Watch Out World, Here Comes Aly!

One unexpected benefit of photography for me is reconnecting with people I have not seen for years. Last week I had the opportunity to see a friend from high school that I had not seen for probably 17 years! When she walked up to me with her gorgeous little girl, Aly, my jaw just dropped!Her features are just striking!

She has beautiful twinkling brown eyes.... crazy beautiful hair....

and a very sweet demeanor...I am not sure if I do her spirit justice with my descriptive words, but when I look at these next two images I feel like I am able to see right into this spunky little girl's soul. How STINKIN' adorable are these!!! I love those shoes, Converse are the BEST!

When we were downtown, we stopped into Hello Cupcake and took a few images there as well. Hello Cupcake is like a dream for a little girl.... beautiful chandeliers.... lots of perfect cupcakes with sprinkles and flowers..... the smell of frosting...lolly pops... sparkly things... and very nice people!
I think this image is great because it makes her look so small. It makes me remember that she is only 3 and 1/2. After gazing out these huge windows, we had to head outside to play a bit.
We skipped and we ran...We spun and we swung...We explored and we observed.... we even made fake cherry pie, Aly's favorite!
Aly, Thank you for spending the morning with me... thank you for making me laugh and thank you for my cherry pie. It was delicious!

Meet Liam

Meet Liam....
Liam is one of the most adorable little boys you could ever meet! I had a few minutes alone with Liam before we started the session... it was great. What a pleasure it was to just spend time with Liam playing and reading, I had a blast surprising his parents with images that they did not even know I took.You never know what you are going to get with the weather around here these days, and on this day the Northwest was living up to its reputation. BUT... we were blessed with about 45 minutes without rain! I am actually glad it had been wet, it allowed me to get some great wet and rainy shots!! What could be better than a traditional yellow rain slicker and froggy boots?There was a great little park right by Liam's house that had amazing birds, a pond, bridges, beavers and lots of neighbors (I thought it was amazing that Liam could identify all of the neighbors by their dogs!) This place is a toddlers dream. Do you remember walking like this with your parents....What do you think comes next?.... one....two ... three.......swiiinnngggg.
It's no wonder that swinging like this makes every child smile and giggle with delight. Liam had the security of his parents hands as he flew through the air. I can look at this image and imagine the drop in his stomach as he wooshes up in the air and feel the cool breeze over his face.
It is amazing what all I can learn about a family during a photo session.....
An hour after our shoot, they were headed off to the airport so that Liam's daddy could go out of the country to visit his own dad. I love this shot of Liam with his daddy... can you imagine what they both were thinking about.... Liam was twirling his daddy's zipper probably not really aware that he was leaving... and his daddy was squeezing him tight and probably thinking about how much he would miss this precious son of his and how soon he would be able to be with his own father.In this short 45 minutes, I was able to play with this amazing and articulate little boy who loves reading and playing with his toys... he loves his silly glasses..... he loves singing with his mommy... he loves splashing in puddles... and he loves spotting birds and beavers at the pond.I can not tell you what it feels like to have families trust me enough to capture these special moments in their lives. I am such a lucky girl!!