My Parents – 40 years and counting…

This past December my folks celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary! As a gift, I gathered up all the pictures I could find and put them together in a “40 years” book.  What I didn’t realize until after I started the project was how few pictures we actually have of them!  I’m sure it ends up this way in most families – you go on vacation and it’s the parents taking pictures of the kids.  Who takes pictures of the parents?  Earlier this year I told my parents that once things got a little warmer I wanted to do a session with them.  They weren’t super excited, but I eventually wore them down. I’m so glad we did this and I love how they came out.  Huge thanks to Mother & Daddy for letting me do this, I had a great time with y’all!

My Daddy grows a beard about once a year, and we happen to be right in the middle of beard-growing season.  I’m not a fan of it, and from the looks of this picture, neither is Mother, but I love the expression here.  But it’s all for a good cause – each year Daddy does a first-person sermon at church where he dresses up as a character from the Bible and tells the story of the Crucifixion from their perspective.  It’s an amazing service, so it’s worth a few weeks of fur-face.

This is my favorite from the session.  I just love everything about it.  We’ll be framing this one for Casa de Boling!
Another one with great expressions – I think Mother was laughing at the wind here.   She’s just so photogenic and beautiful.  Hopefully I’ll still look this young in a few years!
Back at home in the glider on the back porch – I think they were trying to figure out why I kept standing on chairs to take their pictures.
I also wanted to get some “in their element” shots.  When I think of my Mother I think of 2 things – reading or cooking.  I definitely got her love for reading, and I love to eat her cooking, just not sure I got her skills in the kitchen.
When I think of my Daddy I always picture him reading the Bible.  He has a great library at home, and a great home office so I wanted to get a few shots there.  When I was growing up he did most of his reading at the kitchen table, but I definitly like his little corner of the world in the new house.
And in case you’re wondering – this is what the pastor’s Bible looks like. Sermon notes on one side, lots of notes, references and highlights on the other.  It’s pretty clear that I got my love for highlighters and side-margin notations from him.
And here’s my sister, Hannah Mae.  Hannah is a mix of a black lab and a golden retriever, so she’s a big, brown teddy bear.   Just about the sweetest pup ever.