I got connected with Julia after they won a portrait session with me from their preschool fundraiser. It's always fun to do sessions like these because you never know who you'll meet and it's always a fun new connection.

When we were coordinating the plans for this family session, we had to work around a nap time for the little ones which meant high sun in the middle of the day. Julia came up with the idea for the location: Olivewood Gardens. I had never heard of this place before, but it's incredible and it worked out so beautifully for our mid-day shoot.

If you've never been to Olivewood Gardens and Learning center before, you have to go! It's SO cute and they host events for adults and kids, cooking classes, hands on gardening education, and so much more. It used to be the home of Christy and John Walton until John unfortunately passed away and Christy donated the property to engage, grow, and promote healthy communities and dialogue through civic engagement and philanthropy in the San Diego-Baja California border region.

I had so much fun exploring this garden center and getting time with this family. The two little ones were so sweet the whole time. We walked around the property taking pit-stops for rocking chair fun and cheerio snacking. This was such a great session to have diving into work after having my own baby.

I'm keeping an eye on the Olivewood event calendar and can't wait to bring my family back there. If anyone wants to have their wedding there, let me know I'll shoot it in a heartbeat! ;)