Last Saturday, when it was 4000 degrees outside, I photographed* this lovely and wonderful couple as they tied the knot in a park in St. Paul. And we had a ton of fun, despite the heat!One of my favorite things about photographing weddings (besides capturing all the emotion) is seeing how couples change when they are with each other. All the stress melts away. The day turns to joy as soon as they see each other for the first time, and it makes me grin every single time. And these two? They have that tenfold. They made each other laugh all day long despite the sweat, and I cannot wait to see all that they tackle as a married team. I was so lucky to spend the day with them.Below are more photos from their special day. Enjoy! *The amazing and wonderful Meredith second shot this wedding with me, and I couldn't have done it without her!

Weddings, full moons and engagement sessions! This week has been full of romance, hasn't it?!I had a wonderful session with this charming couple whose wedding is coming up soon, and we had so much fun tromping around the woods, exploring the lakeshore and stopping for ice cream along the way. I'm just gonna try to block all those mosquito bites from my memory (in case you weren't aware, the bugs are officially out in full effect now in Minnesota -- arm yourselves appropriately).I can't wait to photograph their wedding in July. It's going to be magical. For your internet shares of the day:+ When we left Paris years ago, I was bummed we never had time to see the catacombs. I swore to come back to see them and the other stuff we didn't fit in. But this story terrified me -- what a place to get lost in!+ This article about life's messiness was WONDERFUL. Please read it. + I loved these photographs! Numbers 1, 6 and 18 were my favorites. Which are yours?+ And lastly, if you enjoyed my Norway photos, you can now buy prints for yourself over here. 

Last weekend, before Ezra got terribly sick and while we had Jamie's mom in town (ie: free babysitting), Jamie and I spent our Friday evening down at the lake. We got some of their delicious truffle popcorn (have you had that yet? AMAZING), and sat and watched the moon rise over the sailboats. Quite lovely.Life is finally back to normal. Ezra is better, we all slept through the night, the house is finally picked up and I have a full day of work ahead of me. Normalcy never felt so good!For your internet shares today:+ The bliss you get from eating cheese is real. + Merlot lollipops? Yes, please!+ Most interesting man, meet most powerful man. I loved this story.

I meant to post this on Monday, but ... life.Little Ezra is sick as a dog right now (hopefully on the mend soon), and in the meantime our worlds have been turned upside down. The house is a disaster, I've been doing my work during his 45-min of sleep at a time and in general, if we could all get more than 1.5 hrs of consecutive sleep tonight, I think it would do us some good. Cross your fingers.But let's get to that cute couple up there, shall we? They were married on Saturday (yeah, that last Saturday that was hot and steamy and pretty miserable), but their wedding was gorgeous and fun and by the end of it we were all nice and cool in an air-conditioned reception hall happy as clams.And those two? They are now in Italy. Talk about happy!!

I snapped this last night while I was down near the lake taking some super fun engagement photos! You'll see those later.But in the meantime, I'm prepping for my own weekend plans, which include a big brunch, a fabulous wedding and a slow and easy Sunday (which sounds like it might be sountracked by thunderstorms).For your internet shares of the day:+ This is my idea of a perfect summer movie.+ Dad jokes (I always need a few on hand for when I'm photographing kids!)+ How to make your weekends last longer.

Obviously (and sadly), I just can't live my life on European vacations forever, so I'm back home working my regular gig again. We have slowly recovered from jet lag, and we are getting back to the normal summer routine (which, let's be honest, in Minnesota is pretty awesome).This shot was from my first session back from the trip. We met at 7:30 am at one of the area lakes, and I loved how eager this little peanut was to get into the water with her mama.Oh, internet shares. I should probably get back to those, eh?+ The full Comey senate statement was a fascinating read.+ This story about how a woman's family photography is forcing her into court enraged me.+ And I loved this story/interview with Paul Nicklen (an amazing nature photographer).

These are just a few images that I wasn't sure where to put in my daily blog posts from Norway. I love them too much to hide them in the depths of my hard drive, so I'll just leave them here.The top image is of the stairwell to our apartment in Oslo. It was 4 flights up, and each time we would enter the stairwell, Ezra would make us promise to stay at the bottom while he climbed all the way to the top. Then he would yell down that he was ready and we could come up now. (We may have snuck up a half flight behind him and hid so he couldn't see us...)I shot this through some construction equipment near the opera house.Dinner choices?Just a pirate ship.I am always a sucker for European architecture and detailing.And lastly, at the food market they had this. I am told there is a fan and water bowl inside, and you can "park" your dog here while you shop. Let me tell you what Magda would say about that.

On our final full day in Oslo, we took it easy. We had a nice slow breakfast, did a little shopping and headed over to the Royal Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. Jamie and I tend to do this in every European country we visit, and usually it takes about 15-20 minutes. Those Norwegians though! They make it a Big Deal. We thought they were done, when some soldiers on horses approached the small crowd and told us to move way back to "make room for the show."The show?It was like a marching band performance with both instruments and guns. It was super impressive, and Ezra was loving it. But after 40 minutes, we had to take off because we had promised the squirt some ice cream and one rule holds true no matter what country you are in: NEVER MESS WITH NAP TIME. So we were off.After the nap, we took an evening stroll and met up with Kevin and Olivia for our final dinner in Norway. It was Spanish tapas, and it was bliss.