how it's supposed to be

Twelve years ago, while driving through the lush green hills surrounding Rocheport, Missouri, I suddenly KNEW it was time to come home. Fortunately, David -- my then-fiance and now-husband (and a Michigan guy) whom I was living with in New Mexico (whew...are you keeping track?) -- agreed to come too! We were married in a small country church outside Rocheport the following summer and moved back to Columbia (my hometown) a year later.

Jen and Jon did it in the reverse; they moved back to Missouri (from Texas) first and then were married two months later at Les Bourgeois' Blufftop Bistro overlooking the Missouri River in the most GLORIOUS light a couple (and photographer...) could ask for on a wedding day!

Jen and Jon wanted the COMPLETE Les Bourgeois & Rocheport experience . . . including a stroll through the vineyards

















and a trip into Rocheport with the entire wedding party to visit the new Rocheport General Store (which just opened this August and is owned by friends Kim Phillips and Stacey Karabegovic, two fellow Grant Elementary School moms!).
It's a store and MORE! You can sip a glass of the store's house wine at the copper-topped bar (which the groomsmen did), eat locally-made mint ice cream from a glass dish, shop for basics like cereal, milk, fruits & vegetables AND indulge in all sorts of yummy hard-to-find gourmet treats (organic chocolates, cheeses, coffees, creams). This store is always hopping. (You can read a little about it here at the Rocheport General Store's fledgling blog).

So welcome home to Missouri, Jen and Jon. IS this how it's "supposed" to be? In love? Pledging your commitment surrounded by friends & family (with the help of a minister who traveled from Oklahoma and who's known Jon since childhood)? Bathed in glorious golden evening light? Perched atop a bluff with the mighty Missouri River spread out below? . . . I dunno . . . but I'm pretty sure that Jen and Jon wouldn't have wanted it any other way!

Take a look at Jen & Jon's Album and enjoy the day!
~kim

peace, love and happiness

What better way to leave your wedding reception than with the message "peace, love and happiness" printed (with a soap bar, I think?, complements of a few scheming groomsmen) on your getaway car's passenger window?
For Chisa and Cory, it was the perfect sendoff. Still waters run deep with these two; their quiet, calm exteriors are accompanied by deep compassion and a fierce devotion to friends and family and to one another. I found myself thinking: "what a PRIVILEGE to spend this day in this way with these people."

And what a treat for Amy and I to shoot together! Note to future brides: if you can book both of us, do! Your wedding photographer(s!) can be in TWO places at once, simultaneously documenting either different moments OR the SAME moment (i.e. pledging your vows to one another) from two different vantage points (as in, simultaneously getting the expressions on BOTH of your faces).

Chisa and Cory, I decided to set your album to Al Green's own message of love [joy] peace and happiness. Here it is. Enjoy!

Chisa & Cory's Album

~kim

" this is NOT about PICTURES . . . "

...or more specifically: "MOM, this is NOT about taking pictures"
[as tears welled up in his little eyes]

That's what Tycho told me [me: sob, giggle, sob]
when lining up with his class to go into the school building
on his very first day of kindergarten.
For a fleeting moment, I actually caught myself thinking "it's not??"
His succint comment gave all the parents standing close by quite a chuckle.
Thus, the SilverLining: that comment really broke the tension of first day jitters.
but . . . but . . . BUT . . . [ am sniffling now ]

Many of Grant School's incoming kindergarteners played on my summer t-ball team:
Team T-Rex. [Hear us ROAR!] How fun it is to see the players looking all grown up with backpacks in hand and bright white shoes. This is right before Tycho set me straight by defining what this moment was NOT.

Steve, one of the best 5-year-old infielders you'll ever meet! is the sweet smiling blond behind him. [Um, that would be the child NOT angry at his mom. Geez.]

It's all kind of emotional.
This back-to-school season marks a new chapter in parenting for Paul & I.
It's the first time in 12 years we haven't had a babe at home.
We're moving out of that birth-to-five stage. But where did the time go?

It's all good. Mostly.
Here's Zoe on the first day of 2nd grade:


Ave, to this point, has successfully avoided the camera.
Here's the deal: she's taking a voluntary "zero-hour" algebra class that starts at [gulp] 7am, and sure enough during the 6am hour, it's NOT all about the pictures no matter how momentous the occasion :D

During the past few weeks I've been doing lots of thinking about kids and parents and how the relationship bewtween the two parties grows & evolves with time. Even have some non-family images to go along with that commentary...but first it's finish dinner/homework/bath time at the Enderle-Wagner place. So please check back soon, have shot some very fun weddings of late and have stories to tell & pictures to share.
~amy

P.S. FEAR NOT:

here's proof that Tycho's back to his easy-going self.

The image on the left is also from the playground, but during the SECOND week of school.

Oh, and If you're thinking there are amazingly few teeth in that mouth, yep -- he's lost SEVEN teeth all at once.

And they've all fallen out pretty much on their own.
I mean the cash has been a motivating factor, but they were loose.

Hey, what's the record on this sort of thing?