Anytime this family is on my books for a session, I’m calm. I don’t know what it is about them, but all 5 of them just make me calm… it’s a great thing. I always know that they are going to be relaxed, smiling, with big sparkly eyes. So when I geared up to leave for their Christmas session, I was super excited.

And I was dead on. They were relaxed…

smiling…

and there those famous Rundel sparkly eyes were out in full effect…

What I didn’t anticipate was that we would have a visitor. Mid-way through our session, I heard Shawn yell from behind me telling Regi to step back. Within 2.2 seconds, all 6 of us were at the cars (which were just a few yards away) and we saw this…

Can you see it? Bear in mind, people, that I am a portrait photographer… which means my lenses either don’t zoom at all or barely do. This was AS CLOSE as I was getting to our friend (who had be creepily hiding in the woods, staring at us silently for more than 30 minutes). Shawn whisked the kids away to Sonic while Aimee and I (ok, so really just Aimee – I pretty much stood in fear until it was all over with) dealt with the coyote… with the help of an animal control officer.

Up close, she was one of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen. But I was sure glad she was gone.

Aimee – please don’t throttle me for posting these last two. You are SO freaking cute. And crazy. And that’s one of the main reasons why I love shooting your family!