It was so fun reuniting with Amber and Nick! Last time I photographed them, Amber was pregnant with Quinn, and now Quinn is an active and spunky child who really just wanted to play hide and seek instead of taking photos but who begrudgingly permitted photos anyway. She is a highly entertaining force who enjoys art, microscopes, animals, and baking. After taking a nap at school when she was younger, Quinn developed the habit of waking up at 4am, so Amber would supply Quinn with a variety of baking ingredients to occupy her. No recipe, just a bunch of different things that you could hypothetically make a cookie or a pancake with. Quinn would mix a bunch of things together to her satisfaction, and Amber and Nick then developed the tradition of actually baking whatever it was she put together and eating it (or attempting to eat it, depending on the ingredient combination I suppose). I think this is absolutely delightful. So now Quinn loves to bake. She’s still experimenting. Nick says that most of her experiments end in a crepe-like quality, so I suggested adding Nutella to the ingredient line-up, which was a stunning success according to Quinn, Amber, and Nick. Evie, the older sister, however, did not try it, which I think is potentially a safe route to take depending on experiments you’ve eaten in the past.
Evie is a total delight. She’s in high school between her freshman and sophomore year, and typically that age of people is not thought of as delightful, but Evie really is. She is kind and considerate and smart and enjoys Nirvana and the Ramones and taking Japanese. She loves her dogs and plays instruments and enjoys playing with Quinn. She’s a super good kid and I had a great time getting to know her. She has a picture of Dolly Parton holding a kitten in her room and I think that’s the best. She called Nick’s taste in music “Dad Rock” and now I realize that the term “Dad Rock” is used to describe music I listened to in high school instead of what my dad listened to in high school, and that was a startling realization on my end. Moon and Theo the Dogs also joined us – Moon is a quiet elder doggo and Theo is fluffy chaos energy and I love them both. It was so great photographing these guys all together in this moment. They are a creative and amazing family.
