Christmas Time!

Christmas time is time for decorating Christmas Trees, singing Christmas Carols and making fun of the puppy that falls into the snow! :) Just kidding. Here are some pictures of Rou after the first real snow fall of the winter.

He's winking!

Check out how deep the snow is! Rouge didn't seem to mind though. I thought his paws were going to freeze off, but he stayed out there for a while.

Of course, I have to have some artsy type pictures to include...this first one is of our evergreen tree out back. It was so pretty with all the snow on it, but I didn't have the right shows on so I had to shoot it from the patio. I decided to add a few effects to the pic and this is what came out. I think its pretty.

I was trying to take some pictures of our Christmas tree without the flash on and it never seems to work. Its always blurry...so I decided...lets just make it really blurry and twisted the camera as I was taking the picture. Pretty cool, eh?

Sweet Home Chicago!

This past weekend, Mike and I took the puppy to the kennel and went on up to Chicago to see the Illini battle the Arizona Wildcats. We hoped the game would be like the last time they met in 2004 when the Illini went to the final four in St. Louis, but unfortunately, this time they lost.

We met up with Tim and Laura in Collinsville on Friday evening and headed up to the windy city. We ended up getting there a little after midnight and couldn't even muster up any energy to get one drink at our fun looking hotel on Michigan Ave. Oh well. So we got up early, went to breakfast and then Laura and I went on our shopping adventure, while the boys did their manly watching the basketball game thing that they do.

The city is awesome. It is so big and there is so much to do. We saw three Walgreens within the first few blocks we walked and passed three Ann Taylor Lofts! We went into several stores (mainly to get the feeling back in our toes), but didn't buy much since the lines were around 2 miles long. Oh well, saved some money, right? After our shopping, we heard from Mike and Tim that the game was over and met them at a bar near the United Center. It was great to see all their college friends and hang out. Everyone was in pretty good spirits despite the Illini loss. From there we decided to go to Wrigleyville, which is obviously where Wrigley Field is.

We went on our impromptu pub crawl and took lots of crazy pictures. I usually don't like taking pictures of people, because I feel like I'm being annoying, but I got more courageous as the night went on. Here's a free lesson in bar photography...just hold the camera up above your head and fire a few off. And poof, candid, silly pictures. Boy, I'm good...I should write a book!

By midnight we were back to the hotel ready to sleep, because that was a long long day! We had to leave early the next day because of course, a string of ice storms was lining I-55 and we knew we'd have to drive slower than normal. Luckily the roads weren't too bad and we were able to get back on time to get the puppy from the kennel.

What a great trip, but way too short...I'm going back again and definitely when its warm! Chicago in December...What were we thinking?!?!