In May I made my annual trip to Alberta to celebrate my cousin’s little girl’s birthday.  Only now, she’s not so little, she’s so tall, and just turned 9 years old!  Every year while I’m visiting we make sure to go out and do a family session.

This year we had beautifully hot summer weather the whole time I was there!  We spent so much time outside enjoying the weather and letting all the kids play and go crazy.  Skipped naps, late bedtimes, and lots of special birthday treats and snacks were had by all of us!

It took us a while to pin down a location to go for their family photos, but after a lot of ideas were thrown out, we landed on a location close to the river, in the back of one of their fields.  It was a bit of a bumpy drive in, but so worth it, as we were greeted by the horses.  A couple of the horses living there now had been our grandparent’s, one has literally been around for as long as I can remember – I associate this horse completely with my grandpa and growing up visiting them at the farm, and going for horseback rides around the farmyard.

My cousin and I are a lot more like sisters than anything, and it’s amazing to get to photograph her family and watch the kids change and grow so much over every year, and even to watch the relationship between her and her husband evolve over the time they have been together.  Next year will bring their 10th wedding anniversary, and we already are planning a fun session to commemorate it – and I cannot wait!