A pup and his snake ...

It's official  - he is OBSESSED with this new toy.  He squeaks it, he carries it around, he sleeps with it - the snake is never far from his side :)

A trip to the windy city ...

For spring break {which we currently have 3 more glorious days of} we took a little trip to the Windy City for a couple days.  We stayed right in the heart of downtown - walked walked walked - ate ate ate - and enjoyed a great time with friends!  Here's a little picture recap of our adventures ...

Lobster Rolls were a must for our first night - sadly, they were all out of lobster! But, we had crab rolls instead which were SO good - and went back our last night to have some lobster {which didn't disappoint either!}

Our first night it was SO nice out - so we did a lot of walking around town ... 

Down by the river ... 

And over to Millennium Park

The night view from our hotel room ...

Day two we had a chilly {about 20 degrees cooler than the night before!} walk to the Shedd.

We had a blast and loved seeing so many creatures!

Day three we headed to Willis Tower.  Such a breathtaking view!

And of course we HAD to go out on the Sky Deck! 103 floors above the city!

After all that walking we stopped to have some Girordano's Chicago Style Pizza for lunch - SO good!

And later on we took another walk to get some popcorn for my mom ;)

A late night snack to Fire Cakes - SOOO good!

We may have taken a walk in the rain the next morning to get a donut for breakfast too ;)

After we checked out of our hotel we drove over to the Museum of Science and Industry where we saw the Brick by Brick exhibit.  So many amazing models made out of lego!

And of course we had to check out the bike exhibit too ;)

Our pup had a blast at the doggy hotel too --- he was pretty tied when we returned home :)

Photo Dump ...

I've been slacking {once again} in the blogging department ... but here you go {mom} -  a little update for you! 

We've been enjoying the sunshine ...

And had Bo visiting for a couple weeks.  

Otis LOVES him some Bo - so much so that he's constantly by his side! 

He's such a nice pup, he even shared his food! 

And his tail to give Bo a little extra warmth ;)

We have been spending a lot of our weekends traveling for Forensics.  An extra bonus is being able to "escape" for a bit and meet up with some college friends :)

I bought {and fit into} my first EVER size 6 jeans.  Hokey pete!!! 

The snow had melted and we enjoyed some nightly walks after work ... Otis was in heaven!  

And then, well it snowed again! :(  But, we did get one last snow day out of the deal :)

And there you have a bit of life lately ... gearing up for one more work week then SPRING BREAK! :)

A little off the top ...

Otis' last hair cut was ... well, a bit short.  I did tell the groomer to go short, and they listened - but it was just a bit shorter than we had anticipated!  SO, the hubs has been very reluctant to let me schedule another hair cut. 

Last night - he got the brilliant idea that we would cut his hair.  Mind you, we tried this over the summer and it was a LONG project. So .. I wasn't too thrilled, but the hubs we got started so off we went ...

This is definitely a TEAM effort project because the pup, well - he doesn't sit too well for a hair cut ;)

We got a lot done the first night ... after two hours we might have decided that we needed some better clippers {not cheapo ones} so off to Tractor Supply we went to get some better ones ...

And after a while the pup was a champ ...

But, after awhile he needed a break - and lets be honest, so did we! 

So, night number two we finished him off.  Yes, it may not be the BEST haircut ever - BUT it's hair - and it will grow back ... so for now, we're happy :)

However, I did tell the hubs that for his summer cut we will be getting him professionally done ;)

Less of me ...

Well ... today I can officially say there is 40 pounds less of me than there was on August 14, 2015!

That's the day I started with teambeachbody and I am so happy to say that today I stepped on the scale to notice a MUCH smaller number ;)  It's not all about the number - it's about how I'm feeling, how things are fitting, etc - but I must admit the lower number was nice to see ;)

I have about 12 pounds left to go to hit my ULTIMATE goal - here goes nothing! :)