Today I got to shoot this lovely wedding at a vineyard in Pepin with the amazing Eliesa. It was an extremely beautiful wedding, but it was also an extremely long day. I left the house at 8 am and got home at 12:30 am. So this is all you get, and now I'm gonna go crash in bed.

You guys, the weather here is so spectacular. And my allergies are punishing me so severely. It's 70 degrees with a breeze and cotton candy clouds and my nose is running, my ears are plugged up and I have an itchy throat. Don't worry, I'm downing the allergy medications... but tomorrow I have a 13-hour workday (at least) and another 8 hours to put in on Sunday. Let's all pray to the Zyrtec Gods together, shall we?* At least with this weather the photos should be lovely, no?

And just like that! The weather turns brisk, I wear a jacket to work, and my friend London starts making her fabulous yarn again. How gorgeous is this? Will someone please buy this yarn and make me a lovely infinity scarf for Christmas? It's probably the only way you'll ever get me to wear that shade of pink :) And how awesome is it that her pants match her yarn? Oh how I adore this lady.

This morning it was dark and I could hear thunder rumbling in the distance. So I decided to skip the walk with Merlin and work on the Soduko instead, which was good because about five minutes later it was pouring. And it rained HARD like that for about an hour. And it sounded divine. Then, just like that, it ended and the sun came out.But then tonight as I was driving home, the clouds were rolling in thick again, and now it looks like rain at any moment. I love summer storms so much -- they're good for the soul. It looks like tonight's rain is going to come with a huge temperature drop and it might even get down to the 40s. I am so excited!

Tonight after work Jamie and I met up with our friends Amy and Kevin to celebrate Amy's birthday and to try Haute Dish. This restaurant opened ... maybe 2 years ago? Anyway, we just hadn't gotten around to it. It's Fancy.I ordered the "tater tot hot dish," which every Minnesotan knows is tater tots cooked in cream of mushroom soup with ground beef and maybe green beans. This was an upscale version (to say the least), and it was damn tasty. But this wasn't the best part of the evening. The best part was when Amy told us the story of her accidentally hitting a goat with her rented Yaris in a foreign country. Oh man, hilarity*.*NOT hilarity at the poor injured mammal. Hilarity at the idea of doing that in a foreign country and not knowing what to do next. OH AND RELAX. The goat limped away just fine. She was going very slow when it happened. Or so she says.

Today was our last day with the girls (*tear), and we did this quick studio session before they jumped on a plane back to California. These cuties totally hammed it up for the camera, and we had a blast. Jamie and I are gonna miss these kids like crazy, but not nearly as much as poor Memphis... She loved having all the extra girls in the house.

Man. More fun stuff! Today we took the nieces over to Hell's Kitchen for brunch (and ate way too much) then on a few errands before coming home to watch another Bourne movie (the youngest is seeing her first Bourne movies with us this weekend, so we started from the beginning).Next we went to Bryant Lake Bowl to get in a few games... and I WON MY FIRST EVER GAME OF BOWLING. Yes, I am that bad. And my poor family ... in order for me to win, you can only imagine the horrific luck they were having.Then we headed over to The Depot for dinner (and we again ate too much) before, you know, catching a show at the Entry. Yup, I got my 11 and 17 year old nieces into an 18+ show on a Sunday night. I have to maintain my "cool aunt" status somehow, right? Anyway, we caught John Mark Nelson, who is a local kid that just put out his first album and sold out the club! He was really greatNo, the photo is not of him. The photo is of the bassist, who had earrings that the girls thought were pretty interesting. So there you go! One day left before things get back to normal, the girls fly back to the West Coast and Memphis falls into a deep depression because she's not being smothered by fabulous attention. Don't worry. She'll survive.

Today we all slept in and then drove down through Wisconsin to Pepin for a wonderful dinner at this place. The drive was lovely and the food? Ah-mazing. Again.On the way back home I made Jamie pull over near the corn fields so I could snap a shot of the girls. What cuties!