Chicago

Jim was asked to go to training again in a suburb of Chicago and we decided it would be fun for Jacob and I to go too. Little did I know that I was in for nap-less days and an exhausting experience, but since we are going to Mexico in a little over a month, I guess we need some practice! Poor little guy (Jacob) is finally adapting to life in a hotel suite. We are staying in Schaumberg which is about 25 miles out of downtown which equals about an hour in morning-time traffic! Eeks.

We went on a little adventure to the Shedd Aquarium. I managed to miss my exit and thinking I could figure out where I was, proceeded to get us lost and we were in the car for a total of 2 hours. Should have only taken about 1 hour or 45 min max. When we got to the aquarium we found out that thy did not have their penguins, dolphins or whales on display due to construction. Darn it. At least admission was less... Well, Jacob didn't know the difference and we enjoyed the day. It was about 64 degrees out and a lovely day to be out. And he took a GREAT nap in the car on the way home. BUT I lost my parking ticket and in the midst of trying to locate it, ended up running over Jacob's "Mankie" (very special blankie) with the stroller in the mucky parking ramp. What a day! Luckilly, the parking ramp agent had mercy on me and only charged me $19 instead of $38 which is the usual fee for a lost ticket.

Today we went to Target and happened upon a MANKIE replica. Yes, Target saves the day. I didn't want him cuddling with a dirty yucky blankie and he was convinced that the Blankie at Target was indeed "Mankie"!! Amazing. It had the same white clouds in blue sky print. And it was only $9.99 compared to the ones I previously purchased at Kohls for $15. Yay Target!

I attempted to upload photos from the Aquarium Adventure but was unable. Will try later. The Staybridge Suites wireless internet is questionable! Wish us luck in the next few days. Pray for long naps :) We will be visiting with cousins Andy and Charles who both live either in downtown or in the burbs. We'll be having Chicago Deep Dish pizza downtown at Pizzeria Due.

The Puppies

Mama with her pups
This is little runt Princess.


Sad to say, the puppies are now down to 11. The runt of the litter, Little Miss Princess died a few days ago. Here are a few photos of her and another of the puppies a week or so ago.

Fall Fun

Jacob and his cousin Olivia went with Grandma Cathy to the park. Only thing was, she only had one stroller, so she rigged it so they could both ride together! It worked well and they seemed to have lots of fun! I got a few quick shots as they got back. I really think this photo of Jacob and Olivia is so precious.

Happy Birthday to ME and the puppies AND Cadence Quinn

What an exciting day! It is my 31st Birthday and for the last week or so I have been waiting impatiently for my brother's boxers to have their puppies. They are supposedly having 12 of them!
So, I got word at 8:30 this morning that the first one was born. How exciting. So Jacob and I went over to see them and by then there were 4. Daisy is still working on getting the rest of them out. Then I went to yoga. A workout but relaxing. Came home to have lunch and a nap but Jacob would not nap. FINALLY he is asleep and I found out that one of my photography clients had their second daughter today, too! Must be something in the air! Tonight it's off to Gasthofs for a German dinner and some polka music and German Beer and Apfelkorn out in the tent. Yay!!

Here are a few photos of the puppies. Hard to see them since they are a big blob of fur and the lighting was really bad. Will take more when Mama Daisy doesn's mind them being away for a second of two.

Lost Photos and More

So, I just realized that I am so lucky I started this blog. recently, my hard drive crashed for no apparant reason. I lost everything in my photos file and am currently waiting for a company called Kroll Ontrack (referred by a friend/client) to attempt to recover the files. If the files cannot be recovered, that means I have to re-do 5 photo shoots. No weddings were lost, I take backing them up more seriously than anything else. I have unfortunatly lost track of backing up Jacob's photos for the last 9 months and have possibly lost ALL of the photos I took of him in the year 2008. Total bummer. But, one glimmer of hope is that I just realized I can drag the photos out of my blog and on to my desktop which means I still have photos of his first haircut and other moments I thought were cute or important enough to blog :) Whew!! I have not totally failed as a mother and photographer!!

Fab at the Fair

We are so hot. This year I took two trips to the State Fair. Once with Jim (Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Warnest who took care of Jacob). The crowds were insane - it was a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed some food and I was being very daring eating cheese curds and Sweet Marthas seeing that it had been about a month since I ate much more than rice and apples (and that's a whole other story!!) We had a good time but didn't stay long. The crowds were so insane!
The second trip was with my fab BFF Jenny from the Block and her fab friend Jackie. We (they) were way more daring. We started the night with free Leinies samples and then went onto cheese curds, deep fried pickle slices, buffalo bites, mac and cheese on a stick, french fries, Sweet Martha's and to top it off, some chocolate covered bacon sprinkled with sea salt. I was scared, but we actually all kind of liked it!! Unbelievable. We ended the night with a ride on the big slide and some funny photo booth shots. Little did we know, I was the main focus of all the photos and you can hardly see Jackie! Embarrassing!
We had SO much fun!!

Patriarch

Sometime's photos can speak louder than words which is why I'm not going to say much about these photos. This is my 92 year old grandpa Gus playing cards at my 2 yr old nephew's birthday party.