Prepare yourself for a long one folks!

Heeeeere’s one of my favorite families (who also happen to be some of our best friends)…. we did things completely different than we’ve ever done this time. I had a fun idea…. a “day in the life” sort of session… holiday style!  I asked our friend with Rewind Documentaries if he was on board to film it. When I emailed Ann

my thoughts… she was TOTALLY on board!

We met in the early afternoon at a Christmas tree farm. The kids were hyyyyype!!!!Caroline is the biggest ball of cuteness ever. Take the cutest thing you’ve ever seen in your entire life and multiply that by about 132… that’s Caroline. 🙂If this image doesn’t exemplify parenthood I don’t know what does! That, of course, coming from the person who doesn’t have kids of her own. 😉…this way daddy…
Ohhhhh Ann…. you’re prettttttty…This girl was on a mission!Andrew was in ninja mode… you know, jusssssst in case there were any bad guys he was ready! You should see his spin move, it’s impressively ninja-y. 😉YAY! FOUND IT!Just call him Paul BENyan! …ya see what I did there? 😉 I know what you’re thinking, “how can so much wittiness fit into 5’2”?! I get it all of the time. You’re not the first to have that thought… 😉
Andrew the big-big helper. What I imagine Andrew saying here… “We got it dad. Happy I could help. Now I’ll stand on it because that’s what you need me to do, right dad? Yeah. Thought so.”#notimpressed 😉I think this was a white pine Christmas tree. Just in case anyone was curious. Ohhhh that Paul BENyan… 

[br] [br] [br] ::::: We interrupt Operation Christmas Tree with our secondary objective… Operation 15 Minute Family Session  ::::: [br] [br] [br]Have I mentioned how much I adore this family?!
See Ann’s amazing red scarf? She knitted that… and she probably finished it in 10 minutes. 😉
I think every family session we’ve done of this team there’s a photo of Benjamin throwing one of his kids impressively high in the air. In this case, we didn’t ask him to do it… he just did it as we were walking from one spot to the other. 🙂OHHHH YOU GUYSSSS!!!!!

  ::::: Operation 15 Minute Family Session accomplished! :::::

…back to it!

The image below is 100% a candid image; we did not set it up in any way. Won’t lie… proud of this one my friends! My favorite. ❗

When I saw it happening, I took off running to get ahead of them… then laid on my belly to create the illusion of a hill… snapped a few… popped up and took off running again just to do it all over again. I probably did it four times. While this image is pretty majestic… the awkwardness of me shooting it is pretty funny really. 😉

The hayride back
Operation Christmas Tree is officially complete. 🙂Then we headed back to Ann and Benjamin’s house for more holiday fun.

First up… gingerbread cookies and chocolate juice (AKA, hot chocolate… but that’s what Caroline kept calling it. Henceforth, chocolate juice)!

OHHHH how I love this family!What five year old kid handles a legit frosting bag like a pro?! Oh but of course… Andrew does…HA!Little Grey Bunny… she’s obsessed. And the image on the right looks like it should be on the cover of a SwissMiss hot chocolate can or something. PS. for the record… that ain’t no SwissMiss in that cup! 😉 PPS. Even using a double negative in a funny sense hurts my ears. Let it be known that that’s the first and last time you’ll hear that from me.They’re so grown up!Perfecto. This session is one of my favorites of the entire year if not one of my favorites ever… for a number of reasons. Obviously Ann is one of my best friends and I absolutely adore her family… so there’s that.

But speaking as an unbiased photographer here… these images are so much more. At our photography workshops we often refer to the term your “30 year goggles.” As we all know, the older the image becomes, the more it means to us. When a house catches fire, what does everyone make sure they grab? Their family pictures. See where I’m going with this?

You see, when I’m posing couples and families… or shooting something photojournalistically… I’m always wearing my 30 year goggles. When I’m culling images (picking out the best) and processing them… on go my 30 year goggles. When you see these images through those lenses you see them completely differently, In 30 years Caroline will be 32, Andrew 35… both probably with families of their own… both with their own family Christmas traditions… and I’d think it’d be a pretty fair guess that both of their homes will have their own white pine Christmas trees. Ann and Benjamin will be in their 50’s… probably with a grandkid or two running around… and moments like these are a distant memory. When you see it, you’re right back to where you were, you remember the silly faces Caroline made, you remember Andrew’s awesome ninja moves, you’re reminded that your husband’s fascination with plaid started long ago 😉 and you remember, above all else… how much love has always been in your life.

I feel like I’m not doing the best job describing the importance of this…

It’s so easy, as photographers, to brush aside the images that aren’t perfect (to us)… but put on your 30 year goggles and pretend you’re Caroline, it’s something totally different. 🙂

Ann, Benjamin, Andrew and Caroline… you guys mean the world to me. Your friendship is something that I’ll never take for granted. Here’s to being friends for 30+ more years… if for no other reason just to prove that Andrew and Caroline both have white pine Christmas trees of their own! HA! 😀

Love you guys, BIG BIG BIG time!

~Bobbi

Andrew found a camera. If you’re a photographer and you know how heavy that setup is… you’re mad impressed with Andrew right now, right?! 😀