The world can be so small. I grew up in a teeny tiny little town in Northern California. I became friends with a girl named Kirsty Skabelund in the next town over through church. I’m still good friends with her and her mom! But I never really knew her older brothers. They were a few years older than us, so I really didn’t run into them except maybe in passing.

Until last year when a girl named Melinda Skabelund posted on our church Facebook group in Blacksburg that she and her family were going to be moving to the area and were looking for housing recommendations. The name Skabelund is too unique for her to not be related to my cute friend Kirsty…so I went into detective-mode and did some Facebook stalking (can we just get it out in the open that everyone does it?) and sure enough, Melinda was Kirsty’s sister-in-law! She married Dane, Kirsty’s oldest brother! How often do two small town Northern Californians end up in the same city on the opposite side of the country? Right?

Fast forward to this year. Melinda has become one of my dear friends. She and Dane and their four beautiful kidlets are just so much fun to be around. They have great senses of humor and somehow they have taught their kids to unapologetically be themselves, wherever they are. It’s a really beautiful thing to see – and to know is possible for me to do as a parent, too!

Melinda is lucky to have an early spring birthday – just in time for all the blossoms to be in bloom! We managed to get in a beautiful family session for her birthday just before the whole COVID-19 thing went down and we had to isolate ourselves forever from everyone we love. I’m sorry, that was a little dramatic, but you know what I mean.

We had a lot of fun getting the kids to laugh for the camera. They did so well! Enjoy their sweet portraits – this family is golden and I miss them during this crazy time.