I had never been a part of a military homecoming until joining Beckie’s family to welcome back their husband and dad from a long deployment with the navy. We met up at Paine Field because Beckie’s husband was able to fly home ahead of his ship arriving into the Seattle-area and were thrilled to see how much light and space was available to us inside of the terminal to take some memorable family portraits. While we waited through a short delay in the flight landing we gathered the kids up for some candid portraits together and once everyone was back together again we made our way outside for some family reunion portraits.

Beckie’s oldest kiddo stood with me at the bottom of the exit ramp from where the gates inside of the Paine Field terminal are because he wanted to be the first one to see his dad. I asked him how excited he thought his mom was on a scale of 1 to 10 and he thought about it for a second and said “Um, probably 1000”. When his dad made his way down the ramp, Memphis ran to him and it was one of the most beautiful family moments I’ve seen. So much love and joy in those hugs.

Military homecomings are full of emotion and anticipation and if I could photograph moments like this every day I would jump at the chance.

Thank you to Beckie & family for inviting me to photograph this special moment for you and for allowing me to share these images online. I was so overcome with joy and sappy emotion that I didn’t want it to end, but understandably, the family was ready to go home to play catch up from being apart for so many months. I would be so honored to photograph additional military homecomings (and offer discounted sessions for this) so if your family is planning to welcome home a service member soon please reach out to me and let’s plan to document it.