Chelsea & Brandon are from South Dakota and are crazy, crazy, in love. 

I knew this when Chels, a photographer herself, reached out about me photographing a session for them during her family’s annual trip to Anna Maria Island. She was so excited for Brandon to come along for the first time to the island that she’s grown up loving and meeting them was so fun because they were completely soaking in the experience together. 

These two met on Tinder (crazy, right?!) and they’ve had an amazing year together. We celebrated with champagne at sunset on my favorite spot (unfortunately called Beer Can Island– ha!) on Long Boat Key. The driftwood and mangrove paths were so romantic and the sunlight gave us a breath of that warm, summer air.  

Chels + Brandon it was wonderful to meet you! Thanks so much for trusting me with this special portraits. You guys are the best and I hope to see you on the island again soon!! 

Sarah’s green eyes and red locks are too perfect to not be shared on St. Patrick’s day. Can you tell that Irish genes run strong in our family?

This gorgeous girl has been traveling the world with Norwegian Cruise Line this year, traveling the British Virgin Islands as “Vivienne” in Legally Blonde and then all over Europe as a “Diva” in Priscilla Queen of the Desert. 

She’s back in New York, starring in Wine Lovers the Musical this weekend in Washington D.C. and will be returning home to Kansas City in May for The Last Five Years with M.T.K.C.  Needless to say, she’s kind of amazing and it’s always a privilege to get to make new industry headshots for her. Here are a few of my favorites!

Love you Bear! Next time, we make images in NYC (if you can sit still long enough for me to visit again- ha!) 
 

Chelsea and Brandon have been together for a long time and you can tell by the way they look at each other. I love that, when you can see love that has settled in for the long run just by how two people look at each other. 

They’ve built a sweet life together, are parents to the best fur baby, have survived nursing school and graduate school and this year will move into their first house and get married! What a sweet season of life. 

I’m so grateful that my master’s program brought Chelsea and I together. It’s a huge privilege to create these portraits for she & Brandon and I’m counting down to their November wedding! Also? Prepare to swoon over these engagement images. Chelsea’s Rent the Runway gown + the shoreline of my favorite spot at Fort DeSoto was a dream! Oh, and her heirloom ring is a showstopper. What a special thing to get to wear a gorgeous diamond from Brandon’s late mother. Oh the love stories life writes! 

If I’m going to try to get back into the swing of blogging (something I sincerely love but struggle to find the time/brain space for these days) I figure including one of the fun dates we’ve had this spring would be perfect. Doubly perfect is that its 3/14 aka Pi Day! So, a pizza date recap is more than fitting. 

Increasingly I’ve been finding great date/adventure ideas from instagram. It makes sense, really, if something is fun/tasty/cool/pretty/awesome enough to be photo posting worthy, it must be all those things and more, yes?! 

So when I saw that a pizza place less than 2 miles from our house offered NUTELLA pizza topped with house made gelato, I literally threw on a hat to leave the house immediately. Really, it’s a true story: it was 8pm on a Monday night, I was already lounging for the night, got changed and ready to walk out the door when I saw that they were closed on Mondays. NOOOOOOOO. 

We survived the wait and ended up there Friday of the same week before the weekend dinner crowd so we had the place to ourselves. Fabrica is in Tampa’s Channelside District (where the cruise port is) and honestly, there’s not a lot down there so we hadn’t been since moving here! It was a great excuse to take Jenny and do a little walking around the area. 

I’m not a food or lifestyle blogger but that doesn’t mean that we don’t look for certain things in a culinary experience. As self-proclaimed foodies J and I love eating local, experiencing good customer service (who doesn’t?!), a visually engaging space and chill ambiance. 

Fabrica totally delivered. 

Their staff was kind and friendly. The white aesthetic of the pizza counter will have all local instagram lovers drooling. The pizza is unique (many cheeses, toppings and sauces to choose from & hot italian oil recommended for dipping!). Oh and did I mention that they have Nutella pizza?
 

Our visit allowed us to meet Jonathon, one of the owners of Fabrica, who also happens to be from Italy. It really was awesome talking with him because he shared a bit about bringing this kind of Italian, wood-fired pizza to the U.S. and the kind of oven they use (it cooks a pizza in 90 seconds. Crazy!) He was a great guy and it made our meal so much better just getting to talk with him about the philosophy behind everything! 

Poor guy, I start talking his ear off and then ask to take a creeper photo. Told you he’s awesome. 

Thanks for the yummy & fun date night, Fabrica! We’ve already been back with one of our favorite couples and we can’t wait to return. Gimme all that wine on tap (yes, their wine is on tap!)

This post was not sponsored in any way. All images and opinions belong to Laura Foote. 

I was heading into the doctor’s office today for another check-in (a journey I’ll talk about on here another day) and the phone rang. 

“Hello, Ms. Foote? I, well, you’re listed here on K’s sheet. Can I talk to you about her?”

“Yes, this is Ms. Foote and of course”, I responded as I fumbled with car keys and tried to kill time outside the waiting room. 

“Well, there was an incident this morning and I felt it was best to call”. 

Ok, without filling in any more details (since this is not a gossipy soap opera), you can imagine my internal reply; calm, cool and collected. Or more like…

YOU DID WHAAAAAAT?!

This girl with such empathy, drive and determination did what?!

Friends, parenting is hard and I am profoundly realizing the depths of how very identity-defining it can become with everyday we spend with K. 

I quickly made my way to the school and waited to meet with her and the guidance counselor. While I waited, I tried to calm my mind. 

This is not a reflection on me. This is not even an accurate reflection on her. 

I’m sorry goes a long way. We’ll work this out

Maybe we’re in for more than we bargained for here. 

Jesus, you’ve got this. I know you do. 

As our meeting unfolded into failing grades, unknown absences and unexcused skipped classes, I continued to battle the desire to make this about me and instead focus on K and the opportunity for God to redeem and rescue. 

Ponderings from #ourcornerlot as I listen to J and K fight to kick Algebra 2’s butt. (I didn’t tell you this journey would be easy or that my corresponding posts would make sense. Fostering in a non-foster care set up is anything but clear cut!)
 

I think Heather & Tez are officially one of my most epic couples. From their sparkly Downtown Pete engagement session, to their Valentines Day Wedding and post-wedding Fort Desoto session where Heather swam in her wedding dress, they’ve pretty much rocked every session.

The stakes were high for their one year anniversary session and we rolled around ideas for a while before decided that The University of South Florida’s Riverfront Park would be so much fun for a little canoeing and forest exploring!! That’s exactly what we did and even in the bright, mid-day winter sunlight, it was so wonderful. J and I just really love these two!! 

Heather & Tez, 

You two are amazing and we are so grateful to have been able to celebrate so many amazing moments with you all! Can’t wait for our next adventure together!