Random Acts of November

I had a hotel shoot in my old stomping grounds of Brooklyn Center (worked up at the nearby Best Buy for a couple of years).

Brooke had the car so I was stuck walking somewhere for lunch. I saw this old school Chinese place on Google Maps and thought, well, I've never been to House of Hui. Let's do that.

Don't read the one star reviews. I don't think they understand a good hole-in-the-wall. This was freaking amazing. Some of the best Chinese I've ever had in Minnesota. Not quite the level of Duluth's Cantonese House, but damn good.

I had to finish up the second level of the backyard rink this weekend. Temps were about to dip. Theo kept himself busy with a coloring app on my iMac.

I'm adding some wood chips in the deep end this year to speed up the filling process. And then in the spring we already have mulch.

November 24th isn't too late for pumpkin spice pancakes, is it?

We needed to get more wood chips for the rink. Luckily you can still find them this time of year.

I had to take a gander at the pre-built fence sections while I was there. 2025 project? Maybe.

We always have a full car over Christmas so I did some shopping early this year so I could bring presents with us when we go to my parents for Thanksgiving.

Our wish for winter came true. The temps were going to dip so now is the time to get the rink filled.

A day later and the rink was just waiting to freeze.

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Sisters, a Brother and Walking Chicago

Summer always seems to mean one thing: weddings. Whether I'm shooting or attending, we're bound to end up at a few every year. This time around we were heading down to Chicago from my big sister Katrina's nuptials. I feel like all our vacations are centered around a wedding or something wedding related. I wish we could go on a vacation without having to worry about being somewhere. It also means a few repetitive trips down I-94. There aren't nearly enough unique stops off the interstate. One outlier is Foster Cheese Haus , the only organic Wisconsin cheese shop I know of. Run by the folks behind Castle Rock Organic Farms , we always try to stop by. Unfortunately for us they were closed on Wednesdays, but at least we got to spy on their darling garden out front. Brooke and I arrived in Necedah. We decided to stop at Brooke's sister Brittany's home along the way to cut the ride in half and get her dressed hemmed. ...

Dakotas Road Trip: Badlands and Black Hills

I thought we would skip Wall Drug this time since we've seen it before but Scott was gun ho on going. Come on. You can't go to the Badlands and skip the world's greatest tourist trap. First stop ice cream. We thought we would have lunch here but after seeing the prices decided we would cook something at the park instead. But first we had to take a couple tourist pics. When we we decided we were coming here I was expecting it to be 90's and hot. Did not think it would be rainy, chilly and foggy. I always make Brooke look cool. She on the other hand always finds a way to take a pic at the most awkward possible moment. Either that or I'm just really awkward. Earlier this year, I asked Theo where he wanted to go on vacations this year. He said he wanted to backpack camp at the Badlands because he was sad he didn't get to go yet. This is all for you buddy.

Chicago Chrismukkah + Michigander Xmas

Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...

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