This is our second year vacationing in Kiawah Island. We return because there are many things we love…
The calm, warm waters
Our Everyday
Sharing our stories, big and small.
My words are not profound, every photographer, perhaps every Mother feels this way: we take photos to capture the moment so that we can remember. Experiences are fleeting and as our lives continue to fill with more fantastic and ordinary moments everything becomes a jumble, a blur, and it is hard to recall what you had for breakfast much less how you felt as you watched your kid playing on the beach. Everyone loves a nice portrait, everyone smiling, posed and looking at the camera. But it’s the unplanned shot, the little moments, that take me back to that place in an instant. I take photos to fill in the blanks, retell the story and to travel through time.
Our recent family vacation to Kiawah Island, South Carolina was a beautiful trip. Less than a month has passed but those subsequent three weeks, filled with work, swim team, camps and thunderstorms, have taken me far away. So I rely on my photos; these are some of my favorites that take me right back.
Yes, I over-shop for Penny. To reconcile this I take photos to capture these outfits. So with adorable cover-up and sunglasses on we hit the beach in the morning before the bright sun looms and the kids get distracted. Always my unwilling model, she posed facing away from me because that was the way the breeze was blowing. In a brief moment I got her to look at me and snapped. She looks like she is smiling but she’s actually on the verge of complaining that her hair is in her face.
Left
She was only three months old and we decided to do a stay-cation at The W Hotel in Washington, DC. We rushed to the hotel to get there in time for her feeding but our room wasn’t ready. The hotel staff set me up in a conference room so I could nurse in private, Lucas loved spinning in the chairs. Pushing around the heaviest double stroller we explored the American History Museum and Natural History Museum and lunched at KAZ Sushi Bistro. After a long day Lucas enjoyed a bomb pop while we raced back to the hotel in the pouring rain.
Right
To celebrate the 4th we decided to do a stay-cation at The W Hotel. No strollers this time around and everything we needed fit nicely into one bag including three blankets, pink doggy and turtle. We weaved in and out of under trees attempting to avoid the rain while we made our way to BLT Steak for dinner. On the 4th we watched the parade and explored the Folklife Festival. Our day didn’t end until 11pm after the fireworks were finished.
Sydney celebrated her 5th birthday with an adorable spa party, complete with pink bathrobes and cucumbers! Each of the girls experienced the ultimate in pampering with manicures, pedicures and facials. And in between their treatments they relaxed with chicken nuggets and belting out Frozen songs, they are five after all.
Ten years ago I knew you were my one and only, the love of my life and so we vowed to each other forever. We celebrated with friends and family, sun and sand. Today, ten years later, you are so much more. You are the reason my children laugh, the unwavering post always marking the way home, the foundation on which I build my dreams, the reason to my madness, and the constant, gentle force that keeps us within hands reach. Today we celebrate the road we’ve paved and the road that lies ahead…with sun and sand.
To celebrate Penny’s fifth birthday she requested a “Frozen” party. Her expectations consisted of Frozen invitations, Frozen goody bags and a moon bounce. I decided to surprise her with a few extra treats…
A “Frozen” themed treat table complete with Olaf cake pops
Some like to think of life as full of mystery, surprises, the unexpected. While life will occasionally toss you a surprise or two; a pregnancy, a cross-country move, a divorce, a death you will find an incredible ability to absorb and adapt.
Guilt. It’s a never ending well that is easily available to all who want. No one limits our consumption as does no one lead us there. We willfully walk, trudge there and by the time we’ve arrived find our thirst unquenchable.
Laying asleep with her delicate locks strewn haplessly across her face, a tangle of legs and blankets and the steady slight snore of her breathing filling the room she was beyond the clatter and noise of the household. In her realm of reality mixed with impossibilities, at times providing fantastical experiences and at others delivering great terror, she drifted delicately. On this night she landed somewhere in between. No wicked witches chasing her nor did the skies rain candy. She was merely re-enacting an ordinary moment from the day but with different faces in similar places. It was during this night, in this most ordinary of dreams that something life changing happened. Through the crack in the window, the gods drifted in on the air and whispered the most humorous of jokes into her ear. When she awoke she would not recall the joke, only the humor and she’d carry a grin on her face that entire morning. When asked by her parents the meaning behind her grin she could not explain herself.
In the years ahead this humor will reside deep within her and in times of stress or anxiety provide great comfort. The warmth that contentment brings will radiate from her and affect those around her. She will grow up to be known as the girl with the infectious smile. But it’s more than just that. Much more must exist far beneath to create what we see on the surface. The humor left by the gods will affect her life, each long, full day.
Our Everyday 