Doe, a deer-and Bridger dear.

Last Sunday we made a special trip down to Provo to visit our friends Erika and Blake who had their adorable baby girl (Annie) on Friday night. Seriously--Erika is a trooper. She was 13--yes, 13 days--overdue, she went through 26 hours of labor (15 of which she did with a midwife), and then ended up having to have a c-section after her body started showing signs of an infection and little Annie's heart rate was going all over the place. We are SO glad that she is FINALLY here safe and sound...even if she was a little later than anticipated! And as for me, I'm very much looking forward to this weekend when I get the privilege of taking Annie's newborn pics. I can't wait to snuggle with her a little more and stick her in that giant teacup I bought. ;)

Since we were making the drive down to Provo anyway, I 'convinced' Scott that we needed to go to this {very popular} apple orchard where I've been wanting to shoot in order to take a few 1 year pics of Bridger. It was a pretty easy 'convincing' as Scott is always very supportive of indulging in my photographic requests. {"Scott, could you come stand over here for me?", "Scott, will you stick your face right there? I need to test the light.", "Scott, could you come make Bridger smile.", "Make him look up more.", "To the left.", "To the right.", "Okay, now do the same thing over again....Okay, 5 more times."} What can I say, I'm a lucky girl to have such a patient and supportive husband.

Anyway--back to where the story starts getting--interesting. To put it nicely, we were wildly unprepared. About half way into our drive we had discovered that neither of us had brought the diaper bag. This meant we had no diapers, no wipes, and no snacks--no bueno. I had packed separately a burp cloth {totally random}, clothes that I was planning to put Bridger in to take his pictures, and a spray bottle to do his hair. I told Scott that rather than turn around to get the bag and be an hour late, we would probably be okay. Bridger had just eaten so he wouldn't be hungry for the time we were planning to be gone, I had just changed his diaper about 5 minutes before we left and he had gone well--you know--so we should be fine there, and, I had the extra photoshoot clothes in case he decided to slobber, spit up, etc. I was feeling like such a rockstar at that point--free from a diaper bag and totally okay with it!

The first thing we noticed when we pulled up to the orchard were the deer. There were A LOT of them. No bucks, just a couple of doe and lots of babies. They were all adorably hopping up and down the rows of trees. Visions of photos started flashing into my brain. The deer were obviously not nervous around people and I started getting all sorts of shutter-brained. I ran around the side of the car to get Bridger out of his car seat and get him changed quickly--after all, I didn't want to miss this perfect opportunity!

In about .5 seconds my dreams were shattered. I smelled it first. Then, I felt it. It was all over. "CRAP!" I said. Scott's rational mind responded, "Well, we better go buy some diapers and wipes." I looked at Bridger. I looked at the deer. I looked at the grass. And suddenly, I felt like Bear Grylls! I grabbed the clean 'photo shoot' outfit and the burp cloth, I laid Bridger down on the grass and told Scott to stay with him. I ran back to the car and grabbed all of the napkins that we keep stashed in our glove box. Within seconds I had the boy stripped of his clothes, his diaper off and I was wiping him down with the McDonalds logo. Unfortunately, this wasn't working as I had anticipated. Aha! The spray bottle! I instructed Scott to run to the car and grab it. He came back and stood about 3 feet away spraying his son's bare tush over and over so that I could get it 'clean'. He sprayed it more than was necessary. I think he was enjoying it. {To my joy and amazement...the deer were sticking around through all of this. I mean, c'mon, who wouldn't want to watch all of this unfold.} At the peak of my 'Bear Grylls-ness" I wrapped the burp cloth around his now clean bum, held it in place with his onesie snaps and proceeded to cloth him normally. Phew. Crisis averted.

We grabbed the camera, the props, the tripod, the boy & started into the orchard. I had just enough time to get set up and get this one shot off before the deer decided to move. Granted, it isn't the best picture in the world--but it sure does cap off an interesting story. See them? To the left--1 doe and 3 babies (the 3rd baby is tucked behind the chair).

{Okay, I don't blame you that you can't see them...they had already started to move away. Not to mention the fact that my photo files are too large for Blogger and so you only get the compressed version when you 'click'}

Once my blood pressure went down a little bit I was able to calmly finish the shoot and I was totally happy with most of the shots. We were done in about 20 minutes. It was great. Here are some of my favorites-

And...a fun one with Dad! :)

I just love these boys!