Welcome Home Blake!

Wonderful homecoming!  This little guy hadn't seen his dad since he was 2 days old!  What a heartbreaking time to leave--but all is well now they are complete again!  Congratulations you guys and thank you Blake for all you've done and sacrificed. 

A great day to welcome a HERO!

Welcome home Dan!  You were GREATLY missed.  I cannot think of  a better day in history to welcome you home :) 

It was so sweet watching the kids eat their very last hershey kisses from the 'daddy kiss jar' that their mommy made to symbolize the countdown to his return.  209 kisses is a lot of chocolate!  But I bet they would have traded them all for a real kiss from there hero.  What a day! 

Sorry about the poor web quality here...boo.

Daddy's Home!

Congratulations to the W family who finally have their daddy home from a far away land pinpointed on this map in their home.  What a beautiful homecoming it was! 

Welcome Home Mike!

I just love love love shooting homecomings!  Can I say it enough? Nope!  I just get all wrapped up in the moment every time.  For Melissa and Emma, this moment was long anticipated and certainly an amazing emotional high! 

This was incredible!  The moment the marines walked into the gym and she saw her daddy she was just screaming "DADDY" at the top of her lungs, then she looks to her mommy saying "there he is!!" So hard to wait while they stand in formation waiting to be released to the families... 

That's when my tears started!

Talk about a 'pick me up' for Emma, she was sorta 'out of sorts' while we were waiting, I couldn't get very many real smiles out of her...then daddy showed up and BAM!  Can't wipe the smile off if I tried!  That is a beautiful thing.

I don't think they let go for a long time...

Thank you again guys for including me in your moment.  I really enjoyed it all!  Congrats and thank you to Mike for all you did for our country.

A New CO On Deck

These photos are part of the story of the Change of Command I was asked to photograph last week.  I just love military ceremonies, they always inspire.  Congratualtions to this lovely family in this new command adventure!  How wonderful it is for the family to enjoy the moment without being caught up with taking photos themselves during the event, but still have photos to treasure when it is over.   

Congratulations Captain!  What a moment!