Do you remember sweet, baby girl Emma? Can you believe she’s already six months old?! In fact, it was a few weeks ago, and her mama asked me to take pictures again.

Emma Marie.

The day before taking their pictures, I agreed to help another friend deliver a bed she had sold on Craigslist. It was in a tiny town about twenty miles north of the base, and she had just scant directions with no listed address.

“When you see an old farmhouse on the left, take a right. Travel that road until you see a school, then go past one block and turn east. It’s a cream house with a hedge.”

…

I should add here that, once you leave the base and head even more northern than we already are, everything is an “old farmhouse.” Also, if you don’t turn on the correct road, it’s fairly impossible to find the aforementioned school, either. To say that Jennifer and I were lost for a while would be an understatement!

However, we were chatting and laughing it up while we took in the scenery. We even happened upon a farmer’s field of reindeer. Reindeer! I hadn’t seen actual reindeer since we lived in Alaska!

(These reindeer were quite slender and gaunt. They seemed happy enough,
but I am sad to think of them heading into a winter season already so thin…)

Finally, we found the correct farmhouse, and then we mucked up the rest of the directions a bit before finding the right house. We delivered the bed and headed down the highway to home. Once she dropped me off, I ran to my neighbor’s house and breathlessly told her, “I just found the BEST place for taking your pictures tomorrow!”

She was nervous, having not seen the place, as well as having mentally pictured sitting on the steps somewhere on the university’s campus. She pondered for a bit, then said, “Well, I trust your judgment, so we’ll go whichever place you think is best.” And we did!

I think in the end, it was safe to say that she LOVED the location. We all had such a fun time exploring the little places that afternoon!