Today we are off to the beautiful Nemacolin Woodlands Resort and Spa in PA to shoot the wedding of Jaime and JB. We are definitely looking forward to the wedding and a weekend away. No kids! Today we will arrive at Nemacolin for rehearsal and to check out the location. Tomorrow is a day of fun and shooting. For those of you who read the blog regularly, Jaime is the bride that is borrowing the 60k diamond necklace from the resort for the wedding. I am really anxious to see it! I will definitely post pictures as soon as I can. Happy Labor Day!

Yesterday I had the chance to shoot some really cute kids. Lynsey and DeShaun were our clients a few years ago and 9 months ago little Leah was born. She has to be one the cutest kids I have seen. I just love her hair!

Boot camp day #3. Today was the last day of the first week and our final day of assessments. Although the assessments weren't physically hard today, they were mentally hard. The assessments today were weight, body fat, and flexibility. My goal are now set at this:

Weight loss 12 pounds
Body fat loss 5%
30 minute run - 3.8 miles

Let's see what happens! I love challenges.

Last night Dave and I and the kids headed out to meet our friends John and Marcy to do some family pictures and then to have dinner. One of their friends owns a beautiful property off of Home Road. The lighting was just perfect. We grabbed a few shots and then headed over to enjoy some delicious taco salad at their house. Check out this property.

Johnny and Mia on the dock. Too cute!

Brooklyn and her friend Johnny.

Isaac having a bad day! This is the best of all the shots. Only one where he is not crying!

Brooklyn striking a pose!

These past two days have been filled with engagement pictures. Yesterday we shot Cathy and Gus and Rene and Nate. Cathy and Gus are getting married this September at the Greek Orthodox church. It was fun chatting with them because Dave is part Greek. My mother in law is half Greek, half Albanian, making Dave a quarter of each. We had fun talking about Greek food, the Greek festival and of course the wedding.



After Cathy and Gus, we moved on to shoot Rene and Nate. Rene and Nate are getting married in Maui!!! As most of you know, we went to Maui this past March and it was amazing. They are having a small wedding with immediate family this September too. The fun part of this shoot was that they are both into photography themselves. We got to talk camera talk! Don't get to do that very often.




Finally this morning I went downtown to hang out with Heather and Chris. Heather and Chris are having a winter wedding 2008. Heather and I got to talking about other clients that she knows and I think she knows about half of our clients. She went to high school with Jorie, Marissa, Kelly S., Molly, Halle and more! She also works with another client of ours. What a small world. As you can see from the pictures, they were a ton of fun!




After the shoot I headed over to the newly opened Starbucks to get my morning fix. I have found a new favorite drink. In the past my favorite drink was a iced white mocha with nonfat milk and no whipped cream. After looking at the nutritional value of that drink (360 calories for a grande!!!) I decided that bootcamp and white mochas don't mix well. I have now switched to shaken blueberry white iced tea with sweetener. Yummmy!!!!!!!

Boot camp, butt kicking! Today I was off again at 6:00am for bootcamp. It was day two of baseline assessments. Today we started off with being assessed on push ups to failure and timed sit ups at 30 seconds. My results were:

27 push ups
18 sit ups in 30 seconds

After our assessments we were in for a good butt kicking. We ran flights of stairs, suicides, and sprints. In addition we did bear crawls, lunges, and tons of ab exercises. On Friday our final assessment will be on weight, body fat, and flexibility. I dread that one more than the others!

This past week Dave, the kids and I headed out on a little mini vacation. During our last little trip to Nashville, we decided that our next vacation would be to the Wisconsin Dells. I know, you are probably asking yourself, "where is Wisconsin Dells?" It is a small town north of Madison Wisconsin. It has the largest population of water parks in the United States! It also has tons of things to do for kids. After talking with other friends who had went there, we decided to stay at the beautiful Chula Vista resort. The resort alone had 2 indoor water parks, 1 outdoor water park, wave pool and 5 restaurants. Here are some things that we did in our time there:


1. Went to the water parks


2. Ate at Paul Bunyan's - lumberjack styled breakfast


3. Went to an amusement park





4. Fed the deer - the kid's favorite part!


5. Rode the Ducks on the river and lake



Needless to say, it was great to get away with just our little family. We are already starting to plan our next excursion!

It's now official, bootcamp day #1. Today we checked in at 6:00am and began our assessments. These same assessments will be done at 6 weeks and 12 weeks to monitor our progress. Today we did the plank hold and the 30 minutes run. My starting assesements were 1 minute 40 seconds for the plank hold and 3.17 miles for the 30 minute run. I have a long ways to go! I will keep you posted on my progress.

It's family photo time. Every year around this time we offer specials on family portraits to our past clients along with their friends and family. This year we are going to be doing portraits again but the packaging will be a little different. Next week we will be releasing the dates along with all the necessary information. Last year most of the spots booked within one day so don't be left out. The sittings are limited and are on a first come, first serve basis. This year we will once again offer 3 different locations with distinct looks. The locations this year are as follows; a fall country setting, Old Dublin, and a Christmas tree farm. If you are not part of our emailing address and would like to be included in the mailing, please email us at bankspix@yahoo.com and request to be added to the list. Remember, in one week the dates will be released!!!