Just go to the mountains

In September Emma, Brielle, and I went to Hinton to watch my sister in law do some barrel racing. I packed my camera in hopes of getting some barrel racing shots, I am interested in taking more rodeo photos so I thought it would be fun to go see what I could get. I greatly underestimated how difficult that would be to get good shots while also trying to wrangle my wild girls! While I was packing for the day I had the idea of taking pictures of the girls in the mountains in the beautiful dresses they wore to my brothers wedding. So just in case, I threw the dresses in with the rest of our gear for the day. We spent all day watching barrel racers, visiting with Auntie Pony, and "helping" her with her horses. I got a small amount of pictures but we had a great day. Despite Emma falling down the super steep bleachers and scraping up her face. That was followed by a mad hunt for the band-aids that would make everything better. By the time we left the rodeo grounds the girls were PLAYED out and dirty.

The girls were asleep before I made it 5 minutes down the road. All I could think was I would be in Jasper in time for beautiful lighting but the girls would be absolute NIGHTMARES! I kept imagining them screaming, fighting, and crying from whenever I stopped the Jeep until whenever I finally made it home, but I really really wanted to go get some mountain pictures. So I called my husband. I was hoping he would say, "Are you crazy? The girls are going to be a nightmare if you go!" Then I wouldn't have to be the one that decided not to go. His response was go to the mountains and if the girls sleep then take some mountain pictures, if they wake up then put their dresses on and do what you can. So I went. Just as we drove into the park both girls woke up and they were so surprised and happy to be in the mountains. We went to a nice little meadow and I put them in their dresses and let them run and play. I just sat in the grass taking pictures and laughing with them. When the mosquitoes suddenly got to much to bare, I loaded the girls up in the Jeep. But I had to promise we weren't going to go home quite yet.

Emma wanted to go play in the Athabasca river so we headed back towards Hinton and stopped at the river. The second they were free of their car seats they ran for the water. They ran and splashed and just had a blast while I took pictures. It was windy and chilly so we only stayed at the water for little while before the girls were ready to head home. The drive home was great, neither of the girls really slept but they were happy and singing and chatting for the whole drive back to Edson.

Sometimes when we are in the middle of a busy day, or are driving somewhere and I see something I want to take a picture of I stop myself because I don't want to disrupt what we are doing. If I stop the girls are going to wake up, get antsy and grouchy or its going to take longer than I want to get where I am going. These pictures have really made me push back on myself when I think like that. The shots I took that day are some of my favorite pictures, I have four of them are hanging on the wall in our home. I almost didn't go because I was worried the girls were going to be to tired and grouchy when as it turns out it is one of my favorite evenings I have ever had with just me and my girls. So just go to the mountains.

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