As Michael and I sit in our little Bellevue apartment surrounded by our three crazy cats, we thought we’d use some of our newfound free time to share a little more about us and where we grew up! One of our favorite things about being family and wedding photographers in the Seattle area is getting to know our couples and families beyond just taking their photos. If anything, our goal is to build meaningful relationships where we’re not seen as just “photographers,” but also as friends to our amazing clients. That’s why we know it’s so important to open up about who we are and what our life looks like. Who knows, maybe we have something fun in common!
Our Little Family
To start, we are Stormy and Michael, twenty something millennials living in Bellevue, WA, in a tiny studio loft apartment. We always like to mention that we have three cats: Sunny, Leo, Oliver (Ollie) because if you walked into our place, three cats running around and adorably fighting for your attention would be hard to miss. We love them very much and if you know anything about cats, they all have their own personalities and funny quirks that keep us entertained, especially at 5am. Our little boys are no exception! We’ve lived in Bellevue for the past few years, but we didn’t grow up here. Keep reading to hear more about where we’re both from!
Where We Grew Up
Stormy
I spent the majority of my childhood growing up in Colorado Springs, CO, but also moved around the country a lot when I used to live with my mom and all of my siblings. I remember living in Delaware, Washington (Tacoma), and Idaho (Caldwell and Boise), in particular. My mother had 6 children and I am her first daughter and the third oldest. Her mom took care of my eldest brother and my mom raised the other five of us until I was about to start third grade. Around that time, my mother met a man who didn’t want children so she gave up custody of us. My sister, Summer, and I stayed in Colorado to live with our paternal grandma and our brothers went to live in Idaho. I spent the rest of my childhood growing up in Colorado Springs until I turned 18 years old.
After I graduated from high school in 2013, I decided to move away from my family in Colorado to live in Washington where I attended the University of Washington in Seattle. When I first moved here, I spent my first year living in Kirkland in Bridle Trails. After that, I found my first apartment in Bellevue and I’ve lived here ever since!
Michael
I’ve lived in Washington my whole life. I spent the first part of my childhood growing up in Arlington with my parents and old sister. My parents own their own chiropractic office in Arlington and switched off days at work, so my older sister and I always had a parent home. In elementary school, my sister and I played a lot of different sports and Tae-kwon-do turned out to be my favorite. I have fond memories of growing up in Arlington where I’d spend time at my friend Ben’s house and go to my favorite diner, The Local Scoop.
By the time I was in third grade, we moved to Lake Stevens. We lived in a house overlooking the lake for about a year before finally moving to Snohomish, where my parents still live. I graduated high school in 2014 and attended the University of Washington. For the first couple years of college, I lived on campus in Seattle, but would go back to Snohomish during breaks. A couple years into my relationship with Stormy, I moved into her Bellevue apartment back in the summer of 2017!
We hope you enjoyed reading a little bit more about where we grew up and you can read more about our relationship story HERE 🙂
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