With access to the water, the railroad and the sheltering mountains, the Union and the Confederacy pined for control of Harper's Ferry. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson eventually secured it for good but it took eight "back-and-forth's" between the two armies. In intentionally and almost eerily frozen Civil War "feel," the town of Harper's Ferry has rich, sad and long history. But for two little blue boys, the only part of the town that was very interesting at all was the train.

Well, the train that was supposed to come down the train-tracks. They waited and watched. But no train came. The sun does not wait for little boys and their locomotive-hearts, so family pictures had to resume. Bigger Boy kept his ears on the look-out... just in case.

Littler Boy (only in size) wanted to go back to the tracks and wait. He begged with his eyes.

Our hopes were raised a few times! We heard rumbling and horns! Maybe?!

No. No train. So dad, mom and Sister tried their best to distract and engage The Little Blue Boys.

Kisses and shoulder-rides and snuggling are good for distracting.

It's been six years of documenting this family. We started back before there were Blue Boys who loved trains. We've been through maternity shoots, anniversary shoots, new baby shoots and a collection of family shoots. This year just may have been my favorite, though.

Because after lots of smiling, listening, watching and tickling, as we were getting into our cars to leave... the train came :) And there was just something that clamped my heart when I watched those kids rejoice over a train. Maybe it was because in a few years they'll be "big boys" who don't spend the whole shoot distracted by big vehicles. They keep growing every year. And one of these years they won't be little at all.

But that wasn't this day. This day they weren't fighting wars or figuring out parking or looking both ways when they crossed the street. This day they were still small. And we'll never forget it.