What could possibly be better than nice weather, an open beautiful space where the trails are free and clear to run and a family that is willing to play and laugh together?!
Absolutely nothing could be better in my book!
Meet my amazing friend Meg, who is a mother to two wild and fishing loving boys and one sweet and kind not to mention gorgeous girl! She is a wife, a mother and a small business owner! She has so many roles and is so many things to so many people but to her family she is the glue to keeps them together!
She is patient and kind and she if fun!
She has an amazing story, but it’s one I will let her tell you in her own words on another day! This day is all about her family!
We met at one of my favorite spots where the light just hits everything right (and a little differently depending on where you decide to run and land!) It’s great for the littles to run wild and free which is exactly what her 3 year old wanted to do! Her littlest and Linc are the exact same age and are very much alike!
We spent our time laughing about who has the worst breath in the morning and who sleeps in the latest! We talked about our most favorite memories of each family member and we even made some silly faces (I think mom had the best one, not going to lie!!!)
As we were walking around, we had a little run in with the mud!~ It was all fun and games until someone landed a full knee/leg into the muddy bog!
At first there was a panic but Meg is like me! This is where we are in our lives. We live and breathe muddy days with our boys and once we get to playing things like this just happen. It doesn’t matter if we are in our nice clothes or our dirtiest of play clothes… play and magic will just FIND US no matter where we are if we are doing life the right way! So we should always just embrace the moment! We embrace the mess and the simple joy that life will happen the way it is meant to and that it is not our version of perfect!
Meg laughed and said you know what… it’s OK! In fact… I kind of like it better, I love it! It’s true to who we really are! Let’s keep going!
So we shot the rest of the family pictures with the muddy britches and truth be told that’s really when everyone’s personality really started to shine!
The muddy pictures are my favorite! They resemble real life, true life with children who are active and love to play and run and be free.
This is one of my favorite sessions because of how we just loved the moment and took each second for wherever it took us! We had no real plan and no real expectations and that is a wonderful thing!
Here are some of my favorites from our time together that night! We just enjoyed each other’s company and playing in the mud and the light and the grass!
The best time is always the time we get to spend with one another… all together~
I love this one right here above! I love how tightly little F is holding on to his momma’s legs!
This shot above reminds me especially that it’s in those inbetween moments that we can often find beauty! The times we weren’t aiming for perfection!
Those were “test shots”. I hadn’t set my exposure or set my camera up correctly. I was just trying to see merely what the light was doing before setting my camera to the proper settings. What I found was that the accidental camera fire turned out to be some really beautiful portraits of Meg’s daughter!
Here I was just messing around, B wasn’t even paying attention and wham, these are my favorite portraits of the entire evening!
So for all my photographer friends out there, don’t automatically delete or toss out those seemingly meaningless “test” shots. You just never know what you might find when you aren’t aiming for perfection!
Sometimes it’s those in-between moments that are the most powerful. I love living in the in-between! It’s where I find the most beauty!
