Ambleside Summer Evening - Family Beach Time | West Vancouver Family Photographer
In the new year, as a Thank You to my Facebook Business Page fans, I had a Giveaway Session and my lovely and very supportive friend, Alyssa, was the recipient. It was meant to be - she was about half way through her pregnancy and wanted family photos for when her baby arrived. Their idea of a good time as a family is wonderfully simple - at a beach, with summer breeze, and ice-cream in hand. Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver just happened to have it all for family photographs - a park, a sandy and pebbly beach, a pier, and ice-cream very close by. When Alyssa and her family showed up, I gasped at the outfits the girls were in - one-of-a-kind, made-with-love dresses and romper made by their awesomely talented grandmother, Alyssa's mom.
Alyssa and her husband, Chris, are surrounded by the beauty and sweetness of three girls. Their oldest girl is as sweet as they come, and for a preschooler, her manners and demeanour are certainly beyond my expectations! Her slightly younger sister - sweetness she has, but hamming it up is her specialty. I wish I could show you all the outtake images of her degrees of silliness! Now there is the youngest, the newest baby, happy as a clam, all smiles for her parents and all rolls on her body. We sang songs, picked wild fennel flowers, found dried crab shells, competed for who's taller and more giant, and Alyssa and Chris even ventured to a little island perfect for two. I feel frazzled with two kids some days but seeing their wonderful way as a family, together, their gentle approach with their girls and their laughter and just being, makes me think that a family of five is not such a bad idea. Wait a minute - that's their family and might not be mine! As quickly as the thought entered, it dissipated.
The evening ended the way it should - feet wet and sand stuck in between our toes as her family and mine walked to the nearby gelato store, our kidlets hanging together and the grownups chatting alongside them. Alyssa and I talked about our fledgling businesses and our vision for doing what we love. She has just launched an occupational therapy consulting business, Nurture Therapy, with her business partner, Rochelle this past fall. They focus on work that empower families with the knowledge and tools for the growth and development of their young children, children with special needs, or mothers-to-be and their postpartum emotions. I can't say how grateful I am to have friends to share this part of my life with, in addition to sharing our love for our children. Alyssa, I'm so proud of you and what you have overcome and succeeded in these past year and it's been such a pleasure knowing you and sharing in this friendship together! I hope these images will bring you the joy of remembering this stage of your life of five, as much as it has given me to create them!
