Jenifer is a visionary. I have written about her before here and here. She is my oldest friend I have known her since I was 6. This weekend she flew into town to visit her family about 2 hours away in Alachua, FL. Adam and I made the drive and spent the weekend making memories. It was a blast.
Jen has been envisioning this “photo shoot” for months. Everytime I spoke with her she teld me about it in more and more detail and I continually said okay, sure, whatever anything for you yaddah yaddah. Well, she picked up this “nightie” and had visions of me silhouetted in the sun, nude with a belly full of baby…and Adam taking the photos. I was having flashbacks to being 11 and Jen posing in her cutest outfits outside the house with our disposable cameras and her directing me to pose…me whining about it and rolling my eyes, but complying because Jen always in the end had great ideas.
After I delayed the shoot until Sunday morning..followed her cues and convinced her to at least let me wear a bra underneath my “neglige”…I have some of the most amazing photos.
I couldn’t have in my wildest dreams envisioned that with my big ole belly I could look like this. (
Jen’s most adorable little girl Harper was also in on the photo shoot, but she is so darn cute, I think she needs her own blog entry, so I will write about that next.)
Enjoy.
Follow along
Travel with your family
Intentionally and incrementally. Most families who live this way did not leap from conventional to adventurous overnight. They built remote work capacity, paid down debt, tested longer trips, and had increasingly honest conversations about what they actually want from their lives. The leap feels bigger from outside than from inside.
Different for every family. For some it is long-term travel. For others it is weekend adventures close to home. What connects them is intentionality about how time is spent and a preference for experiences over accumulation. The version that fits your family is the right one.
By finding stability within the adventure rather than treating them as opposites. Routines, rituals, and family rhythms travel with you. Familiar foods, bedtime routines, and predictable family dynamics provide stability even when the location changes. Kids need consistency in relationships more than consistency in geography.
That people are fundamentally similar across cultures in what they want for their families. That comfort zone is a smaller circle than it feels from inside. That the things worth having in life require effort and discomfort to get. And that time together doing hard interesting things is the most reliable source of family closeness.
By getting clear on why you made the choices you made and returning to that clarity when the outside noise gets loud. Most families living unconventionally describe an initial period of explaining themselves that gradually gives way to just living the life. The explaining becomes less necessary as the results become visible.
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That last one is especially stunning.
Thank you so much!!
Really beautiful photos! How wonderful to have such a talented friend.
So beautiful! Cherish those photos forever! I wish I had done maternity photos with both of my babies. You are one pretty hot momma 🙂
Thanks so much, honestly I was so not into it until I started seeing the results and I melted. They are incredible
Yes they are! The lighting..the concept…and of course that cute belly of yours, just GORGEOUS!!!
Wow! these are gorgeous photographs of a gorgeous woman 🙂 Your friend is so talented. 🙂
Thanks, my hubby took the photos and my friend organized the outfit, setting and poses…theu are a great team.
Oh wow the people in your life really love you! 🙂
Beautiful pics! You look fabulous!
Thanks Lisa!
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[…] A day on the Prairie…maternity shoot (adventuresweseek.com) […]
Such beautiful photos! Wow, makes me kind of want to do that…of course, not for a long time obviously 😉
🙂 Thanks, it sure was a beautiful day!