bewitching ballas: des moines

Showing posts with label des moines. Show all posts

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Mark Ballas at the Iowa State Fair Anderson Erickson stage, 2009

On August 13, 2009, Mark played at the Anderson Erickson stage. It got some video and pics. We were in the front row. :)

To make sure we got good seats, we spent most of the day sitting at the Anderson Erickson stage. Luckily, it is a covered venue, so the sun wasn't beating down on us, but man was it hot and sticky. :( Glad I was wearing a white dress. That helped. We watched the KCCI Channel 8 news, where Shawn and Mark made an appearance, then we watched a bunch of young girls dance, a magician, some duck calls, and the introduction of the Iowa County Fair Queens, who were competing to be the 2009 Iowa State Fair Queen.

At 7pm, The Nadas took the stage for an hour and sang some great songs. They are always a good show.
Then, after The Nadas, Mark Ballas sang a set, about 30-40 minutes. :) After the show, he signed autographs and took pictures. I made Mark a sign, which is said he liked ("I love that sign! EPIC! That's my word!"). It's not my best work, since I don't normally draw in marker. lol But, it came out better than I thought it would. The poster said "MARK + IOWA = EPIC" and I drew pictures of him and Shawn dancing on it.

First here is a pic that Mark posted to Twitter from during the concert. You can see my poster! hehe:

photo copyright Mark Ballas, 2009

I have pictures of the poster and of him and I (we had to do two takes because the first try cut off the top of his head and he said we should get a better one for Twitter LOL), but I was sweaty and ugly and so I've cut myself out of the pics. =P No, but seriously, it was 100+ degrees and we were in that heat from 7am until 11pm. I was a hot mess. Literally. I looked cute at 7am. But of course Mark didn't see me at 7am. =P Oh, and of course my phone didn't record him saying "Hey, I really like your poster" during the concert. D'oh! But, it was a fun day and Mark was worth sitting in the heat. :)

The poster:

photo copyright Bewitching Ballas Blog, 2009

Mark and I, take 1. I cut off the top of his head. LOL

photo copyright Bewitching Ballas Blog, 2009

Mark suggested we do another take "for Twitter". :D

photo copyright Bewitching Ballas Blog, 2009

To view the rest of the photos and video, click here:

Mark Ballas in the Iowa State Fair Opening Ceremonies, 2009

The Iowa State Fair kicked off with the Opening Ceremonies at the Grand Stand on August 13, 2009. It started at 5:30am. :) Mark and Shawn made an appearance at 7:30am. They chatted with the radio hosts and Mark sang a few songs. I have a few pics...but my camera had broken, so I had to use my Blackberry. It didn't do very well. :( The video is distorted and the pics are fuzzy. I was a lot closer to the stage than it looks in the pics/video. lol

Mark posted a photo of him and Shawn on stage:

photo copyright Mark Ballas, 2009

Check out the rest of the photos and video after the cut:

Mark Ballas in the Iowa State Fair Parade, 2009

Shawn Johnson was the Parade Marshall for the 2009 Iowa State Fair Parade on August 12, 2009. Mark was her escort. They led the parade downtown. None of my pictures for the parade came out...we were sitting at the wrong corner for a good pic. :(

But, Mark posted a couple of pictures. :) There is also a pic of them in the parade from the Des Moines Register and a photo of them with the Iowa Secretary of State.

Mark's shirt says I {heart} ISF (Iowa State Fair). It was reallllllly hot that week...the heat index was 100+ and sooo humid. Mark tweeted something like "it's hotter than Satan's oven in Iowa". lol

Mark and Shawn, from Mark's twitter account: