Hay Family Session and What a Small Town Portland Really Is | Portland Family Photographer

The Hay family is nothing short of amazing.  They are such a fun family, and they have overcome a lot of obstacles to become a family.  They love each other with such a playful fierceness, and it is so amazing being around them.  The Hay family is connected to us in a few different ways.  Their kids shared a daycare with some of our kids.  But also, Kari's sister, Lee Ann is a member of the runs the Portland Moms Blog and is also a member of the Northwest Chapter of the MOB (Mommy Owned Business), which is where we met her!  Every year, the Portland Moms Blog publishes a Portland Guide to Photographers where we did some advertising this year.  And in submitting our advertising, we found out that Kari had already mentioned us to Lee Ann and that she wanted to book a family session with us this year.  Portland really is a small town!  

We did eventually get that session scheduled with the Hay family, and we totally lucked out with the weather!  I feel like we're becoming somewhat of a weather expert up here after booking SO many fall and winter sessions during weekends and essentially praying that the weather cooperates.  The lessons we've learned in this business, and in this climate, is if you're not happy with the weather, wait 30 minutes!  We were stalking the weather hour by hour for this session, and the skies decided to open up that afternoon and let the sun peek through for some beautiful fall colors for our afternoon in Laurelhurst Park!  

If you haven't checked out this park yet... GO!  It's this absolutely beautiful gem in the MIDDLE of east-side Portland.  I've driven by it a few times going up 39th and didn't even know it existed until recently.  And there's a LAKE!  How do you hide a LAKE?!  (Ok, it's not really a lake, but it's a sizeable enough pond that it feels like a lake.)  Here's a few of my favs from the session!