This year I have said time and time again I have been truly blessed by the connections I have made through my kids. This beautiful family is one of them. My son Jack plays lacrosse with their son Ben and his dad Tom is one of his coaches. Through talking at lacrosse games and seeing the pictures I took at the games they asked me to do their family pictures and their son's senior pictures. I was all in because they are just a great family. While taking pictures we got to talking and it turns out that Adrienne and I are both Women working in IT. I had no idea. She told me about a great Women in IT organization in WI. I didn't even know was up here since moving here 9 years ago. Just another great connection for me to have here.

My son has played soccer since he is was 4 years old. Hard to believe as I look at him now and he has hit the same height as me (5'6") and he is quickly approaching 14 years old. That is 10 years he has played. Almost a decade. It is a sport he basically has never lived without. This year due to not enough players for his age group in our existing soccer club we switched soccer clubs along with several of our families so we could come together and make a great team. As part of the process of putting together a new team you have to do team building. So the boys set out to play foot golf. It is a new thing in our area where boys take their soccer skills out on the golf course and play soccer golf basically. It is pretty neat! It was a wonderful day for these boys and it was so great to see the friendships being formed. Team building is so key to a positive team atmosphere. So glad that we were able to be a part of this. 

Oh I love Senior season! And I was so lucky to get to photograph Jordyn who happens to be my neighbor. She is a beautiful redhead. Which as many know I love since I do happen to have 2 of my own. She had such a confidence about her that was so fun to be around. She is going to do amazing things in this world. She has a beautiful soul...

She is just that our little flower child. Our free spirit. She wants to travel the world. To live in Paris some day. And we know that she will do just that. She is fierce. She is smart. She will conquer everything she focuses her mind on.

My son is a Boy Scout. He loves it! And as Boy Scouts you don't miss out on a chance to earn a fun badge! lol So for the Solar Eclipse some of the older scouts got together with their various ways to view the eclipse and had a few hours of fun. Their sisters came too. But, I just loved this picture of the 5 of them looking at the eclipse in each of their own ways...

This sweet brother and sister I have been photographing for 3 years now. I just love the love they have for each other. Every year they are squeezing each other so tight. They run up and down the beach. Their mom has a picture from when they were younger running up and down the beach and so has asked me to do this a couple years now. It is that watching as they grow up. But watching them during the session we have you realize how important it is to live in the moment. The sweet girl brought all of her baby dolls with that mean the world to her. It was precious. Life is so short so take it all in and enjoy it every second! 

My kids were excited to get to go and swim in the ocean today. But the sacrifice was they had to let me take some pics prior to the swimming. lol Yes the life of photographer children. It is TOUGH! But I love that they took each others hands which is an unusual occurrence, but because they knew it would be nice for mom. And then off they went to swim in the chilly waters while I did a photo shoot with a sweet family. Who thought it was crazy that they wanted to swim in the water! But again living in WI you get used to cold temps so it really did not phase them to be in the cold water. 

Our community had a hot air balloon festival. Unfortunately the weather was not good for the balloons to take flight. So, they blew them up for everyone to see and then deflated them. But this duck was quite the sight! And as they deflated him I swear he looked like he was going to come down on everyone around him.....