Tiffany Olsen Photography

Family reunions are a staple in our culture, which is why the pandemic was extra hard on most of us. Going months, a year, or more without being able to physically hug and squeeze our loved ones made all of the things that were already so challenging to navigate this past year all the more difficult.

So as the vaccine rolled out, I wasn’t surprised to start to get inquiries for Multi-Mini Sessions for this summer. We are all itching to be reunited and we have been reminded just how precious that family time we had taken for granted truly is. We are also reminded how important photos are to families.

Case in point of how important it all is: the matriarch of this fun family unfortunately fell ill and was recovering in the hospital at the time of their family reunion, so she was not only unable to attend, but also be in the photos. In the end, they were all able to still see her, and she was happy to have photos of her family nonetheless. I spent some extra time with two of the individual families, the Shankles and the Rheaumes, doing Mini Sessions for them before the extended family session, so there were many new updated photos of her family and I was happy to be a part of that, even though I didn’t get to meet her.

We can’t always control what happens or when it happens in our lives. None of us needed that reminder after this past year, but if we haven’t learned from it yet, we still can learn that we can control how we respond to these things.

This family was so positive. They were still so grateful to be together. It was heart-warming to see them reconnect, hugging, back slapping, and hand shaking, after time apart. It was quickly easy to see who the family jokesters were, who the responsible ones were, and that they really love each other.