Colby reluctantly drove us to Indiana to pick up male #3. Yup. That’s right. He was known as Male #3. I had already decided I wanted to name him Bentley. Jerry had given in and decided to get Male #1 and name him Tyson. We met at a McDonald’s parking lot (because the breeders drove up from Kentucky). They were the size of a hamster. So tiny and cute! We made the exchange and were on our way back to Chicago. Both Tyson and Bentley slept together most of the way. I remember pulling up to Jerry’s condo and handing Tyson over wondering if the brothers would ever see each other again. And, well, they haven’t… because Bentley tries to kill other dogs… He’s not tough, but he thinks he is.

Over the last 3 years, he’s turned into the cutest little boy EVER. He has such a great personality and cute mannerisms that keep us cracking up daily. I think his little voice is the cutest. Yes, he is somewhat spastic and has little dog syndrome, but I’ve learned to love it. All of it. So, happy birthday Bentley! Momma loves you little boy!

I remember when we first got Riley. Colby and I lived in a high rise in Chicago. We rented a car and took Jayda down with us to Gridley, IL where Major Malamutes had a couple of older Malamutes left from a litter (16 weeks old) that we got to choose from. We thought if we took Jayda with us, she’d be able to pick the dog she wanted us to bring home. Boy… Were we EVER wrong about that. Nope. Instead of making the decision of which dog to choose (there was Riley and one other puppy left, who later was sold and named Diesel) easier for Colby and I, she completely ignored the Malamutes, went crazy over the kitties on the farm, and rolled around in poop. Yup. That’s right. My prissy little Beanut (that’s right, beanut, not peanut) isn’t too prissy to roll around in a stank pile of old poop from who knows what kind of animal. So I tried to ease myself of the guilt of picking one over the other by asking Colby which one he wanted. They both looked pretty much the same so he didn’t care which. So… I got creative. When the breeder let the two dogs out to play so we could decide, they went straight for the apple trees and were plucking apples off of the trees and playing with them like tennis balls. So I decided I would sit down on the ground and whoever came to me first would be the dog we’d take. Well, low and behold, Riley brought me an apple, so he was our guy!

To this day, I’ll sit on the ground and Riley will come to me before the other two dogs do. It’s cute and funny. He’s my big dog. He’s my boy. He’s my Bear. I love him sooooo much and I could not imagine my life without him. My dogs are like my children. They’re part of the family. They light up my face every time I walk in the door.

Today, Colby and I went to the Indiana Dunes National Park and took the dogs with us on a hike. Here are some photos of Riley enjoying his romp on the hike. He had a fabulous birthday! Happy Birfday Big dowg! (Pronounced with a long ‘o’)

Before you get to seeing the photos below… Know that with Riley, there is always a story that involves poop…

Riley got to roll around in the dirt. I mean, what better way to spend your birthday?

Then he got to swim and poop in Lake Michigan. That’s right people. Riley was at it again. Three years ago he did it in Lake Michigan when we lived on the north side and it was the most disgusting thing ever. But what are you going to do when you look over and see your dog pooping in the lake? Pull them out and potentially knock them over into it? Not a chance. Today, he pulled the same crap. No pun intended. Let’s just say the consistency wasn’t that of something you could bag… Luckily it was a desolate beach, so no one was swimming…

Rolling in more sand.

And lastly, here is Riley with his home dogs. I thought they looked all cute sitting there as though they were all in a band and Riley was the front man.

Jen Shannon Photography

It all started on Friday. Since Valentine’s day was on a weekend, we sorta celebrated throughout the weekend, but primarily on Sunday. Friday night we had a sweet date at Red Robin. I love Red Robin and we haven’t gone in awhile because it’s far away but we finally made the trek out there and it was good! Saturday we didn’t do much but we did have our hot date to Hamada of Japan and ohhhh emmmm geeee internet, it was so good! Hamada of Japan is one of those places where you only go on special occasions because when you go, just for two people, you know it’s going to cost at least $70. So we made reservations for 6pm and had some amazing sushi and we shared a hibachi grill plate of chicken and shrimp. I should also say before dinner we had quite the fiasco with the dogs. I had just finished getting ready and Colby says, “Honey, are the dogs up there with you?” I said, “No, why?” He said, “Because I can’t find them. They’re not out back.” Then I screamed, “OHHHH NOOOOOO!!! I forgot to tell you that I left the garage door and the door in the garage that leads to the backyard open to air out the water from the snow that melted off of the car!” We quickly went searching. Bentley, luckily, was already inside because he freezes so fast so it was just a matter of finding Riley and Jayda. Luckily we only go walking in one direction when we go for walks and that is the opposite direction of the main road. Colby got in the truck and went looking for them and I grabbed the leashes and a bag of suckers that I got Colby for Valentine’s day and I went looking on foot. Of course they were down by our neighbors house, the neighbors that dog sit for us. They were going wild! They loved being free! I yelled out their names and shook the bag of suckers and they both came running. Colby had the hatch open to the truck and when they came running to see me I grabbed their collars and put them in the back. This is only the second time that that has ever happened, but if it’s one thing I’ve learned, when you’re dog is off leash and you want them to come, don’t yell and freak out, just call their names in an excited voice. Don’t let them think you’re mad (especially because this time it wasn’t their fault). Anyway…. After dinner we came home and rented “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” from iTunes. It was such a cute movie, but it led us to one conclusion. We totally need to buy a small flat screen tv for our bedroom with a built in DVD player and mount it above our dresser. Movies are just more comfortable to watch when you have a place to prop up your feet (the coffee table just doesn’t cut it anymore).

This is the part where I pause to tell you about what happened Saturday night before I go into Sunday. For Valentine’s day, my husband drugged me. That’s right internet. My husband said, “Let’s take some NyQuil tonight to sleep really good.” I thought, “Well, ok, I could use a good night’s sleep.” He handed me a dose of NyQuil and then went into the bathroom where I thought he took some too. Liar! He’s so sneaky. He drank a full bottle of water because he knew it would wake him up in the middle of the night without waking me up so he could go to Walmart and get some stuff for Valentine’s day. Right before I fell asleep I said, “I bet you just wanted me to take NyQuil because you’re going to sneak out in the middle of the night to do something sweet.” Well internet, I was right. So even though my husband tricked and drugged me, I still slept well and woke up to a few nice surprises in the morning. I forgave him. hahaha!

Sunday I woke up and there were roses in the kitchen for me (pictured below). He had also bought the fixin’s for chocolate chip pancakes (a rare, yet delectable treat) and made me breakfast. Then we lounged for a little while, watched some TiVo’d episodes of Friends, then took the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood. I love taking walks with the dogs. Then Colby had a lunch surprise of roast beef croissants that were delicious! Then we lounged around to some TV and then got dressed up to go take photos.

Here’s another part to pause to talk about the photos… It was cold. Really cold. Colby and I don’t have anyone that can take pictures like we do around us so usually you see just him or just me in a professional photo, but not both. So we decided to dress up, go outside, take a few new head shots for each other, and use a tripod and my remote to take engagement style portraits of us. Well… When it’s 24 degrees outside, the wind is blowing, the sun is going down, and you’re not wearing anything warm, you get numb FAST. So after multiple attempts we gave up. Monica, we’re flying you out here at some point. The photos below were all we were able to get.

After that we came back and I edited some photos. Colby finished cleaning the kitchen from earlier so I could make him a delish dinner! I made ribeye steaks with quinoa risotto. I need to find a better recipe for quinoa because I didn’t like the beef broth and quinoa flavor combined. Maybe chicken broth would have been better to cook it in. You got that one wrong Cuisine at Home… Anyway, but the steaks were fabulous! I’m not afraid to cook steaks anymore! I seasoned them with salt, cracked pepper, and garlic salt on each side, then seared them each for 4 minutes on each side and finished cooking them in the oven at 425 for 10 minutes. They came out medium well, juicy, tender, and YUMMY! My honey was happy and of course loves that I know my way around a kitchen (thanks to Cuisine at Home and Rachael Ray).

The last surprise of the night was fabulous! Colby made me chocolate covered strawberries, oranges, and bananas! He used both regular milk chocolate and white chocolate. He had snuck out around 2am, got the groceries, made the goodies, and came back to bed at 5:30am. That shows how much he loves me! hahaha! As for the rest of the night… Well… That’s none of your business! lol! Enjoy the photos!

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

It’s funny… You can see the progression from cute, chewing puppy, to crazy little boy, to neurotic, to calmer, to subdued. It’s hilarious.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Black and White Project 2009 from Jen Shannon on Vimeo.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

So Thanksgiving should be about what you’re thankful for. I know everyone types out what they are thankful for on their blogs and it probably gets old, but I’m going to do it too!

I’m thankful for my salvation, my husband, our dogs, our families, the blessings God has given to us, our home, the clothes on our back, the air we breathe, our sense of site, smell, touch, etc, the love that surrounds us, our jobs, my business, my clients, electricity, clean running water, our vehicle, hot showers, rainy mornings, the concerts I put on in the car while I’m driving (what’s life without music?), working from home for both of my jobs, the hard lessons learned in life, coffee, tea, egg nog chai lattes from Starbucks, blogs, great company and conversation, warm fires, down blankets, snow, cold weather, the ocean, the mountains, Kan Ki (how I miss you!), sushi, laughter, friends and Friends reruns, all of the amazing people in my life, and so much more that I don’t have enough space on my blog to contain! I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving and I look forward to Christmas and the holiday season! Here are some photos from Thanksgiving.

My “off camera flash” escapade. I have to say first, I LOVE the one with Riley’s shadow on the house. I happened to get the idea from when he and Jayda were playing and I took a pic and his tail had a huge shadow on the house so I sat him down in front of the back wall of the house and try to get some photos. I LOVE this one! It cracks me up! He’s a Mafia dog or something…

These aren’t fabulous or anything but I thought the expression on the dog’s faces were funny. I liked the creepy tree too.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

So we still don’t know what got into Jayda, but she was being a very disobedient little lady outside. This was THE only good picture we got of her next to her pumpkin.

And lastly, a picture of all my babies in the fallen leaves. They’re so sweet. I love them all! I’m so glad Riley is still around after his incident.

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Wedding Photographer

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Pet Photography

It was a gorgeous hike! Nothing like hiking through the mountains or anything, but gorgeous for the flat lands of Illinois The fall colors were beautiful. I only wish the sun had been out to brighten everything up for longer. So we hiked for a little over 4 hours. I have to say… Bentley did SOOO good. He is less than a foot tall, has the tiniest little legs, but walked the WHOLE thing except for the last part of the stairs (I wanted to carry him because he was slowing down). I am so proud that my little man hiked the whole way, little legs and all. He actually led the pack. It was so cute to watch him lead us because he knew exactly where we were going. It was awesome.

On our way back we stopped at yummy Arby’s, again, more fast food, for lunch and ate in the car. That was a mess but yummy nonetheless. We came home and offloaded my pictures off of my cards and went straight to bed for a great nap! We slept until 7-ish or so and then decided it was movie night. Colby picked up some little McDonald’s snacks, again, yes, fast food… I am totally starving myself for a week now… He picked up ‘I Love You, Man’ from the $1 rental machine and it was time for snacks and a movie. We decided to watch The Office first though, to watch Pam and Jim get married, of course, then it was movie time. Before the movie I spiced some apple juice into apple cider, we curled up on the couch, watched the movie, then it was bed time. It was a great staycation! Totally needed it.

So, this is totally cool. Since Colby and I are cool enough to have iPhones, of course our iPhones have to do something for us in every facet of life. He has this really cool app called MotionX-GPS that uses GPS to track your hike. It gives you all sorts of really cool info. Here is a detailed map of our exact hike/trail and the stats regarding our info.

Here are some of the great fall colors and textures of the surroundings.

My babies are so good! They were all sitting and waiting while Daddy was tying his shoes. My little guy on the left was waiting for mommy to get her gear situated.

Here’s my little guy at the end of the trip when I stopped to take off my hoodie, situate my gear back into my Tamarac bag and wrap him up in my scarf to head to the car

Last one before we get to the “good stuff.” The picture on the left is Colby with the pooches while I was setting up my tripod to take a picture of one of the waterfalls. It really puts it into perspective. I know it isn’t huge like other landmarks but in Illinois, this is pretty special haha!

Now for the good stuff. Enjoy!

Jen Shannon Photography, Chicago Lifestyle Photographer