It was starting to feel like summer on Friday afternoon as we set up for a June cover shoot with Attorney General Terry Goddard and his 11-year-old son, Kevin.
The temperature was in the 90s and the air had that little bit of a sticky feel to it. But the lush gardens in the backyard of the Goddard home, in historic Central Phoenix, were still holding their own, unwilling to give up the last fresh breaths of spring.
As Art Director Michelle-Renee Adams and photographer Daniel Friedman set up for the shoot, I followed Kevin around the garden in search of ladybugs.
The Goddards’ son is an afffable, easy-going kind of guy who accepted our invasion of his home and backyard as though it happens every day. He took me under his wing and showed me around the yard, pointing out the lily pads in the pond and the towering sunflowers that had found their way into the flower bed.
We noticed that some of the other, more delicate flowers had been attacked by aphids, so Kevin started off on a mission to load up the vulnerable plants with exterminator ladybugs. Dan had a hard time dragging him away when it was time for the photo shoot with his dad, who wrote a story for the June Father’s Day edition of Raising Arizona Kids magazine. His article, “Raising a Reader” describes the reverence for reading that has characterized generations of Goddard family members and includes a list of books Terry has enjoyed reading aloud with Kevin.
We look forward to sharing Terry’s story in June. Meanwhile, here are some more pictures I took at the Goddard home Friday. — Karen
