oh where do i begin with this family?!!! let’s start with kyle. kyle and i went to high school together, in fact, he was one of my “3 weeker” boyfriends. but that was short lived as we realized that we were just great friends. we had a pretty close knit group that we hung out with, so kyle and i were together a lot. i’m sure he could tell you MANY stories about me, but he won’t, of course, since i could post MANY stories about him on our blog. julie is his fabulous, beautiful, fun, sweet other half and i fell in love with her the first time we met!!! but the real star of the show is sweet, handsome and ADORABLE kenton!!!! these 3 are some of our favorite people and we frequently see them when we are in chicago, (but not nearly enough)! this past time we were there, we just had to do a session since kenton had just marked a very important milestone in his life…. TURNING ONE!!! we headed down to the marina since kyle and julie love the water and sailing. and of course, we found some urban and rustic stuff around there. i can find gritty anywhere!

**rewind…… i forgot to tell you how we reconnected again after years…… i ran into kyle and julie at a wedding i was shooting with my friend, kelly powers! it was such a random reunion, but kyle had gone to college with the groom and there we all were! so kyle and julie mentioned they were in chicago, i told them we’d call next time we were in town, and the rest, my friend……. is history!!!

we LOVE hanging out with you and always appreciate your generous spirit of opening your home whenever we are there! here are a few faves from our time together……. you 3 ROCK! we love you guys!!!! enjoy your preview……..

the story begins a couple years back. we’re driving the lakeshore in chicago, and i (ben) think to myself, “i wonder if aaron still lives in chicago?” aaron is my best friend from high school who i hadn’t seen in YEARS!!! so i pick up the phone and call his home # back in wisconsin, just in case his mom happened to still live there. YEP!! and thus begins the reunion of reunions!! everyone needs a friend in chicago…..and in aaron and sarah, we’ve got GREAT friends there.

on our last trip, we had a handful of shoots and meetings. so we crashed at the johnson’s — WITH OUR KIDDOS! elliott, the nicest dog EVER, will never be able to forget our three kids hounding him for days. and without a doubt, aaron and sarah (currently pregnant with their first) are going to be AMAZING parents. i’m pretty sure our kids wanted to spend more time with them then with us. Mr. Aaron and Miss Sarah have made the best friend roster of at least three young kids!

so we brought them to our favorite area for some pics, and then they introduced us to this sweet new graffiti wall (can you really call graffiti? seriously, i’d love it in our house!!!), and to another great spot to catch the chi-town skyline. we topped off the evening with an amazing dinner at this new restaurant in some cool area of chicago that we’d never be able to find again so…here’s some of our faves!!! thanks aaron and sarah!!!