Waaaay back in 2002, we were newly married, living at the Newman Center and had just found out we were expecting. It was a whole lot to digest and adjust to all at once, LET ME TELL YOU. To say we were a mess of nerves was an understatement.
Then, on a beautiful day in October, we went to the doctor and heard the baby’s heartbeat for the first time. In that moment, all the stress and uncertainty came into sharp focus and turned into pure love. We were having a baby! OUR baby!
We were waiting to break the news, so we wrapped ourselves around this wonerful secret. On that day when we heard our first child for the first time, we rejoiced and decided to celebrate. We lived it up by getting a Sam’s Club memebership (economy sized packs of diapers!) and then heading into Spearfish canyon. Ecstatic and giddy, we stopped below Roughlock falls to get out and walk the trail. On the spur of the moment, we took a picture of ourselves, capturing the beauty of the hills and the hope of our future in that frame.
The following year, around the same time, we took Max back to record how he had changed. Since then, we have done it every year, rain or shine. I love to watch how the kids grow and how we change. This tradition is easily on my top 5 favorite things we do as a family.
I hope to post the best images here soon, but today I wanted to share with you the outtakes. I think it’s important to be real, to show the “behind the scenes,” as it were. Because, in case you didn’t know, for every good shot we get, there are 10 unusable ones. Check it out:
