I took Julien out to get some pre-baptism pics taken (at the temple grounds). This is not something that "has" to be done, it is just something that I wanted as a memory of him at age 8 and at the time of baptism. I took him out mid-day, already knowing that it was not the ideal time to take pictures, but was hoping I could find enough shade to pull it off. I'm a total newbie in the DSLR world and know
very little about manipulating my camera (although I'm
slowly studying in my spare time), so I was taking a big leap of faith that I could get what I wanted with this little photoshoot. I should have listened to my gut feeling! It was miserably hot. I took Jonah and Cooper along with us, and like I said, there was not nearly enough shade and this made for one grumpy subject (Julien). I did my best and by the end Julien was so irritated with being hot and sick of the whole thing, and I was super bummed that what I had in mind did not come close to matching what I took home on my camera. I knew I wasn't going to get him to try again later, and I didn't blame him for not wanting to do it again. I got home, uploaded the pictures and let the reality that I didn't get these precious pictures sink in. Oh well.
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| These boys were pretty good and I caught them relaxing in the shade. |
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This is def not the best picture from that session (in any way), but it sure sums up how he felt about it...I think I was trying to capture him rolling his eyes in this moment.
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I did, however sort of like this one (from inside of the visitor's center), but the lighting was not right and he was still pretty ticked off. :) But I like how you can see a bunch of copies of the Book of Mormon behind him (copies in many languages).
Well fast-forward to later that evening when Rich got home. I jokingly asked Julien if he'd like to give it another shot and to my surprise he said, "Yeah, let's do it! Just me and you though. It's not so hot! You wanna go, let's do it!" Music to my ears!!!! I scrambled to gather what I needed and he put his suit back on, and we were off. I was so happy on the way there and thanked him a ton. He was in MUCH better spirits and told me I could "take 30...no I'll let you take 40 pictures of me tonight, okay, Mom!" I agreed and told him when he felt done, we could go. I know I'm making this a long story, but my point is, the first part of the day left us with not so good memories; but the second time around, we left with some of the greatest memories ever. I don't know what happened that night, but he was as happy as could be posing and smiling for me, and of course, I (getting to work on my photo-taking and enjoying my son), was super happy. We laughed, hugged, jumped up and down at the great shots we were getting, and exchanged a bunch of loving words of affirmation. It was such a great time and it makes me smile even more when I look at these (2nd set) of pics because I know the fun we had and that his smile was sincere! Love this kid!
So I know I'm biased about his cuteness, but I liked a lot of them and I am going to post a ton of them....And Julien gave me the okay, once we got started, that I could take more than 40:).
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| We went back to the temple. This temple is so neat and beautiful. |
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| This ^ was the one I used for his invitation. It had text on it, but I took it off for the blog. |
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| CTR= "Chose the Right." |
This next one, he looks like a little politician:).
And then we were done...
...and although he had a good time, this was how he felt about it being over...
"It's great to be eight!"
