I love adventure family photography sessions in the fall, especially in the mountains! It does require incorporating another layer or two into everyone’s outfits and ditching the regular shoes for hiking boots or snow boots, but the reward is to see a stunning landscape in transformation. And quite likely, have it all to ourselves! For this adventure family session, we headed up to one of the lovely mountain lakes. In the summer, this lake is full of water, but as they drain the water for irrigation each year east of the Cascades, the water level drops to reveal a massive lakebed full of amazing open spaces, stumps, and gorgeous views in all directions. We explored the area, played in the snow, found some awesome ice crystals and an incredible rock that their little guy brought home as a souvenir (this was so adorable!!!), threw rocks and watched them slide along the thick ice covering part of the lake, and of course, found some mud too! 🙂 Yep, we did it all! And I loved how great big sister was with her little brother! She was even up for a little airplane game too! Oh, and she even lifted up her Mom, which made for an awesome moment!

Thank you all so much for the absolutely wonderful session! It was so much fun spending the afternoon with you and thank you for braving the cold out there with me! Just looking at these images makes me smile every time. This is my favorite kind of family session – getting away from it all in nature exploring, playing, and making an adventure of it! Thank you and may you have a wonderful Holiday Season! Enjoy a sneak peek at a few of the highlights!

A boy and his rock…!