Hey y’all! Today I’m sharing a rare personal post. I feel it's important that you know your photographer. It's such an intimate relationship between photographer and client. I appreciate you all for inviting me into your lives. Thank you for always trusting me with your most precious memories. So here is a little post about one of my adventures this month!
I hardly every take my camera any where for myself now-a-days and I am trying to make more of an effort to document my own life a bit more.
My dad is moving back to his hometown. He has bought a fixer upper in West Virginia and plans on retiring next year. I’m going to miss having him ten minutes away, but I know he belongs in those hills.
Each year, we take a long weekend and do a fishing trip with my Uncle Bill and Grandpa Knight (he’s my uncle’s dad). This year, my cousin Jason, who is more like my brother, came down with me and I was able to show him dad’s new (old) digs.
Jason and I had so much fun on the drive down. It’s been forever since we’ve got to hang out and we had a blast singing Garth Brooks and just catching up on life and laughing at things only family can relate to.
When we arrived (and I’m SO UPSET I didn’t get a photo), my dad and my Aunt Jeannie were out in the garden planting potatoes. Aunt Jeannie was wearing overalls, and I saw she had on a shirt that said ZOMBIES. She loves the Walking Dead so I asked her what her shirt said. “Zombies never say YOLO.” She sat down and talked with us for a bit before heading back home. I love her so much.
Over walks my cousin Billy, my Uncle Bill, and of course Grandpa Knight. Three generations of Bills! Grandpa Knight lives in the house right next to dad. I remember being younger and fishing in the river out back. These two guys have already had such a fun time together. Grandpa Knight is almost ninety years old but he gets around like he’s thirty!
It was so fun to show Jason around and have him meet more of dad’s family. I am so beyond lucky to call these people mine. They are the most selfless, generous, gracious people you could ever meet. We spent some time fishing in the river out back and just enjoying the gorgeous views from the land. Time moves much slower down there, but not slow enough.
After bickering back and forth with my dad about when we could really start fishing… dad wanted to do some more work on his garage before we began the leisure time, I told him we would pitch in and get what he wanted to get done so that we could have some real fun!
Grandpa Knight allowed us to stay over with him since dad has gone all Joanna Gaines on us in his house! It’s going to look so amazing when he really gets going in there, and outside, too. We enjoyed some Biscuit World for breakfast and we said goodbye to Grandpa Knight (he had new yard toys he wanted to play with!), Aunt Pam (who I also didn’t get a photo of or spend enough time with!), and Billy and we headed up from Boone County to Braxton County to the old farmhouse that Grandpa Knight grew up in.
I am so grateful Uncle Bill is willing to open up the farmhouse each spring and spend time with us. Being in Braxton is so good for the soul. My husband Andrew got there at the same time we did (great timing, babe!) and we stopped up at the tiny Wal-Mart before heading down the one lane road to the old house.
When we got there, dad and Uncle Bill had already mowed a ton of the yard! Andrew couldn’t wait to play with his shotgun so the guys all took turns at targets. They tried to get me to shoot, but I wimped out with my tiny shoulders. I’ll stick to the pistol haha!
I didn’t bring my camera since it was raining the entire time we fished, but we fished the Sutton, the Elk, and the Williams that weekend and although none of us caught anything worth eating (Uncle Bill even went turkey hunting. Thank God for Wendy’s and KFC- chicken of the river), we all had so much fun just being together and were so exhausted each night. I loved drifting off listening to the boys share stories at night on the front porch. Aunt Pam made us cornbread and beans and between my incredible family and their down home cooking (you should have seen the breakfasts Uncle Bill puts on!), it was all so wholesome (I mean, minus the Wendy’s & KFC for dinner!).
So here’s to spending more time with my family from here on out and taking my camera to remember it all. Thank you Uncle Bill for spending the weekend with us, Aunt Pam for sending the good food, Grandpa Knight for the hospitality, and Aunt Jeannie for helping with the potatoes. You do so much and more and we are so happy to call you family. Love you!
Here are my photos from the trip- all straight out of camera.
