Our Maternity Photos in the Sequoia National Forest

Four years ago, on Fathers Day weekend, I went on a three day backpacking trip on the High Sierra Trail in the Sequoia National Forest, California with my dad, my sister and a guy that I’d met in Southern California and was quite smitten with. At that point we’d only gone on one sushi / coffee date, so when I invited him to go trudging in the middle of nowhere and spend a weekend in the wilderness with a girl he barely knew and her family he’d never met, I really didn’t expect him to say yes.

But he did. And after miles of climbing through meadows, traversing streams, skirting cliffs, and stargazing under the giant redwoods, we were inseparable. We generally calculate the date of our “dating” relationship from this time.

The Sequoias – from the foothills at Three Rivers, to the redwoods up by Lodgepole – hold a very special place in our hearts. We’ve gone there for weekend getaways, for countless cosplays and odd photoshoots, and we even considered it for a wedding location. So it just seemed right to do our maternity photoshoot in the giant outdoor cathedral of the redwoods.

Yesterday we drove down with our photography friend Eliza in tow. I’m only 22 weeks along, (I pushed out my tummy as much as possible for the pictures, lol), but in two weeks Jonathan will be in Navy boot camp in Illinois and we don’t know if we’ll have a chance to take photos afterwards while he’s in A School… wherever that may be. That, and I thought having his long hair intact in some maternity photos would be something Tessa would love to see one of these days when she’s only ever known daddy with short hair.

As I said, our good friend Eliza took these photos for us. She has such a great eye, and it’s nice to hand her the cameras and just relax and look pretty. I tend to get rather awkward when I’m not BEHIND the camera. Which is odd, I know, with all the cosplay modeling I like to do… but it’s different in costume. I can strike a pose as someone else. When it’s just ME? I don’t know how to act or what to do. Cosplay a pregnant lady in the woods? So Eliza did an amaz-za-zing job in making me look not awkward, and capturing Jonathan and I with our precious little baby bump.

The beautiful Miss Eliza, a veritable Rambo of camera-hood – she’s packing with cameras, and she’s NOT AFRAID TO USE THEM!!!

Anyway, I’m in love with these photos. I never dreamed, while stargazing in the moss covered meadows of the High Sierra, that the guy I thought was so dreamy and perfect and wonderful would be walking those same meadows with me years later with a precious little girl who means the world to us, even though we’ve never met her. We’re still marveling over meeting each other, our brains still do not know how to process having a daughter. Our daughter! OH MY GOD. She’s going to be so beautiful. What did I ever do to be so lucky????