It was 2016 and life was great. The little kids were homeschooled and I was loving it; Katie was playing volleyball, what seemed like everyday, and I was loving that too. Business was booming and clients were coming in from all over the world, smooth sailing.... until it wasn't. 

You might be wondering what this has to do with a destination maternity session in Colorado? Well, stay with me a minute and I'll summarize quickly. 

Abruptly at the end of 2016, everything changed. Katie (oldest girl) broke her leg, was fitted for a very expensive brace, was told she couldn't play travel ball, exactly one week after that diagnosis broke her finger after her "sweet" sister Gracie (youngest girl) was playing too rough. 

Approximately 3 weeks later, Emma (middle girl) had hot chocolate spilled on her at a party and got third degree burns while I was working a wedding. This was so bad she couldn't even wear pants for weeks. 

That's not all...

Two weeks later she was admitted to the hospital with a kidney infection costing thousands of dollars. 

Oh, did I mention that finger Katie broke required emergency surgery and pins that made her look like Frankenstein?

Well, needless to say 2016 ended up being one of the hardest years of my life as a mother and by spring 2017 I was drowning. I couldn't work much and Katie had fallen into a depression at only 14 years old. I made a plea for prayers on facebook (as one does) and Kacy, the gorgeous mom to be in the photographs, responded. She messaged me simply, "I think I can help her." And that she did.

Kacy is an acupuncturist and I firmly believe an angel sent from heaven. She worked on Katie and had her believing in healing and her future when the orthopedic doctor had given up. When a person brings healing and hope to your child you will literally go to the ends of the Earth for them, or in this case over the most majestic mountains in Colorado. 

This trip was one I prayed for and was blessed to have experienced. To give Kacy such memorable pictures as she experiences motherhood for the first time after she gave so much to my family was an honor I will treasure forever. 

The trip was planned perfectly and allowed us to see so much in such a short amount of time. We flew into Denver on Wednesday and drove directly to our hotel in Boulder. 

Boulder is such a sweet town with walkable streets lined with cute locally owned shops and restaurants. Thursday morning we were up early shooting at the Flat Irons and we quickly regretted not waking up sooner as the temperature jumped to 94 fast. 

Up next was Red Rock! We drove to Red Rock that afternoon for a midday shoot; you'll notice these images have much more sun that most of my sessions but NO REGRETS. When you're on a trip like this, you shoot when you arrive and don't mess around. 

The next day we shot in my favorite location, Vail. We looked up the spot where I wanted to shoot and it was less than 5 miles away - perfect! Well, 5 miles in Vail could mean 60 minutes over a mountain on a dirt road; and that's exactly where we went. I could have sat in this spot by the lake with a book for hours on end. Driving in we saw deer, squirrels, and even a moose! AMAZING!!!

Lastly, we hit up Breckenridge. This was the toughest of all the locations because we had planned to ride a lift to the top of a mountain at the ski lodge BUT WEATHER. Just as we walked over to get on, the lift was closed down due to lightning. No worries though, I found a nice man from Virginia who told us how to "easily" drive to the top. Well one stroke and two panic attacks later, we made it. These "roads" were not roads at all let me tell you but the views were spectacular. 

I hope you enjoy viewing these images and please comment your favorite location!