sarah and kenna

My younger sister, Kenna, recently turned fourteen and for her birthday, she requested that I take her and her best friend, Sarah, on a photo shoot downtown. It didn't take very long at all for me to agree. ;) A couple weekends ago, we did just that. The photo shoot started out a little rocky because we were rushing to get out of church on a Saturday night and head downtown right away. Due to several issues, we ended up not arriving until almost an hour after we planned to start, which limited our time because the sun was quickly fading.

I rushed around, snapping pictures right and left and getting into some of the most awkward positions ever (hey, to get the perfect angle, sometimes you have to take extreme measures!). At one point, the girls were walking down a sidewalk and I was behind them, directing them and taking pictures. I look over my shoulder and see that we're walking right by a ginormous picture window on the side of Old Chicago...and an entire table of people is staring at me as I'm sitting cross-legged on the ground, leaning over to take a picture. It was awkward. And then I smiled and waved. And it got more awkward.

We shot until the sun completely disappeared and then we found a parking garage and shot for a little longer in there. It was a great shoot! We laughed lots and had a great time. Both of these girls are so beautiful and they are amazing models. I love them so much!

Taking pictures for people you know super well is kind of awesome, really. You know them well enough to direct them into the awkwardest looking poses to get some hilarious photos.

um, new favorite? I think so.

faint whispers from summer

This past summer was the best summer of my entire life. I made so many great memories that I will savor forever. As we start to get back into our school year schedules and usher fall in, I'm sitting here fondly remembering the good times I had this summer. I'll admit that I'm a little hesitant to let this summer go. I wish summer would continue forever. But, I know that fall has its own blessings and I'm sure I'll make many new favorite memories.

Sometimes, when one season of your life is so great, you wonder how anything will ever be able to compare to that. That is how I feel about this past summer. It was filled with so many new experiences, new friends, times of laughingsohardyoucan'tcatchyourbreath and then you can't quit letting out random spurts of giggles, deep, heart to heart conversations, strengthening old friendships, and just so much greatness. God's going to have to pull out all the stops to make this school year even begin to compare. Just sayin'. ;)

Anyway, I hope to post a few recollections of summer posts over the next month or so. Both my ten year old brother and my seven year old sister played baseball/softball this summer and a good majority of my time in June was spent going to many games. Squinting against the harsh sunlight, squatting down low to capture the best angles of the fields, and barely keeping track of which team was winning due to being so focused on capturing the best photos + also trying to keep up with the various conversations my family was holding around me.