Chris + Beth

You first met them HERE, in their aptly-themed Book Session outside of Drake's Cowles Library. Both educators and English teachers, Chris is now Norwalk High School's principal and Beth teaches English at a nearby district. Gerard & I have been gifted to interact with two of their four kids a lot this year, but I'm sure we'll be running into their middle two sons more and more in the coming years. Ella always greets me with a hug when I pick Laidy up from their pre-school and Keaton is part of a deep team of trumpeters in one of our middle school bands. This family is hilarious, entertaining and always comes to me with fun ideas to execute when we get together with my camera. 

Their Cardinals baseball themed session did not disappoint!!!

Moving from the dug out to the pitcher's mound, we embraced the windy day (it seems to be a going theme these days in Iowa since April started!) and just went with it. It's so fun for me to see a principal on a more personal level-Chris dotes on Beth whenever they're not wrangling kiddos. So, we let the kids run around the bases while we took a moment for just the two of them.

Just the gents and just the ladies... Game faces everyone!

Quick aside: my family is one of all ladies-my grandparents had 3 girls, they each had 2 girls-so when we got together for family reunions, we had just enough to cover the bases (literally) to play baseball. With my grandpa's history playing for the minor league team that fed into the Cincinnati Reds, I knew just what to do with these 6 Cardinals fans. Chris is the umpire, Keaton is up to bat, Ella is the catcher, Aidan is next at bat, Reece is pitcher and Beth is Coach making the calls and cheering. It was then that I thought about marriage and how a husband and wife team really do share the umpire and coach roles. Both make the calls, in a way, and for the game to run smoothly, they must respect each other and work together. I won't throw the word "love" in there because I don't know that coaches and umpires LOVE each other in real life, but these two do! ;) 

Chris + Beth, 

You guys are incredible! Thank you so much for clearing the field of tarps and tires to help your session come to life! It's so fun to photograph your family and corral the energy of your amazing kiddos. I'm going to miss Ella's weekly hugs, but I'm thankful to interact with Keaton another year and am excited to see Aidan and Reece in the future soon! Enjoy your trip to sunny SoCal as you visit more of your pro baseball team stadium around the country!!

You're the best, 

Carrie

PS You can view more of our time together HERE.