’t get it to stop growing!

I’m so grateful for what FUN boys we have who bring so much energy and spunk to our home with missing teeth and mischievous grins. I can’t believe we finally got a dog??! How lucky we are that she is the most amazing dog we could ever ask for. I can’t believe Jer has a couple of gray hairs on the side now, but he can still rally us into a big family run at the end. “It’s over! No more pictures!!” he screamed, resulting in this picture…