Megan and Dan have such a heart for their friends and family – something they wanted portrayed in their photographs.

Constantly in wonder and awe over this planet, it all points back to our Creator.

This trip goes down as one of our all-time favorite family vacations because it reminded us to enjoy & soak in the small and simply things in life: great company, warm, crackling fires, star-filled skies, colorful sunsets, good food, stillness, the ability to walk & hike & smell & see & taste & hear. 

Life is magic. Death is magic. And looking through these photos I’d like to add that the seasons in between it all are magic, too.

Or, another way to put it, the Christmas of Kira.

They’ve been together for ten years and are using their high school prom picture for their save-the-date invitations – does it get any better?! 

I had almost finished it when I accidentally opened the back (don’t ask, I still don’t know how that happened) & ruined the entire roll. I was devastated.

We sat on the beach with a loaf of french bread guarding our fancy dinner from seagulls & waiting for the famous sunset that never really came 🙂 

Most people who aren’t from Michigan don’t know about these dunes nestled on the western shore – I only knew of the secret Silver Lake sand because one summer my parents loaded up our minivan with coolers & lawn chairs & all four of us girls & made the trip north from Ohio. We stayed in a little motel run by the sweetest old couple, traversed the huge, hot dunes by day and swam in the motel’s pool drinking little styrofoam cups of hot chocolate from the lobby by night.