Read Me a Story, Grandma!

I have taken a lot of pictures of grandchildren.  It kind of came with the territory when I lived overseas. I was the adopted aunt for other families, so I brought my camera with me to all the “family” gatherings and snapped pictures that I know I would find precious if I were living an ocean away and couldn’t be there myself.  I loved sending the photos to grandparents to help bridge that long-distance gap.  It also gave grandparents something to talk about with their grandchildren on Skype later that week (kids are terrible with open ended questions, so it helps when Grandma and Grandpa can ask about something specific they saw in photos from a recent event).

It was so much fun for me to have the opportunity to do a grandparent session recently.  Yes! The grandparents and the grandchildren were all together!  They actually spend quite a bit of time together, and Grandma wanted to capture this specific season in their lives – this silly, playful, imaginative, amazing season.  And that actually describes the session perfectly…

Our fall season, here in the Midwest, has had a bit of trouble making up its mind as to what kind of weather it wants to have.  We had temperatures in the 90’s as early as May and as late as last week (last week was October, already!).  The week we had this session was the first cool day that really felt like fall.  It was a bright, crisp morning and we went to the boys’ favorite park.  I picked a few spots to take portraits of the entire shivering group (the parents came along for the session, too), and then we ran to the willow trees to get our blood pumping.

Under the willow tree I really concentrated on the boys with their grandparents.  I brought along a new book they hadn’t read, and they settled into their grandparents’ laps for an enjoyable silly tale.  I stretched out on my stomach in the cold dew-drenched grass to capture story time for them, since they read a lot together.  The shots were definitely worth a small amount of discomfort, and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Then we let the boys play.  We let them be boys.  And we laughed at the expressions and sounds that came out of them as they chased each other between the willow branches, found another stately tree to climb up into, and then raced to the playground.

I enjoyed every minute of it.  But Grandma and Grandpa enjoyed it even more.  And they’ll continue to, because now they have these pictures (and sooooo many more)!

Thanks for reading!  This is just one of my ways of putting a smile back in the world!