Whale of a Time

For the past four years, Kaye has teamed up with Erin from Beavercreek at the annual Ohio Parks and Recreation Association Conference to take a ridiculous (i.e. fabulous) photo compliments of a sponsored photo booth. And really, whatever the rest of this Mindset says doesn’t matter, as we’re pretty sure you’re just going to contemplate the distinctiveness of these photos for the next few minutes rather than read on.

In case you’re still reading and want to try to understand what’s going on here, we have to be honest: neither Kaye nor Erin really remembers the original motivation for the first photo (the kangaroo). All they know is that they can’t NOT take one every year at this point. And while there are many outstanding photo booth backgrounds to choose from each year (like “Running From a Train” or “Standing on a Volcano”), Erin and Kaye have repeatedly chosen “Staring Oddly into Space Straight-faced” while “Riding an Animal” and “While Holding Equine Masks” (except the elephant year when the unicorn was missing and Kaye, sadly, had to hold the pug dog face instead).

No matter the original inspiration of the photos, we’re confident the results of Erin and Kaye’s friendship is definitely… original. Indeed, even the photo booth operator, who takes thousands of photos in this profession, is routinely puzzled each year by these poses. But Kaye and Erin don’t care—they’ll keep taking these photos—and they’re banking on a rhinoceros or manatee to ride in 2021!