Ashlee, Dena, Bre, Sandie, Jeff and I, Oh my!

We had quite the crew Tuesday afternoon. I'm not gonna lie, I know how we got her... it's the tumbling connection.

Every February, we do the images for the Marshalltown Area Tumbling Club in the Meadow Lane Mall. The MAT Club is headed up by old friend, Ron Brooks... and one of my favorite senior mom's of all time... Diane Peden. Between photographing that group and the two dance studios that we serve in Marshalltown, we have many-a-connection that we wouldn't otherwise have... so we are thankful for that.

Ashlee here has a Newton address, goes to Prairie City-Monroe and tumbles for MAT. Without that connection, I doubt we woulda gotten this young lady.

So, in comes Mama Dena, and best friend Bre Tuesday afternoon. And while we didn't see the INSANE amount of trophies that teammate Erika Hilleman brought in a month back (thank you for THAT, Ash!) we did have to represent for the MAT peeps. Furthermore... I was shown a special leotard that was pink and had a traditional pink ribbon on it representing the battle against breast cancer. This hits home for Ashlee as her grandmother Sandie is battling this horrible disease. So, that's why you see the pink ribbon in the first image here.

So, who's Jeff? I have a buddy, Jeff Schmatt who hails from Mount Vernon and runs Rubicon Photo in those parts. Jeff, ironically, has helped me with the MAT job the past couple of years... being a second set of hands... eyes... and probably most importantly... he was excellent at being a "trophy-wrangler." ;-) Jeff also helps me with one of our dance jobs... and is just generally a great friend. So, Mr. Schmatt was needing to swap out some gear and just wanted to see how we operated a senior session first hand... and we were glad to have him along for the ride.

So.. there was a lot of bodies... a lot of razzing for all... and in the end... another successful session. (i think perhaps the senior mom was having as much or more fun than the senior!) Regardless... just another day that I had to pinch myself and ask... "I get paid to do this?"

Thanks Team Ashlee! ;-)