This past weekend, Linden, Ryan and I packed up the car with camera equipment and drove 500 miles east to Louisiana for a weekend celebrating baby Samson and her cousin Tyler & Preleigh's wedding shower. Linden, my wife, has a twin sister, Allison, and she is expecting her baby on June 6 and we could not be more excited for her and her husband Shane. Although it was a very long drive with a 16 month old and a 7 hour drive turned into a 10 hour drive, we had a great time together in the car and at all of our many stops along the way.

I feel like I need to explain the photos above :)  Ryan was taught by her Granny to stop and smell the roses, so every time she sees a flower, she stops to smell it...even if it is in a book!  The statue was at a Louisiana welcome center somewhere along the way and Ryan kept pointing at the chiseled muscular man in the statue and saying "daddy." What a smart girl!  We stopped at a gas station to fill up and needed a changing table and a table to feed Ryan... but nothing was there, so we used the next best thing... pallets of beer. She had fun climbing all over the cases. In my opinion, it is the best use for Bud Light I have found yet.

On Saturday morning, Linden and I met Allison and Shane at their new house that they are building in Covington, LA and since they have not moved in yet, we used that empty space to build a studio and take maternity photos. Here is a wide, behind-the-scenes shot of our morning session with Allison, Shane, and Samson and a sample of one of the photos.  I will have a separate blog post for that soon!

After the photo session, I went to a crawfish boil in the neighborhood while Linden and Ryan went to the first baby shower at their Uncle Rawlin and Darnell's house that Darnell and Aunt Shirley hosted. That evening Linden and I drove 1 hour north to Franklinton, Linden's home town, to attend her cousin Tyler's Honey-Do shower. It was held at a very unique venue, Ricky Magee's Man Cave. His collection was really fun to walk around and look at. It included a fighter jet ejection seat, 4 classic corvettes, a phone booth, and car parts re-imagined into just about anything you can think of. It was great to catch up with Tyler and Presleigh and have a little time away from the baby and be adults for the evening. Can't wait for the wedding in June!

On Sunday, we went to Allison's second baby shower at Tracy's house (Shane's mother).  I stayed out of the way as much as I could and played with Ryan in the back yard, but still managed to take photos of the shower. Here is the link to all of those photos from the shower. http://www.jasonshanephotography.com/samsonbabyshower

We left the shower around 4pm and drove back to Dallas. It was a great trip and we were so glad we got to spend so much time with all of the family we love so much.  We can't wait to meet baby Samson and celebrate Tyler and Presleigh's wedding in June.

Photos from Allison's maternity session will be up soon!