The Bailey Family 2016 | Lifestyle Family Photographer

Every year I make a trip to Minnesota and photograph my siblings and their families. It's a tradition we've upheld since 2008, and every year it gets a little bit more challenging to top the year before!

My sister Becky and I have been doing photo shoots the longest, and we even have nicknames for some of the previous years; The Perfect Year, The Bitterly Cold Year, The Year At The Parking Garage, and so many more!

This year is already named as The Mosquito Year.

Since moving away from Minnesota, I've enjoyed minimal exposure to the infamous deadly mosquitos that terrorize my home-state. Kansas has it's fair share of bugs, but swarms upon swarms of blood-sucking-insects is not one.

This year starting out great: I found a fabulous new location about two minutes from my parents house (right next to a dump!) that contained beautiful sand, trees, and a Caterpillar Wheel Loader to boot! (And they were wearing yellow! How convenient is that?)

But we had been out of the truck less than 10 seconds before we were viciously attacked by the clouds of blood thirsty insects. (Ok, so it wasn't that gruesome... but BOY were they bad!)

In our best efforts to keep the kids from becoming peppered with bites, we made them take bug breaks in between photos, and decided that brisk walking was the default pose for the evening.

These two handled the mosquitos like champs (like the responsible adults they are), and you can barely tell they are itching to return to the peaceful indoors! :)

This one, however, was not so fortunate. His blood is especially tasty and his bites swell up... so I offered my jacket to keep him hidden. Poor miserable, adorable soul.