Rena + Lucas (Gastown Portraits)

One of my biggest priorities when we moved to Vancouver was finding a shoe-in babysitter. Matt and I just had’t been out much without the kids over the last 3 years, and I wanted that to change. After attending a local church, Church on the Westside, maybe twice I dove right in to their social network site and started emailing people that I thought looked normal enough to take good care of my kids but also interesting enough where maybe I could also find a friend in the process. Kill two birds with one stone kind of a deal. I was, after all, still very new to Vancouver and this church and just wanted to meet people.

Luckily I didn’t scare Rena away with my rambling email about my life story, how we ended up here in Vancouver and how I liked her profile picture. There was just something about her that drew me in. She got back to me and suggested we meet at our place so I could see her interact with the kids and make sure she was not a psycho and would take amazing care of Ev and Theo. We picked a date, she shows up and a few strawberries, half eaten chocolate chip muffins and 3 hours later I was really glad that I emailed her. And I’m super glad she emailed me back. Because Rena is awesome. We love Rena. I don’t know how often it is that you meet friends in your adult life that you really, really connect with, like you do with your childhood buddies. But Rena is one of those friends.

We talked and talked that morning, it was just the type of conversation that you could keep on having for hours. So we did. I love those types of conversations and connections with people. I love the depth, the fun and the sincerity. I love that Rena is so open and honest and you can have a real conversation with her, but still laugh a lot in the process. It’s one of my favorite things about her. The subject of men came up, of course. And, coincidentally, she was headed to meet up with her on-again, off-again boyfriend right after meeting with me. She was feeling pretty sure that this was it, and it was over, and he was going to say he was done. So I suggested a guy I thought might be good for her. I was already planning out how to get them to meet (sorry Lucas, this was before I knew you!). But, turns out, much to Rena’s delight, Lucas said the opposite, and my matchmaking dreams were dashed. But, as I’ve come to see for myself, that’s been a good thing.

This little turn of events helped me actually kill not two birds, but three. I gained a babysitter, a friend and a model all in one fell swoop. I asked if she and Lucas wouldn’t mind lending themselves to me and my camera so I could use them to market specifically to Vancouver. We met up in Gastown, a part of downtown that is a really great, textured place to shoot, and just had fun with it.

So, here are Rena and Lucas and their we’re-not-engaged-pictures portraits. Enjoy!