I set up a small studio in my garage over the weekend to take some pictures of my friend and his new motorcycle but after they left my dog was anxious to get his turn in the spotlight. He’s grown a lot since his last pictures and he still has more growing to do! I tried to get pictures of Samantha too but she was too scared.

Today was our last full day in Chicago. I’m going to keep it short because I have to get to bed to catch an early flight home. We went to the Linkin Park Zoo, hence all the pictures of the animals, went to a great place for lunch, went wine and cheese tasting, and went to Millennium Park where an outdoor ice rink was set up for the winter. Had a great trip here in Chicago and we both want to come back!

We did a lot of thing in Chicago today. We ate breakfast, went to the aquarium, took a walk through Grant Park, went to the top of the Sears Tower, are lunch at a good Italian place, took a nap, had dinner at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, then went to Navy Pier to bring in the new year with about a million other people in 15 degree cold. I was about as cold as I ever could have imagined, even with a sweater and 2 jackets on, but it was worth it. We don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow yet but we were thinking maybe dinner at the top of the John Hancock building which is 90 something stories high, almost as high as the Sears Tower. Happy New Year everyone!

Yesterday we flew into Chicago but spent the day with some family that lives 20 minutes outside the city. We upgraded our flight to first-class and now we are spoiled. I don’t think we like flying coach anymore after getting pampered haha. The flight was great and we enjoyed spending time with the family. Today we headed to the city and checked into our hotel and headed out.

We saw that Wicked was playing 2 blocked from our hotel so we got last minute tickets and it was great. Tiffany was singing the songs all night of course. When we got out of the play it was snowing and pretty cold so we got a little taste of Chicago in the winter. We went to a couple local bars near the hotel and had a great time. Going to bed now, we plan on seeing a lot more tomorrow since we have a full day.

Here are a few pictures from today. I’m in the Chicago mood hence the black and white and old photo look on a couple of these. I’ll write another update tomorrow!

Just finished packing and tomorrow morning I’m off to Chicago with my wife. We decided to do something different for New Years so we’ll be at Buckingham Fountain celebrating the new year with a million other people. It’s most likely going to be about 20 degrees and snowing so it should be diferent than what we’re used to here in California. I’ll be posting pictures each day assuming my hotel has internet.

Even though Tiffany was supposed to be studying for school we went to Disneyland Sunday night. She brought some flash cards with her so that made it okay right? This is why we love having a season pass!

For the past few weeks my living situation hasn’t been very good. My living room is stacked floor to ceiling with boxes, my bedroom the same, and most of my clothes are packed up in boxes. The only things not packed are daily essentials so I’m super excited to finally be able to move into my new house this weekend.

My wife and I did the final walkthrough yesterday and it went well. In the pictures you might see blue tape on things, that is just marking spots that need to be touched up or cleaned based on what we found during the inspection.

The walls and ceilings inside the house will get painted starting on Friday so that should make it feel more like a home for us. Big weekend of moving ahead.

I like to carve a pumpkin each year for Halloween, and this year it fell on a Friday so while I didn’t get the pumpkin done in time to actually display to trick-or-treaters I did at least carve one just for fun. I did E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial this year and I think it came out pretty good. Overall it was about 1.5 hours worth of work, but I was watching The Office while I carved so it was all good. Now Tiffany just needs to cook those pumpkin seeds for us!

After work last night it was still warm outside around 8:30pm so I decided to stop by the Griffith Observatory that I pass by every night on my way home. I didn’t spend much time there, pretty much just walked the perimeter and took in the sights and snapped a couple pictures. I’ll probably go back on a night when I can take my wife with me and spend more time and check out the telescopes. Here is one of the pictures I took from the observation deck, it’s not the best picture because it was hazy out and the city was actually quite far.

As most of you know, I got married recently in Temecula, CA. After about 3 months we have finally received our wedding photos from the wedding photographer. There are many many more pictures but I’ve selected just a smaller group to put online.

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