Oh hi! Remember when I was talking about all those deadlines?Well, yeah. I had an awful lot to get done before traveling 12 hours over a big ocean to arrive in Norway! And man, has it been worth it!First, yes we brought Ezra. Second, we might be crazy for doing so, but up until now at least, it's been really fantastic. Sure he sometimes says he wants to go back to Minnesota (he misses his dog!). But he also is having a blast riding trains and buses and airplanes and soon a boat! So I think we are even. The scales might tip by the end of the trip though, we'll see.The highlights of the trip so far have been meeting up with our friends Ina and Kevin and their daughter who is Ezra's age and seeing the two kids interact, hitting up the folk museum (photo above and more below) and frankly just exploring parks and cafes and wandering the city in this 70-degree weather! It is glorious!I can't promise I'll be posting every day as we have a lot of travel ahead and we have a toddler with us, but I'll try my best. Until then, enjoy the photos!
It was really cold and rainy in Minneapolis this weekend (well, cold for May anyway), and so our plans of outdoor concerts and baseball games faded away, and we decided instead to take the tot bowling. My, what a success that was!Who knew this guy would have so much fun! He loved the "silly shoes" and the big ball. He didn't so much care about knocking down the pins as much as he just liked carrying the ball around and rolling it down the floor. And he also liked that he could eat french toast while doing all of these things. Overall? It was a huge hit.
We have a lot of busy stuff coming up over here, and on top of that I have a ton of big jobs I've been shooting lately that are all coming due. Because of this, the blog might be a bit sporadic this week. Bear with me -- I promise when I return to posting there will be some lovely photos to show you.+ 
So Mondays at the Madhouse is officially over with, but of course I'll give you a few shots from the kid's birthday weekend.But first, I want to tell you about my new goal. Something I'm really trying to work on in my paid gigs is snapping a few photos that don't just document the time I have with clients, but that also capture what it feels like. Does that make sense? I think this is particularly important for family and wedding photos, and I think it takes the photos to a deeper level (not that I always succeed at this! Which is why it's a goal of mine). So my Monday goal is to now show you a photo from my weekend that capture the feeling of that moment for us. The images might be abstract or they might not -- it's a lofty goal, for sure, but I think this blog is a great place to experiment.So! This weekend, we celebrated Ezra's birthday on Friday, and Saturday morning Ezra woke up with a fever. And the fever climbed and climbed and peaked at 102.8 that day. There were a lot of "blankies" and "bunnies" and "wawa" and popsicles. And the photo above captured the feel of our weekend pretty well. It was sweet and snuggly, but also sad because no one wants to spend their birthday weekend like this.And because of the illness, we had to cancel the birthday party on Sunday. We didn't want anyone else getting sick. So below are just a few images from his actual birthday, which was a lot of fun.
Above is the cake that I made for Ezra. Thank you Pinterest for the awesome idea.
And because I thought you might want one more image of the kid's sweet face, here he is stuffing that cute face full of mac'n'cheese for his birthday lunch. Oh, how he loves mac'n'cheese.
OK kids, this is a big post. Lots of nature shots (probably more of the scenery than the kid). But I hope it's worth it!We went up to the North Shore of Lake Superior last weekend, and we just... took it all in. We played games, took walks, watched trains, watched freighters coming in and out of dock, watched birds, collected rocks, sat by campfires and ate s'mores. It was just what the doctor ordered. Here are the photos.Day one:
Day two started with sunrise at 5:24 am. No, Ezra wasn't up. But I wanted to watch it.
Then it got super foggy!
"Bye-bye boat!" "Loud boat!"
Day three was spent outside playing. I left my camera at the cabin for most of it because I knew I was going to photograph the stars that night and because playing with bubbles and yard games is hard when you are carrying a camera.
Um, those are bugs. Amazingly, they didn't bother us (much).
See all the camp fires along the shore? I love that.No star photos for you now -- I'll do another post on that next week. But I did finally see the milky way, and it was wonderful.For your internet shares today, I have some doozies!+ 
Wow. You guys, we are coming off the best vacation. It was... glorious. I just, I cannot tell you how much we needed this and how much fun it was and how I have spent the day "working" and researching future vacations because I want to do more of this again and again and again (hopefully not jinxing myself there).I'm breaking this week's family update into 2 posts because I have a LOT of photos, and it's just too much for one day. I hope you don't tire of the kid, and I'm sorry if you do, but I'll be back with non-kid stuff next week, I promise!Before heading up north last weekend, we met up with several friends in Osceola, WI to take the "Pizza Train." This is a refurbished train from the early 1900s that has dining cars set up where families can eat pizza and brownies while riding along the St. Croix River (that's the river that separates Minnesota from Wisconsin, for all you out-of-towners). It's a lovely route and the train itself is so interesting and fun, and we had a blast. Photos from the trip are below -- please enjoy. And please take your kids on 
This is after lunch, before we really began exploring the train.
This was shot from the bridge that goes over the river.
At one point the train stops, and the engine detaches and then zooms by to the other end of the train to re-attach (to pull us back where we came from). Ezra and I were standing by the open car door (it had railings) waiting for the engine to pass. It was getting close -- and loud -- and Ezra was, shall we say, a little nervous. This is him asking me to pick him up. Don't worry -- I did.
Here we are with Eero watching the scenery go by.
And our friend Jaime and her family joined us as well! I love how happy mom and daughter are in this photo.
Eero had this amazing train whistle that he brought and that Ezra coveted. We bought him one at the gift shop after, and that thing has already gotten a TON of use.
One of the cars was the old post office car where passengers could mail post cards and letters. It was so cool to see how that all worked!
Another photo of the Chizbachers.
And the ever-adorable Petersens!
And after we got off the train, Eero and Ezra (and Eric) climbed up into this stationary caboose. I love the boys so happy up top!I'll be back tomorrow with images from the North Shore!For your internet shares of the day:+ 
This week, Jamie's mom was in town and she and Ezra were thick as thieves. They had such a great time playing together and Ezra fell for her almost immediately. He could clearly sense that, "Oh hey, this one here? She'll give me ANYTHING I WANT!" And it was so adorable to see them playing together.Because Bubie was in town, Ezra stayed home from daycare for most of the week, so he got lots of walks outside, a trip to the park, a trip to the aquarium, a dinner out at a pizza joint and many household errands. He was game for all of it.
Another fun thing that happened this week was that I got a new computer (yay!!!). Getting a fresh, new computer is about the best feeling ever, eh?But besides my own happiness, Bubie and Ezra built a fort out of the padded box. I didn't see Ezra playing in it much, but I did see this. :)
Sometimes you take your kid to the aquarium to show him the giant sharks, the tortoises, the crocodiles and the sting rays and what is he most interested in? The illuminated exit sign. Yup.
And lastly, Bubie made her delicious meat balls Sunday night for Ezra, and while he seemed uninterested in the beginning, she figured out that using a fork was a much better way to gain his interest.We thought he was eating a ton of them until he started laughing and spit them out down his shirt. Boys are so classy.
Yup.
Today was a big one for Ez. He got to meet two of his Great Aunts and a Great Uncle who he had never met before, as well as more time with Grandma and his Uncle Rob and his Great Grandmother (my own, dear grandma). I know I usually save family photos for Mondays, but really, being with family was about all we did today, and I didn't want to photograph something lame when I had some fun memories to share.This is Ezra playing ball with his Aunt Lynn, of Boston. We rarely get to see Lynn, and it was so much fun to catch up this morning. Ezra warmed up to her and my Uncle Chris so fast, and I hope he can see them both again soon. Ezra also had a blast playing ball with my grandmother and, really, everyone he met today. As you can see in this VIDEO that I am posting from today (whoa, right?). Please disregard my lighting / composition and just enjoy the laughter as Ezra plays with Dolly for the first time. Have I mentioned how much I adore that this kid loves dogs? BECAUSE I ADORE IT.For your internet shares, I have a bunch today:
What a week! We had Eloise (my amazing niece and Ezra's amazing cousin) stop in town for a few days at the start of the week with her boyfriend as they are driving across the country. Oh, how Ezra loved them. Oh, how they make us feel so old.They arrived just as Jamie was recovering from a very serious stomach bug, that I then contracted the next day. That was no fun at all. AT. ALL. Then, on their last day in town, Jamie's mother (Eloise's grandmother) came to town. While she was here, we had swimming and zoo visits and tons and tons of fun. Photos are below -- Enjoy!....Oh. And um, I forgot to blog last Friday. Plum forgot. Because I'm old. I apologize.
