Robin, Levi, and Talon,,,thanks for letting me be a small part of your lives as you move through it, growing together and still discovering one another.

As I edit your photos, I always seem to find a few tears of happiness on my cheeks and discover a lovely and blissful calm in my heart. It’s a feeling I tend to hang onto.

Thank you.

After a good start and introductions being made – some of us not yet knowing each other- we saddled up and rode on over to Emily and Shane’s for the dinner extravaganza. Waiting there was an assortment of side dishes brought by everyone invited, adding to Emily’s pasta plate. It was a feast of different tastes that quickly filled our hungry gullets. There, in the dining room, we laughed, some danced and we cited each other in stories of past, laughing away the evening while the light outside quietly faded away.

After dinner, we gathered ourselves up and headed towards Steven’s. It was magical there. The most delicious homemade cheesecakes ever. EVER. Even though Steven said it was all right from the box, we secretly believed he possessed magical cheesecake making powers. And we were under his spell.

The front porch, warmed by the house lights spilling out onto it is where the night slowly came to an end. Surrounded in good conversation and good company it was a memorable evening. Thanks for letting me capture the whole evening and I hope we do it again soon.

Thanks to Sara for some of those fab sequence shots in the kitchen! I’ve taught you well :)

Today, after recovering a bit from my long day of shooting Emily and Tony’s wedding yesterday, which was fabulous by the way, I gathered myself up and met Robin, Levi, and Talon for Talon’s first year pictures. I took them out to some new, fun spots I picked out just for them and we had a good time playing. Talon is always so fun to photograph, and he has the coolest little guy attitude around.

I did shoot all film so you’ll have to wait ’til I get it back from the lab, but I did manage to roll out a polaroid for fun. And even Talon had a hand in this polaroid’s final look. After shooting it, I handed it to him and he toddler-handled it, causing those little imperfections on the image. But I like it. It just made it that much more his.

We started up on the Rims where Luke had proposed to Jessica a few years ago. This special place was also now serving as a Geocaching site they started for themselves and for fellow searchers. When we arrived, they pulled out some memories from under a false log. There had been some slight water damage from the now famous Father’s Day Tornado that had passed through a few days earlier, but most was intact.
After a few quick stories, and some teaching by Luke to me on the basics of Geocaching, we spent the next couple hours drifting through the Billings area taking photos.

I had a great time with you both and I’m so happy you have your little girl in your arms today!! I can’t wait to see her!

Both Monnyca and Ryan, soldiers in the Army, were scheduled to head to Iraq this summer for a year-long tour of duty, but recently Monnyca’s orders were cancelled. Ryan is still heading out in September. It will be a tough year I’m sure but they have tanks full of support from family and friends. God bless you Ryan and get home safely!

Love ya’s!!