20 Apr Sled, Snow, and Slay

This adventure started with Katya’s 2-year-old picture. Ever since Erik and I got married, we asked Annie to take our family photo every year. She took our family photos with fur nephews, maternity photos, and also Katya’s 1-year-old picture. For her 2-year-old picture, I wanted to do it in snow, like how I did my maternity picture 4 days before her arrival. We had a busy 2024 start, so the earliest we could do it was the end of March.

We were planning to leave on the same day I came back from Japan to Lake Tahoe. However, there were severe weather warnings, so we weren’t comfortable leaving for Tahoe immediately. It was originally to be a 2-night stay in Tahoe, but it became a very quick 1-night stay trip. I was not going to miss the photoshoot no matter what, so we went to get snow chains as well, even though we have a 4-wheel-drive car. In the morning, despite our wishes, the snowstorm warning was still there, and we were stressed out.

To add more stress, we found out that one of the rear tires had a nail in it. We called a nearby service place and dropped the car off to fix the tire, as a flat tire in a snowstorm would be absolutely horrible. I was worried they might be booked up or close for Easter weekend. But fortunately, we could have them take in our car. They estimated 2 hours till completion, so during the wait, we got brunch and went to a park.

After the car got fixed (apparently the nail didn’t puncture the tire as it was on the edge), we left for Tahoe. We were planning to start shooting at 5 p.m., so we were really pushed for time. With some slowdown due to the storm, it took 3 and a half hours to get up to North Lake Tahoe. We checked into a super cute lodge, I did make-up, and we all changed for the photoshoot.  To reach the photoshoot spot, it took us another 50 minutes. At this point, we were pretty tired, but I finally felt less stress as the hard part of getting there was over.

One last problem we faced… We had a sled as a photo prop, so we were about to inflate it with the car, but Erik realized that it couldn’t be blown up by the car. So, we took turns and blew it up by our mouths lol. We still had a little bit of time, so we test ran sled at the little hill. Katya absolutely enjoyed that. I couldn’t wait for next winter to do this with her!

Annie got there, and we started to shoot at a super gorgeous spot. In the first 10 minutes, it was pretty clear sky, but then it started to snow! I loved when that happened; it was magic! I think the photo came out like a page out of a children’s book 🙂 We took pictures with an already-built snowman and in various poses involving a snowball fight haha. Snow piled up a lot with the snow storm, and sometimes we moved; we went knee deep in the snow. We all stuck in the snow a couple of times, and by the end, we were so exhausted from walking on thick snow!

Katya really loved sledding, and she was asking for more! It was so much fun doing the photoshoot! I had another outfit she shot on the spot, so I will share that with you next week. I LOVE these family pictures so much; they’re for sure going on our wall!

Outfit & item detail: White long fur coat by Banana Republic (similar here), Fushia hat, scarf, and mittens by Etsy – NkKnittingShop (exact here), Black cashmere sweater by Naadam (exact here), Classic straight jeans by J. Crew (similar here), Black ankle snow boots by The North Face (similar here), Toddler magenta snowsuit by Reima (exact here), Plaid sled by Funboy (exact here).

To family,

Fatima

(PC: Annie Mason Photo)