Myriam and Luis are 17 year-honeymooners!

A dear old friend and colleague of mine recently asked me to photograph family portraits for her while I was visiting in my hometown of Colorado Springs. Myriam and I worked together during my first career at Progressive (I was a Customer Service Manager there for 7 years). Myriam is amazing sweet, dedicated, considerate, and an all-around wonderful person. We’ve kept in touch through the years, and I was so excited and honored when she asked me to photograph her with her husband and two (adorable!) girls. You see, Myriam and her husband Luis have been married for 17 years (although strangers passing by might mistake them for honeymooners). They never had a traditional large wedding, and also never had photos taken of their wedding. Having family photos taken, as well as a couple portrait photo session of the two of them is a big deal. They’re all very active and love the outdoors, so we decided to spend our time hiking at the Garden of the Gods in Manitou Springs during their photo shoot. They know the park well, as they’ve spent a lot of time there since moving to Colorado from Texas, and they showed me a few new hiking spots with beautiful views of the Pikes Peak and Colorado mountain range. Their youngest daughter, Victoria, was quite the risk-taker when it came to hiking and was filled with energy and personality. It must run in the family, because I think they’ve found a secret to health and happiness. Love and laughter! We had such a fun time hiking, laughing, jumping, tickling, and playing games during our hike. So much so, that Myriam was surprised to hear her two girls say how much fun they had during the photo shoot (check out a couple of excerpts from Myriam’s thank you emails at the bottom). I had such a wonderful time with Myriam and her family, and it makes me so happy that I can help document their family together through photography.

Aw, sisterly love is the best!

I love receiving love notes like these! Here are a few lines taken from thank you emails Myriam wrote to me after their family photo session:

We all had a great time! I was surprised to hear the girls say it was fun for them to. Picture taking is normally boring and I have to beg. Im very excited and can’t wait to see the images. This means so much to me. So I was thinking… Do you think we can sign up with you 3 and 6 years in advance for our special events? Luis and I have our 20th anniversary and Victoria will turn 16 in 6 years. [...] We would love for you to be the one to help us record the memories with your beautiful work.

We just saw the slide show. We absolutely love it! I don’t even have words to express how I was feeling when I was seeing the slide show. As the girls say “I was a big cry baby pipi pants”