Where troubles melt like lemon drops...

Star Valley Wyoming.
Population:1,089 (as of 2009)

 Need I say more? A town where there is only one main street, the fast food options are Burger King and The Red Baron (which is only seasonally open) and small town nostalgia is thick in the air. Nothing is warmer than Grandma and Grandpa's house... Except Grandma and Grandpa's house with Grandma and Grandpa still living inside it... and having the water turned. Minor details.

Anyways, last semester the fabulous Shelley McMakin (Founder and owner of EllieAsher Photography) and I decided to desert the real world and drive to Star Valley. Again, thanks to her hubby William for letting me borrow her!
Check her out. Babe.

I've been asked many times who takes the photo's on my blog and this little lady (along with photo booth on my mac, and my ever-so-high quality cell phone camera) takes 90% of them.

She so kindly agreed to take some photo's for my blog and such, and because we used Star Valley as a destination point for a haunting-memorial day themed photo shoot a few years ago and LOVED it, we had to return. The little chocolate shop was a perk :)

(May 2010)

 Here's a few photo's from that photo shoot:

 (This is my cousin Aimee. Babe.)

(Eery right? Mom and the aunts had great prom dresses!)

Anywho, this girl is versatile. She does themed stuff, high fashion, commercial and anything your heart desires. Skill. AND She's the easiest person to work with (I lived with her, I know)! I'm totally not biased :)

These Bird inspired photo's won a nation-wide hair competition:

And she does engagements, friend/roommate shoots, family photo's

As you can see, I use her ALL THE TIME!  Frankly, she's the only one I would use. 

So, when I felt the need for blog photos, She was so willingly there in a flash. I. Love. This. Girl.

Here's a few from the shoot.

Yep. I'm one of those laugh-ers that opens their mouths SO wide you could use it as a fish bowl. P.S. anyone notice the chunk of doughnut I caught on my shelf? Mamma did always say you know you've arrived when you start catching food on your chest rather than in your lap. (haha I'm typing this with a current chocolate stain, over my heart, on my shirt. Good to know nothing has changed...)

See that button on my side bar? Click it and bask in the glory of her art. You'd be crazy if you didn't.

So here's the basic wrap up, aaaand to honor my favorite awkward moment, today we're doing awesome and awkward in Spanish! (It roughly translates to "incredible" and "uncomfortable" buuut it's an alliteration!)

Increíeble: 2 and a half hours of scenic driving and deep conversation with my favorite 5-foot-tall former-roomie. 

Incómodo: Having the water shut off for the winter in my grandparents vacant home.... I may or may not have peed behind the shed in the wee hours of morning. Sorry G-pops. You will have lovely flowers this spring...

Increíeble: The photography spots of Star Valley. With so much junk, abandoned homes, and scenic areas, the possibilities are endless.

Incómodo: Finding a hair in Shelley's food at the home style Mexican restaurant.

Shelley: "Umm... there's a hair... in my food..."

Waiter awkwardly stands there, leans against the booth smiling...

seconds of awkward pass by...

Waiter: "Oh... sorry" (in Wyoming-Mexican accent)

Shelley:"....... So.. I'm not going to eat... this...."

Waiter: "Oh.. ok." (still smiling a little too comfortably)

Many more awkward seconds pass....

"You want ice cream?"

Shelley:"... um, yes please."

and yet MORE AWKWARD SECONDS OF SILENCE!

Waiter: "oh, and your meal.... on the house." :)

THANK YOU!!!! ABOUT TIME WE GOT DOWN TO BUSINESS! HAHA

(if you look reeeaallly closely, you can see a small black hair streaming down from the fork.)

Following the hair fiasco, we proceeded to drop Shelley's debit card in the tiiiny itty bitty slit between the booth and the wall. After maturely crawling under the table and using my "Children and seizures" pamphlet (everyone has one of those in their purse, don't lie!) We told the same waiter and he kindly, and a little too easily slid the booth away from the wall. Yea... we felt a little el-stupid-o.

There's a mature adult under the table for ya.

Increíeble: FRIED ICE CREAM! SOOOO GOOD! And the fact that it was free made it even better!!!

 (don't ask.. I don't get the weird face either...)

Incómodo: Not being able to open any of the sweet glass bottles of soda for this lil photo shoot. Defintly went to a nice little ice cream parlor.

Um can you open this bottle? ... Sure, would you like some ice cream with that? ... noooo...

Increíeble: Shelley's photography skills. She has an eye for pretty sweet things. The possibilities were endless.

Incómodo: Changing clothes in the back seat of a car, and having random old cowboy pedestrians passing as I pretended to be hot stuff.

 Love the camera, love the camera, now hate the camera, hate the camera! Fierce like Tyra! haha

Increíeble: How much soda, and popcorn, and donuts, and cupcakes I ate to get these photos. I think choosing any blog name other than "Taking a Bite out of Life" would have been much more waistline friendly!

Incómodo: Smearing a red-jellied, old doughnut all over my face in the hopes of getting one of those cutsie, whoops-I-made-a-mes-but-still-look-camera-ready pictures, and failing. Red jelly mustache=never cute. EVER.

Increíeble: Being in Star Valley when the construction of the temple was announced to be there. Such a blessing for the Latter-Day Saints of Wyoming. Small town=HUGE miracle.

Incómodo: Having a TOTALLY unsatisfying french dip sandwich as a diner. Last time I checked, there wasn't normally horse-radish mayo on those sammiches!!! Boy does that stuff have a kick. Like a high five... in the face... with a chair.

 (gross)

Incómodo: I know these comparisons are all over pinterest, but here's one of my own (which you'd know to be accurate if you saw some of those glorious faces I made!)

And that basically sums it up. Glad I got around to it 5 MONTHS LATER! 
We're cool like that. 
Now go, and do great things!
 

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