We’re Living in a Sci-Fi Novel (and You Don’t Even Know It) Memories, Moments, and Parenthood

Our Family On the Sand Dunes!

We just got back from our summer vacation—and yes, we did family photos (because I’m me). Like most folx, I try to do family photos once a year. Since both my husband and I come from big sibling families, we alternate between mine and his (parents, siblings, partners, the whole motley crew) Such a great way to keep up the tradition, make sure everyone is included, and keeps our kids on their toes! We received our gallery a few days ago and I started looking through all of the images, and began to notice so many things. 

A little backstory - the last time we went to North Myrtle Beach it was 2020, our kids were significantly younger (we all were tbh), and the world felt so different then. I was so excited to do a family photo session with everyone (EVERYONE) for the first time so I hired Whitney to capture this moment for us! SO OF COURSE when I knew we were going back this summer, I reached back out to Whitney with a QUICKNESS to get a session scheduled! Not only had it been five years, we added an additional partner to the group! 

Circling back! After looking through the gallery we received this week, I of course, looked at our photos from our 2020 session, and UGHHHHH I was 100% in my mama feels. There were some specific photos that I wanted to make sure we captured since we captured them the last time. 

Again not just the physical changes, pretty sure my kids have grown at LEAST a foot taller. I could also see how everyone carried themselves a bit more confidently, taller, surer, happier. 

We all know that cameras capture moments, the science behind freezing time is so well known and familiar. We’ve been taking photographs since the late 1820s! You know the large boxy/curtained beast. Now we carry cameras in our pockets! We are able to whip those bad boiz out at a whim! Boom! captured the first giggles of a little one. Boom! A couple’s first kissy selfie. Boom! A loved one’s hand in the last moments of their life in a bed. 

We are able to hold on to all of these moments and memories, because we may never get them back, but we can look on them. I know that my phone has a fun little option to make me random slideshows “remember this?” and I am immediately taken back to the first days of college, to the first days of my marriage, to the last time I ever got to see some of the people I love the most. 

So, while we cannot literally travel through time, we can, for a moment, go back and feel the emotions again. Photographs have a way of bringing back the smell of the ocean, the warmth of a fresh loaf of bread, the tight squeeze of a hand, the way your Chuck Taylor’s stuck to the floor of the local music hall. 

Some of my favorite photos that I have ever had the chance of looking back on - have been the ones that weren’t perfect. The ones where you see my father’s back to the camera washing up after a dinner at my grandmother’s home. Or after my youngest had my phone for a while I go back through it later after they had gone to bed and see all the little selfies and videos they had taken. 

Thorne Floral waiting to hand off a bridal bouquet

There is never a PERFECT time to get your photos done: you’ll always want to lose the “last five pounds”, find the perfect outfit. This is the season you are in and, man, it is beautiful. You don’t need a milestone, tomorrow is never promised, you just need NOW. 

Don’t let this season pass you by, to quote my youngest, as she was soaking in a tub and getting all the sand out of her person “mama, this really is the life” 

Let’s chat some more soon, friends.

<3

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