on the road - chicago

i can't believe i went an entire week without a post...i promise there is a reason, actually two.

reason #1 - i was out of town for work. as some of you may know, i work in sports/sponsorship marketing and last weekend was the shamrock shuffle 8k in chicago.  this is one of my favorite events, in one of my favorite cities, with an awesome crew and beautiful weather = fantastic weekend! here are a few pictures...

took an early morning trip to visit the bean, which i highly recommend. it is so peaceful without the tourists and it allowed me to get this great picture.

there i am in the bean (with my starbucks of course)

the flowers were all in bloom which made for a very scenic walk through the park

my kicks for the weekend - cupadewdledew pink!!!

my favorite part of the weekend - so inspiring, can't wait for my upcoming half!

of course i couldn't leave chicago without a cupcake taste test, so before it was time to head back south i made a stop into sprinkles. you may recall my post found here - about their cupcake atm (this isn't in chicago yet, so i couldn't give it a test run). i joined the crowd and waited in the line that wrapped around the block. ordered 4 cupcakes, no one needed to know they were all for me and my taste test. check it out below...

from top to bottom, dark chocolate (my favorite!), red velvet & peanut butter chocolate chip

the vanilla cupcake got slighlty damaged during the walk but they were all delicious!!!!

it was a "sweet" weekend, but unfortunately when i got home i was hit with bronchitis. to be honest i don't recall the last time i battled this bug, but boy oh boy did it knock me off my feet. that is the other reason i was forced to a break from the blog.

but no worries i am back!

and before i sign off for the night, i have to send out a thank you to the wanna-be southern belle for taking care of the pup while we were out of town. look how happy she is!