After being away from home for eight days we came home for one night and left again the next day. This time Scott had a job in Madison.  Before my job at a hotel on the outskirts of Madison, I thought we could have breakfast as a family. We found this breakfast spot near our hotel called the Jet Room . You get to watch the airplanes take off and land. The kids got little airplanes too.  We only saw private planes, but it still was fun.  Somehow there's no pictures of the food, but the breakfast was quite good. While Scott worked, the kids and I went to the Madison Children's Museum. I had been wanting to take them to a children's museum for so long so it was fun to try out this one. I was pleasantly surprised to see a whole exhibit dedicated to Frank Lloyd Wright.  A side note. Many of the great architects of modernist movements started by playing with f roebel blocks . They were the heart of early kindergarten education. I loved all the details of course.  Then...

Thank goodness Meadow had her last day of school and Scott had some work up north. We got out of the boring house and tagged along with him. On Tuesday night I had worked in New York Mills for my annual Lund boat shoot. I stayed at Menahga's Spirit Lake Motel and Resort as a change of pace. When I returned I finally confirmed that I'd be shooting on Friday in Park Rapids just up the road from Menahga. After debating whether to camp we decided to just stay at the Sprit Lake Motel since we'd be arriving late at night. In the morning Theo was ready to take pictures with one of our old cameras. We had first breakfast at the local bakery. Chocker's Bakery . Comes highly recommended from, well, all of us. Meadow approves. We all approve. Scott had to work so us kids explored Park Rapids. Who knew Park Rapids was the Wild West? In all seriousness, I came up to photograph the Jeweler of the North . They'd recently moved from their old location up on the North Shore. After h...

We brought home the tag along from the cottage to use at home as Theo is finally big enough to use it. I wasn't sure if it would fit with my rack but it does! He was a big fan and loved it.  Maybe, just maybe he'll learn to ride a bike this summer. After hogging our bed it was time to wake up the sleepy bear for our last Mama Theo day. 

We came home from the cottage for a few days before it was time to leave again. We drove through the prairies and farm fields of Minnesota to go to South Dakota. First hotel shoot workcation of the impending summer. We were in a bit of a rush after Brooke finished work to get to Sioux Falls.. I had to shoot twilight shots of the hotel. After I finished shooting some exteriors, we got our much needed dinner at Gilliberto's near downtown Sioux Falls.   You know we love a good hole in the wall taco joint, especially if it's in a former Hardee's. This place was a weird mishmash of classic American tacos and authentic Mexican.   The hotel we were staying at had a mini indoor waterpark. When we got there after breakfast we had the place to ourselves. Theo loved the waterslide. I think we went down at least 20 times. A few more families came in after us but it was never very busy.  Lucky dogs, I was busy shooting hotel rooms and amenities. After swimming for a few hours the...