We recently met with our beloved family (everything?) photographer Brittany at Golden Gardens Park Beach for our annual summer family session. The idea behind these summertime photoshoots is to capture the girls every year around their birthdays. Thankfully, they were both born in June so we can just have one big family shoot instead of separate ones at different times of the year (which we would have happily done, but this is really convenient 🤭).
This year I thought it might be fun to take the girls to a local beach and have our family session there. Brittany has done many shoots at this location so she knew all the best spots and agreed that it would make a great destination for us. Thankfully, the weather cooperated (even though it had been cloudy all morning / early afternoon); the light was incredible and I adore how it translated on film. Brittany is so talented!
I can’t believe in all the years we’ve had our pictures taken by Brittany (since 2017… nearly a decade!) we’ve never done a session at the beach like this — we loved it!
*I sprinkled in my own iPhone pictures of the terrain and such to help capture the whole experience of our shoot for this post, but all of the amazing photos with people in them were snapped by Brittany*
We met Brittany at the park just before Golden Hour so we could capture the dreamiest light. When we talked beforehand she had suggested bringing a blanket and maybe even some sand toys for the girls to play with. I knew exactly which ones I wanted to bring — our large picnic blanket and silicone beach toys felt like the perfect props!
It is always SUCH a challenge to choose which photos I want to include in these posts and I know it will be even tougher to make decisions on which images to print out for framing in our home (which I really need to do!).
Chloe recently started pulling herself up to stand, but the shifting sand proved to be a little challenging for her to get a solid foundation (as you can see above 🤭)… but she did her best!
This was Chloe’s first exposure to the texture of sand and she was NOT sure about it. 🤭
You can have bonfires on the beach at Golden Gardens (which is so fun!), but as a result there is a LOT of charcoal / ash mixed into the sand so just be prepared for that extra level of grime when you leave.
*Everything easily washes clean with traditional soaps / methods… we didn’t need to do anything special and it all came right off so don’t stress over stains.
… be still my heart!
Sophie had the absolute best time playing in the sand and tossing rocks into the water. She really wanted to build a sandcastle, but we ran out of time — I guess we’ll be taking her back to play in the rocks and sand again soon. 🤭
Full disclosure: Chloe had been teething hard in the days leading up to the shoot so she was a bit out of sorts which made Brittany’s job especially tough. Of course, the tooth giving her the most discomfort cut through her gums two days after our session and she’s been back to her usual self ever since. 🫠 That’s how it always seems to go, isn’t it?
It was truly a miracle that Brittany managed to get any photos of Chloe without her hands in her mouth.
— OUTFIT DETAILS —
Chloe is in a BabyGAP gauze bubble romper in indigo blue (did you notice the ruffles on the back?!) along with a bow headband from Etsy.
Sophie wore a dress from Cat & Jack at Target. I love the cut and the eyelet detail… it felt like the epitome of summer! She wore it with a denim jacket from babyGAP and her Pehr fisherman sandals.
I chose my Birdie dress by Noralee (in a print from a past season) which I paired with my Amazon the Drop Monika sandals.
My husband wore a white button down, one of his favorite pairs of Railcar denim, and his Sperry Original 2-Eye Topsiders.
*obviously, we all ended up barefoot in the sand, but I wanted to be sure to include the shoes we wore to / from the beach
…
Our sweet girls are getting so grown up. 😭 Time is a thief!
I am so happy that we can make this family tradition happen every year. All of our family photos are my most prized possessions and I know their “value” will only increase over time.
Sending hugs —
xx, Natalie
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