We may be ever so slowly coming out of this pandemic with things getting closer to a “new” normal; and as we creep along there are still milestones that deserve celebrating! Sweet Sixteen Birthdays are one of those milestones, so when my mom friend asked me if I would be interested in helping “M” celebrate with a fun birthday photo shoot, I was all over it!

Because she’s young, hip and she wears a middle part (as opposed to us Gen Xers that wear side parts), we decided to go for a hip location - Downtown Littleton. Downtown Littleton has all kinds of cute walls, unique textures, and great colors! We got lucky and had a 50 degree day in January ya’ll, and let me tell you, those are few and far between so Part I of this birthday celebration was certainly meant to be.

So I have to admit, I have held at least five photo sessions, maybe more, in Downtown Littleton and I had never happened upon the #whatliftsyou wall. I had to really put on my detective hat and research on “The Google” and “Insta” to do some work to find exactly where this wall was because I felt like it would be perfect for a Sweet Sixteen Session! And icing on the cake, M is a very talented dancer so the leap she did against the #whatliftsyou wall was fitting!

I’m not a big believer in coincidences, so I feel like M’s wardrobe choice was meant to be when we moved to our next wall and her outfit coordinated beautifully with the colors. I may have done the Snoopy Happy Dance!

This Downtown Littleton staircase is a favorite of mine at sunset and the way the light hits it so softly results in a “Money” shot every single time!

Balloons are such a nice touch to any photo session, and my favorite balloons are the “Number” balloons that allow you to show off your age. I’m guessing that once you get to be a certain age you don’t want to walk around with big balloons telling your age - but when you’re 16, it’s all good!

One thing you won’t know from this photo is that the Denver wind makes it very difficult to manage balloons during photo sessions so you want to buy balloon weights and you should also hold on to them for dear life unless you want to see your $50 balloons blow away. Yikes!

What a way to end our session…With the sun setting in the background and M doing a beautiful dancers leap. Happy Sweet 16, M! I hope it was a birthday to remember.