Our Family Portraits: My Firefighters

We normally get our family photos taken in August. You may remember last year’s debacle where the pseudo-photographer “lost” our files. I was still feeling the sting when my friend Heather Durdil offered to waive her mileage fee and take our family portraits this year. I adore Heather and her photography and fall, so we combined the lot in Salt Fork State Park — also one of our favorites — earlier this month.

I’ll show you the “official” family photo on Monday. Instead, I want to get all sappy up in this piece.

While reading A Widow’s Walk last month, the author wrote of treasuring a photo she had of her husband with her son. I realized that while I have many snapshots that I’ve taken, many of which are of great quality, we don’t have a father-and-sons “official portrait.” That seemed wrong. And so, my wheels began turning. That caused smoke to start pouring out of my ears. And this concept was born in the depths of my brain fire.

It is exactly what I imagined. That photo. Right there. That’s it. And then I was rewarded with some amazing “extras.”

When you ask me “which one” I’ll be buying, I have to stifle a laugh. There is no choice involved. This is a “must purchase them all” type scenario. Those are my firefighters, my men. They look so flipping cute tough that I can hardly contain my pride.

But, wait, it gets better. Heather asked me to step into a photo.

She showed me that last one, the only one she let me see that day, and said, simply, “FireMom and her men.”

Yes, I got kind of weepy. I also got weepy when she sent me that one as my first preview. And I flat out cried when she sent me the link to all of the photos yesterday evening. We are a lucky little fire family, aren’t we?

More on our family photos on Monday. For now, I think we all need to give kudos to FireDad for going along with my request. I didn’t tell him he had to do the turnout gear photo. I asked. Nicely. I gave him the option to say no. He did say yes, obviously, though he may have been pushed into that by his friend Boogie. Whatever the case, I am eternally grateful.

I cannot wait to hang these on our wall. Walls. Plural.