Over Thanksgiving, I drove down to beautiful Cape Cod for a very special family session. I don’t often blog family sessions (and in fact I have a separate website where most of my kid and pet photos live) but I can’t resist sharing a few favorite photos of this awesome family here.

Ben contacted me back in July about setting up a photo session with his wife Laura, his parents, and his brother’s family over the summer. Our initial plans were thwarted by Hurricane Isaac (Ben and Laura live in Miami), and looking back, I’m happy they were. There is something so special about the Cape in the early winter; the colors are soft and muted, the sun is lower in the sky … and we lucked out with a totally gorgeous day. Ben and Laura are both photographers (you can see Laura’s beautiful work here), and I was SO thankful not to know this until part way through the session (it makes me nervous!) But unlike most photographers they are ridiculously good in front of the camera too. In fact, the entire family is super fun to photograph – not only are they all incredibly photogenic, but they also smile and laugh all. the. time. Heaven! Anyway, we spent the afternoon taking a mixture of group photos, and more candid shots. Here’s a handful or two of my favorites:

Charlie, like I imagine most four-and-three-quarter-year-olds are, was happiest running around thinking I wasn’t photographing him. Everyone else was pretty cool doing whatever silliness I requested! Love this one of Ross and Susan:

This is Ishka, the incredible performing dog:

Adam, Alison and Charlie (above) live in Chicago. Their big smiles are a perfect reflection of their big, warm hearts. And here’s one of my real favorites from the big group photo:

We spent a little time at a nearby beach with the longest boardwalk ever! Laura and Ben played cute, and Charlie and his dad just played.

Our final stop for photos was right next to Susan and Ross’ beautiful Yarmouth Port home, and the light there was perfect (the scenery too, in fact). I love the photo above of Laura and Ben snuggled up with their awesome pups Ishka and Pickle – and how great are Ross and Susan’s smiles in the photo below?

Thank you all for the incredibly warm welcome, and for making it such an easy session for me. Every time I picked up the camera you were laughing, and smiling, and canoodling. Thank you!! And of course I have to post one last favorite of Ben and Laura down by the beach: