Life Documentary | Marc-Aurele Family
I LOOOOOOVE getting together with past clients to update their life story! I was thrilled when the Marc-Aurele family messaged me wanting to document their lives at this moment. I shot both Eric and Krishelle and Brian and Katie’s weddings and this lovely group of people have always made me feel like I was a part of the family. They’re such fun-loving and warm people! One of the main reasons they wanted to see me was to capture how much they enjoy life together at this moment and celebrate the fact that they’re all healthy and loving life. Count me in!
Every Sunday morning, they share a ritual of Ray (dad) making his famous waffles after he and Heidi go out for a long bike ride. He started making these right after they got married years ago and his signature recipe has evolved over the years to include delightful additions like walnuts, blueberries, and mesquite flour, which is a hat-tip to the Native American tribe, Kumeyaay-Ipai, of Poway, where they live. Heidi volunteers at the education center, so they decided to celebrate that heritage. How wonderful is that?!
Ray has made it his mission to make sure his sons, Eric and Brian, can carry on this family tradition. He had both of them in the kitchen, showing them the ins and outs of nailing the waffles along with learning the fine art form of the perfect sunny-side up egg. Eric felt his waffle creation deserved a “quotey-finger” title. Hahaha!
Katie is a bonafide chef and master baker, so she got a serious high-five for her well-executed sunny-side up egg. Kudos!!
This family loves to sit around the dining room table and chat about life while giving each other a lot of encouragement and ya know, a little bit of a hard time too, to make sure everyone is kept on their toes. Lots of laughs were shared!
Not even sure how we ended up on the topic besides the fact that all of us are foodies, but there was a huge debate about the history of Roquefort Cheese. Ray got really deep into this story/urban legend while Heidi shook her head across the table, giggling the whole time. She finally called him out, so naturally, he consulted the Google machine. Well, let’s just say there were some, uh hem, differing points of view on what actually happened there. Always good to check your sources! 😉
So this was exciting! The night before their session, Elodie had taken her very first steps! Of course, we were all encouraging her to try again. Walking is hard work! She went for it, lured by her favorite book, but there were also a few tears of frustration along the way. But she did it! What a champ!!
There was a teeny tiny itty bitty pout that resulted, but that was followed by some serious rejoicing!
Time for more great Marc-Aurele family traditions—the monumental jigsaw puzzle endeavor! Katie and Krishelle both told me that it was a rite of passage when they joined the first family gathering. And for the record, people, this is serious business. These are competition-level pieces (I may have peeked over a few shoulders to get an idea)!
We finished up with some casual family portraits outside, but It seems like the right thing to end their Life Documentary with this cuteness overload. Elodie loved Jingle Bear 🙂
Thank you so very much, Marc-Aureles, for inviting me into your home with open arms and a realness that I’ve always appreciated about your family! I loved spending time with you and hearing about all that’s new in life. It was so much fun fun going behind-the-scenes to capture your special bonds, family traditions, and good times you share at this point in time. Happy New Year!!
