Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden is a beautiful sanctuary that not many people know about. It’s so fun to capture sessions here but you are definitely rolling the “rain dice” because it does rain quite a bit at the Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden. That’s how all the plants stay lush!

Lauren & Dan are friends of ours here in Hawaii and I was so excited to photograph them because, Lauren is so beautiful and Dan is hilarious and I just adore this family!

I’d also like to share that their daughter is the best model ever and she literally smiled THE ENTIRE TIME! Seriously, she did not come to mess around! How cute is she?!?!!!

Rafael & Dan work together but I actually only met them after they graciously welcomed us into their home (pregnant and with 3 boys) to wait out Hurricane Lane (which thankfully never hit Oahu). I was so nervous about staying with a family I didn’t know (especially with my crazy kids and pregnancy hormones) but Lauren and I really hit it off and spent several nights staying up super late and talking about marriage, kids, military life, and so much more! I’m so thankful to have met her!

In addition to being the parents of Norman, the beloved Great Dane and Lucy their sweet lab, they also have 3 kids which my 2 oldest boys spend the majority of their time asking to play with! They actually want us to move into the same community as them just so we’ll be closer! LOL! If only it weren’t so far (relatively speaking of course.) We chose Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden for their session because it’s gorgeous and “not the beach”! LOL! We got so lucky on the day of their session because we were able to take all of these photos and finish the session a few seconds before it started raining!

Ho’omaluhia Botanical Garden because Lauren just loves the mountains and I really think that this is such a beautiful visual representation of this family. I am so excited to share this sneak peek with you because I love them! I love these photos, this family, and this location and hope you all do too!