Starting this blog post off by keeping it real (because that’s all I know how to do around here) but I genuinely had to look back on my calendar to remember when we even had our Senior Rep Team Day. Oof… it’s been a long summer, or so I thought until I didn’t have to scroll that far back to find my calendar date… Team Day was only 6 weeks ago Delaney, get it together lol. A LOT has happened in the past 6-weeks but let’s start off with a 2025-26 Senior Rep Team Day Recap…. You ready?!

June 25th, 2025 – aka humid-est day everrr. Is that dramatic? Yes. But did it feel like it was? Also, yes.

Summer months in the Midwest can be brutal at times, so the team opted for a mid-morning session to try and beat the heat. We headed to the Sunken Gardens in Lincoln, Nebraska for our photoshoot. Once the team & our assistant-Elle S. arrived, we grabbed our gift boxes and found a shady spot to sit to open them! This year the team received a seriously COOL 40oz Personalized Otter Creek Tumbler from CreativeInTheClouds on Etsy.

It seems to be the going trend that my Rep’s receive a water bottle of some kind, but these have been my favorites to-date by far! The custom Otter Creek logo is incredible; I was so happy with how the small details were preserved and etched perfectly. The back side of the tumblers are totally customized so the girls each have their name + Otter Creek Rep. These tumblers are the perfect way to stay hydrated during our team day and their other senior sessions throughout the year. 

Among the gift box were other items like Otter Creek stickers to keep/hand out to friends, a phone pop-socket (are these still cool?? Idk so pls send help to the gift department) and a personalized name locker magnet from Stacyandco on Etsy. Stacy always does an amazing job on the magnets & has so many color options to match each team member’s personality perfectly. What better way to decorate your locker than with a customized magnet to hang some of your favorite Rep Team photos from throughout the year! Be on the lookout for these magnets when you get back to school!!

The locker magnets are a special piece that I get SO excited to have made for the team each year since 2023-24., here's the OGs Team Locker Magnets. How fun are these?!

After we opened our team gifts, we were ready to explore the Sunken Gardens! This opportunity was so fun to casually stroll through the gardens and stop wherever peaked out interest! We started on this trail that had beautiful Hostas and a great ledge for some sitting poses for Ellie.

Continuing down our stroll to probably my favorite spots of the day. We found a shaded area with this cute little bench that was perfect for Delaney to try a few sitting poses to show off her pink shoes. 10/10 shaded bench, would recommend. 

Otter Creek Creations - Delaney Hoops
Photographer
402-641-7784
delaneyannphoto@gmail.com
www.ottercreekcreations.com

Just a few feet away were these dainty and beautiful fox-tail-like flowers! Look at how stunning these look with Kagen! 

We wandered around a bit more to 3-4 other locations at the Sunken Gardens, but by this point we were HOT. The shaded areas were wonderful, but there wasn’t much breeze to give us a break in between. As a photographer it’s either one or the other. Always… too windy or too hot. Take your pick! We were ready for some air conditioning, so we piled into my Jeep, cranked that MAX A/C and honestly just chilled for a sec. It was much needed! While we took a quick break, we had to opportunity to Airdrop some BTS videos to each other and make some quick social media story posts to earn rep points!! Once the A/C brought us back to life, we drove across the street to the Hamann Rose Garden that apparently has over 123 different varieties of roses!? So stinkin’ cool. We strolled through the rose garden a bit so Delaney aka @dela_rose17 could get her rose fix and of course, an adorable photo with them. 

The other Delaney (lol that’s me) was looking forward to taking photos of the girls at a beautiful white structure in the middle of the garden.

Each year, once we get a location narrowed down for our Team Day photos, I get to work on some Pinterest inspo that gives the team an idea of what to wear for outfits! I did some research online to see what the garden “theme” was this year and decided that blues and whites would look best. The girls had the option to wear all white, white jeans & any color top or blue jeans with a white top. Nobody had to match, we just each had to have one piece white in their outfits. As you can see, they all chose to wear blue jeans with white shirts... :)

Did they coordinate that in a group chat without me? Maybe! The coordination of white on white worked so good for photos here … so did I coordinate that without telling THEM in the group chat? Yes :P

Did it work out perfect? Yes! Go Team!

At this point again, we were hot, hot, hotttt. So, it was time to crank up that MAX A/C again and figure out some lunch plans. On the drive up to Lincoln in the morning, I can’t remember what even brought this up in conversation, but Ellie was talking about Firehouse Subs. Guess where we ended up eating? Firehouse Subs… I will say I was a littttlleee disappointed to break my 2-year streak of eating at Raisin’ Canes on Team Day, but the Firehouse Sub was pretty fire … ;)

We said our good-bye’s and headed back home after another incredible Team Day opportunity in the books! 

Interested in joining the 2026-27 Senior Rep Team?


Want to take a sneak peek at how Team Day is planned?