at 33

yesterday was my 33 rd birthday. i woke up alone in denver where i had been shooting most of the week and had a little piece of introvert heaven doing all of my favorite things solo;----ran until my lungs burned, bought a new book, took myself out to a well prepared organic brunch, and savored every bite to the point that i think the people around me heard my loud, contended sighs.

but then i did the thing i really wanted to do. i got on my flight and headed home to be with my babies.

here's  a video i made the night before my birthday. i was up, missing them, feeling sentimental about getting another year older and wanted to have some record of us as we are now. 

i feel like this brief two minutes captures the heartbeat of our times together----its a series of clips from our last day of summer, literally the day before school started this fall---you know when i felt that sudden panic attack of losing the freedom of our days and went into over documentation mode. 

at 33 these are my happiest moments-- when we have no rules and no schedules---just us and the air and sun. 

 

THE GREY SCALE

let's get real. by any account this family has a crazy ton to be envious of. the house, the beauty, the one boy, one girl, even that giant pink balloon!!! i didn't feel myself longing for any of that. but how easily and readily this mama smiled? that's when i felt a spark of jealousy. the beauty of joy is as unique and inimatable as a fingerprint.

it was such an honor for me to photograph this sweet family in their portland home.

the beck family in st. louis

how can i blog the beck family without quoting some beck lyrics? okay, okay, i'll keep it to one line----i think i've found the perfect one:

"Woke up this morning, found a love light in the storm."

below is proof that life isn't easy. but that you can smile amidst the challenges. that you can choose love while in the midst of heart ache. 

(best part of the session is when piper refused all and any direction, and instead took over shooting and directing her parents. she also may have only referred to me as veronica while refusing to use my actual name. ohhhhh, piper.....)