My favorite childhood memories.
My love for nature started when I was a kid, growing up with a single mom. She used to take my brother, Adam, and I camping in my grandparents’ 1980’s pop up camper. It had scratchy, ugly brown cushions, and unfailingly had a few mosquitos flying around inside. Thankfully, there was always a fly-swatter hanging on the canvas by the door.
I loved everything about it.
She’d take us fishing and we’d make Mom put the worms on the hook for us. Sometimes we’d just use canned corn as bait. It didn’t work as well, but I wasn’t afraid of corn.
As we got older, we started tent camping, and sometimes we’d even visit a cabin “up north.” My favorite memories all took place outside. I hope my kids will feel the same when they get older.
The journey to Colorado and back again.
After he graduated from high school, my brother moved to Summit County, Colorado. I’d get out there to visit Adam every chance I had. There is something so majestic and calming about the mountains. So, I tried really hard to get out there at least once a year.
In college, I started dating this incredibly cute, shaggy-headed soccer player named Benjamin, so naturally, I brought him to Colorado to spend spring break with Adam and his wife Julie. Then again that summer to do some backpacking and climbing.
After we got married in 2010, we moved out to live with them in Breckenridge. We climbed 14ers and hiked in the summer, then snowboarded all winter. After a year, we decided it was time to move back to Minnesota so I could grow my photography, only a hobby at the time, into a business. I shot my first wedding in 2011 and haven’t looked back. I’n over 10 years in, and I still believe that I have the best job in the world.
The current situation.
Now, my husband Ben and I live in Big Lake, Minnesota, where he is the head brewer at a local craft brewery and I run my photography business while homeschooling our 3 beautiful blue-eyed girls. We take them camping every summer (Yes, my mom still comes along) and we are doing our best to raise them as adventurous, kind, and loving human beings. Because people matter. Relationships matter. Experiences matter.
Other things I love.
Following Jesus. Baking. Cooking. Modern folk/bluegrass music. Video games. More specifically, Destiny 2. Red wine and dark chocolate. Meaningful conversations. Sweatpants. Road Trips.