Today is my nephew’s 18th birthday!  So what better time to do a blog about his senior pictures than today!

Just in case you missed the last installment of senior pictures , you can click here to see the awesome images we got when we went to the Sand Dunes.  With my niece we did a fun session at the Paint Mines and then a real session up at South Park City, so I had to do the same with my nephew, right?  I’ve got to give you a little background on this awesome kid!

My sister had some medical issues that prevented them from starting their family when they wanted to.  They knew they always wanted to adopt so they thought they would start the adoption process for their first child.  They finished all of their paperwork and then less than two weeks later they went on a mission trip with the college group they led to Indonesia.  They were gone for 2 weeks.  The night they got home we went over to their house to hear all about the trip and while we were there my sister was listening to their messages.  The adoption agency had called while they were gone.  They quickly called back and were shocked to find out that not only had they been matched but their baby boy had been born while they were in Indonesia!  Can you even imagine!?  Not only were they exhausted from a 2 week mission trip, they had terrible jet lag!  The next morning, they drove to the Springs to meet Noah.  They brought him home a few days later.  Meanwhile, back at their house we (the rest of the family and some wonderful friends) furiously went to Babies R US, cleaned, did laundry, bought car seats and tried to get everything ready for sweet baby Noah.  He has been a wonderful surprise from the beginning and continued to be so.

This kid has always loved music.  When he was little he used to go to the keyboard, turn on a beat, turn it up as loud as he could and then walk away.  If you tried to turn it off, no matter where he was in the house, he would make a b-line back to the keyboard and turn it right back on again.  It drove us crazy, but he loved having music in the background.  He also has a great voice and just in the last 6 months has really come out of his shell and pursued music and been more serious about learning guitar.

I am so proud of him!  He is a rockstar athlete and spent most of his childhood with a ball (usually baseball or basketball) in his hand.  He is an amazing baseball player and devoted most of his time to baseball.  This year though, he felt a shift in his priorities and decided to give up baseball to pursue other things.  That is a really hard thing to do knowing you might be giving up scholarships and friendships.    But he wanted to pursue music, be on the worship team at youth group, take a leadership role at youth group and become shift manager at his job.  Within a few months of giving up baseball he had accomplished all of those goals.  How cool is that?  A few weeks ago he even got to be on the youth team that led worship on Sunday morning for the entire church!

We decided to go to Lakeside because I have always wanted to do a senior session there!  There are so many bright colors and it is just a cool, historic place.

This cool, gigantic white wall is the remains of the old speedway at Lakeside.  I remember being a little girl watching races there.  It hasn’t been used in YEARS and is mostly overgrown, but they painted the outside of the wall facing the parking lot and it is the perfect spot for pictures!

The overgrown areas made for cool pictures too.

I am a Coke girl through and through so it pained me a bit to take these pictures with the Pepsi sign, but it was worth it don’t you think?

After we exhausted the speedway, we headed into the park.  Lakeside isn’t in the best part of town, but it is still a cool place to go.  And it is cheaper than Eliches by a LONG shot.  If your kids do the summer reading program at the Jeffco Libraries, they get a discounted ticket when they sign up and they get a free ticket when they complete their reading, so we go every summer with some friends.

We had our own family pictures taken at Lakeside a few years ago and they didn’t have a problem with it and I looked on their website and it didn’t say anything about no photography, so I figured we were safe.  Not so much.  While I was taking this photo, we got in trouble.  They have a new photo policy, so beware if you want to do photos there.  It is a $150 fee to shoot there (although you do get 10 wristbands to ride rides so that helps).  Thankfully this wasn’t a paid job as he is my nephew (and with being my nephew, there comes the perk of free photos) so they were lenient on me, but we had to skedaddle out of there.  But kind of worth it to get this cool “college” shot, right?!

We may have snuck in a few photos on our way to the parking lot, but we were quick!  And we grabbed an Icee on the way to make us look a little less conspicuous.

He might not even see these photos today, or even this week as he is serving on a mission trip with the youth group on a Reservation in New Mexico.  See what I mean about this kid.  Such a great young man.

He doesn’t have firm plans about the future yet, but he has a heart for God and that will take him really far in this life!!!

I love you Noah and I am so thankful that I get to be your Aunt.  It has been a joy to be there to watch you grow up and become an amazing young man.  I can’t wait for what is coming in your future and know that we are always behind you cheering you on, whatever you do!

And if you are in need of a Denver Senior Photographer….I am your gal!  I would love to hear from you.  Email me at Lisa@photolilo.com or click back to my website for more information.