Given to fly // Baraboo Family Photographer

This mama went through some pretty scary stuff a few years ago. (I was going to swear right there, but I like to keep it clean for the interwebs.) She has inspired me from a little distance with her resilience, her amazing attitude, her dry sense of humor, and her awesome parenting.

When we had our little family session, her boys were running over a hill toward me and she said, “Why don’t we all run together?”

I loved that.  Life with kids isn’t all sitting pretty. It’s tickling in the dirt, even if you’re wearing your church khakis. It’s squeezing your kids until someone says “uncle” or, alternately, “I’m going to pee my pants.” It’s racing your grade-schooler over the hill with your best airplane arms, ready to embrace or maybe even take flight.

This family let me see them for who they really are. Turns out they’re pretty cool.