I wish I could show you my ten year school photo.  Let me re-phrase…you would die laughing if you saw me at ten.  Spoiler alert: the photo was heavy on the perm, the oversize glasses and the turtleneck.  When I look at my daughter who just turned ten, I’m blown away at her maturity.  The way she handles herself and moves through the world is much older than ten.  And I mean that in a good way.  Yes, she has her tween moments, but she has a lot of grace about her too.

For her ten year photos, I wanted to follow the jacarandas.  Every year I say I’m going to.  In Long Beach, May gives way to purple.  We drive under violet clouds and crush them with our feet with ever step on the sidewalk.  Long-time residents hate them and Brent even said he didn’t want to buy a house that lived under a jacaranda tree.  Their sticky sap can ruin carpets and paint jobs alike.

Jillian and I found a little cluster in Long Beach to do our photographs.  By mid-May, the branches were already starting to look a little bare.  But, now that we sit near the last day of may, I’m so glad that we made the time.  Their brief month of beauty is almost now forgotten.  Just like how nine years flew by.  And here come the double digits…

// Photographs taken in Long Beach by a Long Beach Family Photographer, Kristin Eldridge.