I don’t even quite know where to begin talking about Erin and her family because I had such a great time with them.  She initially contacted me a while ago for a session after her sister in law (who I still swear she looks like!) had one done here in Rhode Island.  Unfortunately at that point, the timing just didn’t end up working out.  Then I heard from her again a little while ago – their oldest baby was leaving for college soon and they wanted to get in a family session before he went away.  Thankfully, we were able to work out a time to get together and I am SO so so very happy we did.  Now, I don’t normally photograph teenagers.  Newborns, babies, those are kind of my thing.  Teens?  Eh not so much.  I think I flash back to when I was teaching high school Spanish ten years ago so I am only really able to relate to teens as a teacher – doesn’t really work when you are a photographer.  PLUS they don’t usually like the Little Einsteins theme song and if I were to bark like a dog or quack like a duck, I’m not going to get the expressions I was looking for  😉  But I was excited about working with something outside of my wheelhouse, so I packed up my stuff and headed off to Connecticut.  We met in an area just outside of their town of Farmington called Collinsville on the suggestion of a friend – what an awesome, fun place!  And there we traipsed around for about 90 minutes doing photos in a few different locations.  I don’t know that I have had that much fun at a session, or laughed that much in quite a long time.

What an amazing family.  And I mean amazing.

First there are Erin and Eric, married 20 years still as in love and silly as when they first met.  Then there is Jordan, getting ready to leave for college, a complete goofball with a kind heart and a great attitude.  After that, Kelly,  the middle child making her way through high school who is beautiful and funny and sweet.  And then Owen, the youngest and quietest of the bunch (at least during our session he was!), definitely not as outgoing as his brother and sister (YET) but with the best smile and eyes that just lit up when he laughed.  Or when he looked at his family.  And that is one thing I wrote to Erin after our session was over – the looks that I kept seeing between all of them, you could just *feel* the love there.  I know it sounds corny, or silly or whatever, but this was a family that – if MY family with three kids turns out like them, I will clearly have done something very right in my life.

 The main purpose of the session was to get photos before Jordan left for school and I could very easily tell how he was going to be missed and how he was going to miss them.  Brothers and sisters and families don’t always say exactly what they’re thinking.  But I saw it.  And I hope my camera captured it for them.  🙂