Tools……

and more important tools.

Both Josh and Sarah got ready at hotels near their reception site of Oak Marsh Golf Course in Oakdale, Sarah at Wildwood Lodge and Josh at Holiday Inn Express.

After stopping off at Target to pick up some black socks for the best man, the bride and groom met up at Rice Park in Saint Paul to catch a first moment together before the ceremony began.

Sarah had to reserve her date a year and a half ahead of time to secure Saint Paul’s Cathedral, and the architecture of the historic building is more than worth it. The Cathedral is prepping and raising money for a $30 million renovation.

All of the floral decorations were created by Josh’s dad.

One of the things we selfishly really enjoyed about Sarah & Josh was their wililngness to do just about anything in their wedding clothes. From a trip to McDonalds to Kellogg Park to traipsing across and even getting down on the grass at the golf course, it was clear they were having the best day of their lives, and it made our job of capturing their moments so enjoyable.

Click the next page for more pics.

That’s right Laura and I are going to be parents. We’ve decided we don’t want to know if it is a boy or a girl so the name is to be determined Place your bets now on the due date. The docs are saying March 4th.

My boys can swim!

We snapped a couple of quick pics when we first met with Erik & Erin last winter in Saint Paul’s Rice Park.

Just a week before, we’d shot a wedding that drove us right by this bridge along Minnehaha Parkway in Minneapolis. Unable to stop that day, we made a point to pause briefly on our way to Minnehaha Falls with Erin & Erik.

Erik & Erin were real troopers, happily changing clothes throughout the day to lend some diversity to our pics. Check out Erin’s heels!

Erin & Erik have just less than a month to go before their big day. Best of luck to them as they finalize their plans!

Laura and I went to the Minnesota State Fair last night and saw this uber cute little sheep being weighed in just hours after its birth.  The fair was solid as usual, I got to taste all my favorite fair foods.  I had a pronto pup, french fries, cheese curds, a couple beers, a chocolate malt from the milk barn and mini donuts.

The fine arts building is my favorite thing to see as there are so many talented people out there.  It was also my first time at the Miracle of Birth barn and it was well worth the visit.  While we were there we saw a calf in the process of being born as well newborn sheep, goats, pigs and chickens.

To close the night out Laura and I wandered over to take in a broadcast from the radio station I spend the majority of my day listening to.  When we walked up they were looking for a fifth and final couple to play in a “newly wed” game so Laura and I jumped right in.  We didn’t win but we did come in second place and Laura got a t-shirt and it was fun being on the air.

We were recently blessed with the good company of my long time friend Zack and his girlfriend Diane.  Zack and Diane live in Oregon but are currently criss-crossing the United States in their 1982 Volkswagon Westphalia. Zack has always had eye for photography and should really set up a blog because the photos he’s taken so far are really really good.

He and Diane were able to time their drive so that they could make it back to Minnesota for our good friend’s Slim and Nel’s wedding.  While home we got Zack out for some good beer and he even got to play in a few of our kickball games.

It was good having ya back!

Do you already have that coveted dream bike? If so, is it everything you hoped it would be? If not, are you working toward getting it? If you’re not working toward getting it, why not?

I went the other way on my last bike and got the bike that compliments all my other bikes.  My recent build of a 29er fully suspended Ventana El Rey fits the bill perfectly to go along with my road bike, cross bike and singlespeed.  As to working towards the dream I’ll just have to convince my wife that a Ti hardtail would be a great five year anniversary present :p

If you had to choose one — and only one — bike route to do every day for the rest of your life, what would it be, and why?
I have yet to ride that route but I’m guessing it is tucked away somewhere in Canada.  The perfect mix of downhill and uphill,  a really nice long drawn out flowing trail with a few optional lines to launch of some skinny ladder bridges.  Throw in a few very small stream crossings, a mixture of shadey old growth deciduous and evergreen forests.  Ooh I can almost taste it.

What kind of sick person would force another person to ride one and only one bike ride for the rest of her / his life?
I don’t know but they probably came up with prohibition at the same time.

Do you ride both road and mountain bikes? If both, which do you prefer and why? If only one or the other, why are you so narrowminded? I ride both.
I ride both but my real love is for the dirt.  Riding on the road is only a method of getting from point A to point B.  Point A is usually my house and point B is work.

Have you ever ridden a recumbent? If so, why? If not, describe the circumstances under which you would ride a recumbent?
Recumbents,  trikes, four wheelers.  You name I’ve wrenched on it and ridden it.

Have you ever raced a triathlon? If so, have you also ever tried strangling yourself with dental floss?
The closest I’ve come is signing up for a Tri and then not showing up :)  I wish someone would do duathlons that would be just riding and swimming.  Running is the worst form of transporation.
Suppose you were forced to either give up ice cream or bicycles for the rest of your life. Which would you give up, and why?
Change that question to beer and bicycles and you can get me to ponder for a moment.

What is a question you think this questionnaire should have asked, but has not? Also, answer it.

Do you drink from a boot toe up or toe down?  A: I pity the fool who drinks toe up.

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Now I’ll tag the following three people who I know ride bikes and to see if they read my blog or not

Marty from the Prairie Peddler,  I like to race bikes Eric O, and fellow photographer Daniel Snow.

Jesse’s daughter was absolutely adorable all day.

The ceremony and reception was held at the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center.  These cute pink flamingos marked the way.

This has to be the coolest cake I have ever photographed.

I think my favorite shot of the day was this moment between Jesse and his daughter on the dancefloor.