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.

Sadly, we were in Bergen for less than 48 hours. We arrived around 3 pm on a Sunday and caught a taxi to the airport at noon on Tuesday. The first two days, I took tons of scenic images of the town (which I showed in my last post). The last morning we were there, we left the house early to explore the side of town we hadn't visited yet.These photos are from that trip. They are less expansive and beautiful, and more of the "vacation photos" variety, but I love them just the same.The day began when we caught a teeny ferry across the bay. We didn't have time to make the 45 min walk around the water and back, and this ferry was a 5 min. ride and only a few dollars. Both rides we were the only ones on the boat, and the captain let Ezra ring the bell for our departure each time. This might have been a trip highlight for the kid.He had just rung the bell here.I know I'm bad about posting photos of myself on the blog, but honestly I always have the camera up to my face and I'm bad at stopping and posing. I was glad Jamie caught this moment.While inside this tiny boat, the windows were about at water level. This was our view.And that, above, is the boat pulling away, heading back to the other side. Cute, isn't it!? It's called The Beffen. The rest of the photos are just things I stopped to shoot while we walked to get coffee and pastries and then explored for an hour before ferrying back to our house to catch a cab to the airport.I really just wanted an image of this cute street, but ok, I guess I'll photograph the handsome man as well.I mean, I know I showed you that gorgeous Starbucks, but this McDonald's?!? Really?This white house was where we stayed. It was built in the very early 1800s and was fantastic. We had the first floor and the homeowners live on the top two floors. It was quite charming to hear muffled jazz and Norwegian in the evenings, I must admit. And the water is only a block away, so the breeze through those windows? A+.

I am not gonna lie, one of the very main reasons I wanted to go to Norway was because I wanted to photograph the fjords. And it made me so very happy to do just that.We took a 3-hour fjord tour out of Bergen, and it was just what I was looking for. It was the perfect length for having a small child in tow, and it still took us deep enough into the fjords to where I felt like I got to see what I came for. Also? The boat pulled up to a waterfall and we all got cups of water to drink fresh from the mountain spring. That was a nice perk!These are some of my favorite photos of the trip, and I can't wait to pick one or two out to hang in the house. I'll be putting them up for sale soon as well, so if you'd like a print, please let me know. And lastly, I hope these photos aren't too repetitive, but I loved this experience so much that it made the edit much harder than normal.