{Samantha} 2009 KandE Senior Model

Watch out, the 2009 seniors are coming at cha!! We had our first 2009 KandE Model shoot this weekend, and what a blast we had! When we met Samm, she had on killer white heels and her friend Kelsey with her to be on hair patrol. Actually, I think Kelsey was along for a good time and I just gave her the job of hair patrol...nice of me huh? But check out Samm's gorgeous hair and we were dealing with some major wind...I knew we needed 1 person dedicated to hair alone! :) The wind totally worked to our advantage though, it was like we has a constant studio fan, it was totally rockin! Thanks for your help with hair and the sun blocker Kelsey!

Alright, back to Samm...she's a totally awesome tennis player and cross country runner and when she's not in tennis season she's still practicing at the indoor court! Talk about dedication! We went to the tennis court to get some shots and had Eric toss her the tennis balls to hit back at us. Her dad warned us she had a mean return and would tip the camera over if she hit it. No problem we said, bring it on! And she TOTALLY brought it! I was the perfect target in the middle of court and she hit the bull's-eye on my arm! Thanks for taking it easy on me, I know you weren't hitting with all you had (lucky me!) :) It was a lot of fun though, we love these kind of sessions!

Thank you Samm for being up for everything we suggested! You are awesome, fun and beautiful and we wish you all the best as you begin your senior year!

We made it!

We finally made it to the sign! Everytime we are out there we always say we want to get there but always find ourself too tired to get there. Not this time!! We chose the worst day as it was SO windy...and you know what wind in the desert means right? dust storms!! I don't think that my eyes and nose will ever be the same again, but at least we can say that we made it there and we have a self portrait to prove it!
It's a miracle we even got a decent shot as this is an out take and what most of them look like! Check out that hair!! I told you it was windy!


Another self portrait in the limo as we cruised up the strip...


"This is Vegas...Vegas works for tips" is what Vegas' dad told us as he practically shoved this nasty thing in Eric's hands...glad he chose Eric and not me!! I was happy to take the picture!


Eric captured this of me on the night we took the big cameras out to play. :)

We stuck with the little point and shoot for our little self portrait game...we couldn't quite bring ourselves to carry the heavy ones all day everyday!

And just because I love the dancing water in the Conservatory of the Bellagio, I had to share it with you! I can't wrap my mind around how it works, but it looks so cool!

"The Rock" sighting...

We noticed on Monday night that there seemed to be a lot of activity around our hotel, they were running a lot of power cords and bringing in large moving crates among other things. When we went down to the casino level on Tuesday we were greeting by this sign:


After investigating a bit more, (because if you know me, I couldn't just ignore something like this, I had to check it out!) we realized it was "The Rock" who was the actor! We continued to gawk from above and were amazed at how much time it took to do a little 30 clip of the movie. There seemed to be ALOT of downtime between takes. I couldn't imagine being one of the extras or one of the actors in the a heavy costume!

Here are some short clips of what we saw...(The Rock is in the brown leather coat)





Apparently this movie is a take off of the the Disney show from years ago. I was not familiar with the Witch Mountain series, I'm curious, were any of you?

Vegas v3.0

v1.0 2003 - Honeymoon in Vegas
v2.0 2004 - First anniversary in Vegas
v3.0 2008 - Five year anniversary in Vegas

We love the place and we're not even gamblers! We just love everything else about it. I can't even begin to count the number of miles we walk each day, but we have a blast each time we're there!

This trip was very interesting to say the least. The good news is that we FINALLY learned from our past mistakes there!! One of them being wearing flip flops to walk all those miles....for Vegas v3.0 we wore tennis shoes and Keens everyday!! No more flip flops! Is this a sign of age???? Yikes!

Here's a few quick highlights of the trip and I will follow-up with pictures in later posts.
*Stomp Out Loud
*watching "The Rock" as he was filming his new movie "Road to Witch Mountain" for 3 days at Planet Hollywood
*limo ride up the strip....less walking (our feet and legs were shot by that time!)
*finally making it to the "Welcome to Las Vegas" sign
*no flip flops! (oh wait did I already mention that?)
*staying at Planet Hollywood...totally rockin' new hotel on the strip...you gotta stay there!!
*relaxing!! We even took a day to sit at the pool...something we had never done before!
*self-portrait tour! We had many people ask us if they wanted them to take our picture...nope, we were on a self-portrait tour baby! Fun times!

We'll be back soon!

But in the mean time, we are closing our office for a few days. We will be available on a limited basis for the next 24 hours. We will be closed from May 30-June 8. If you email or call during that time, please know we are not ignoring you and will be in touch with you as soon as we open up again. :)

I'll leave you with a little puzzle. Can you guess where this tower is?


Here's a picture of the same tower, but I slowed my shutter and tried a little painting with the light. I think it so cool how it looks like it is a watercolor!


Want to see Punk's latest obsession? I'm not going to embed the video here because I understand it really is a gross video to watch a dog eat, but it still makes me laugh at the end of the video when he looks up with watermelon juice dripping from his mouth. If you're up for watching the little guy enjoy his first taste of watermelon click here.

We'll catch you on the flip side! KandE over and out!!

State Track

I don't know what it is about State Track, but I LOVE going every year!! The records that continue to get broken year after year just amaze me. It has been extra fun the last few years because cousin Kayla has been running. I don't know what it is with her, but she not only enjoys running around the track she REALLY enjoys upping the ante by running all the hurdle races. You know, the ones that have the spectators holding their breath with every jump...yeah those! She ran the 100m hurdles, the shuttle hurdle relay and, get this, the 400m hurdles! Honestly, I don't know who in their right mind thinks sprinting 1 full lap around the track is a good idea, much less sprinting along with jumping over a hurdle every now and then! Honestly, isn't that the craziest thing?!?! In case you didn't already draw the conclusion, I wasn't a trackster in high school. I lasted one year and then said I had enough! Perhaps it was because the coach had me run the 400m once...I'm not one who enjoys pain and the feeling that you'll never catch your breath again, it's just not for me! :)

Here's the rockstar herself as she finishes the 400m hurdles...


Yes, this was after the 400m hurdles, I didn't think it would even be possible to be smiling after such a race!

Way to go on a great year Kayla!!

Shop local!

We seem to be doing more local shopping lately and I am just so excited about our experiences that I had to share so the Ames readers can start hanging out at the same places too! They deserve to have your business!

All About Me - I found this little gem on Main St. about a year ago and I LOVE it! They carry the Bare Esentuals line and I totally dig it! I first found it when I followed a bride there to capture her getting her make-up done. I then had to make an appointment for myself and referred another bride there to get her make-up done. Love that place!

Lee's Cellular- We found this place a couple weeks ago in campus town. We have always done our verizon stuff through the verizon store in Merle Hay. However, we weren't up for going to Des Moines so we thought we'd try Lee's as we had just started seeing ads in the paper. We enjoyed our time there and they did a really great job of listening to me whine and moan and groan as I tried to figure out if I wanted another colored phone since my dear hubby wouldn't part with the black one that I wanted. He wouldn't get the red one despite my repeated attempts to tell him it looked REALLY good with the cyclone sweatshirt he was wearing at the time (he was quick to remind me he doesn't wear that everyday...shoot, my attempt failed miserably). We learned long ago that we can't have the same phone if it's the same color...we end up taking eachothers without realizing it. :) I finally gave in, the guys at Lee's were trying really hard to tell me that the red was working for me, it was outselling the black one at all stores etc, etc, etc. :) So I caved. hehe! The other cool thing about Lee's is their referral program. Whenever you send someone there and they mention your name you get $20 towards accessories!

Studio 7 - Mindy referred me to this little gem in Somerset. I called the stylist I have gone to for the past 3 years only to find out she moved to a salon in Ankeny. I was not game for driving to get my hair cut so I finally gave Studio 7 a call (after Mindy has been telling me about Krista for years!)....and am so happy that I did! Krista is great and we had a great conversation! This salon just opened January 5...did I mention that they got the place on December 30? Talk about determination to get a business started! Studio 7 also has a referral program too. If you refer 3 people you get a free cut!

Denny's Automotive (515-233-4000) - I think the worst thing about moving has to be finding a mechanic you can trust and know you won't end up getting charged $300 for a $100 project. Ann referred me to Denny's and they are GREAT! Yes, they are the one's who saw me through my little episode yesterday! I dropped my car off this morning and they called me a couple hours later with an estimate! If you have any problems with your car, seriously, take it here! You won't be disappointed! Since today was "pay it forward" day and I was watching channel 13 news this morning and they were broadcasting from McDonalds as many people in the drive through were paying for the breakfast for the person behind them to pay it forward...I was inspired to go grab some donuts to give to the mechanics before dropping my car off.

Were you inspired to pay it forward to anyone today after watching the news?

Moral of the story...shop local, you just might be happy with what you find! Oh yeah, and keep paying it forward, it keeps your heart happy!

[I will start posting with photos again soon!]