November Wedding Weekends!

To all you blog readers out there (I know for certain there are a handful of you!) I am sure you are dying with anticipation to see what we've been getting on with lately (Don't I sound British?)! Well it has been quite exciting and there are so many pictures to share!!

Chad's brother Luke and his fiancee Erin were married on November 1, 2008 in Wooster, Ohio. Chad and I were both in the wedding and it was so much fun - here's the proof!




My new sister-in-law Erin and I getting ready for the rehearsal!



Rehearsal dinner festivities - Chad and his parents with Miss Makenzie at the end!




The rehearsal was on Halloween and the wait staff was all dressed up. Here's the happy couple with characters from the Wizard of Oz!




Luke points out that the exact spot of where they first met. It was at the restaurant where we had the rehearsal dinner.




Congrats Erin and Luke - but wait - that isn't Luke! It's his friend Trent. He was nice enough to be a stand in because I had to have a picture of the sign!





The mother of the groom (aka Linda) and Mackenzie, cousin of the groom and the most mature 11 year old I've ever met, and she had the best dance moves of the night!




I had to get a close up of my bouquet!





Luke and Erin at the reception.




Chad and Luke's friend Corby. I told him that he'd be making an appearance on the blog!




Cutting the cake!




Linda and Keith.




Chad and his grandparents.



Ahh - cute brothers!


The following weekend, my cousin Amber and her husband Ryan had a reception to celebrate their wedding, which was a smaller wedding that was a few weeks earlier. Chad didn't come along but I was so happy that I was able to make the trip!




My cousin Tiffany's little girl Audrey - she's 2 and she loves music! She wants a violin for Christmas so she's improvising with a baby guitar for now!




I helped set up things for the reception - the favors were fall apples!




Pretty fall colors with my aunt's creative touch.




Pumpkins galore - and an "S" for Stewart - Ambo's new last name!




The girls working hard!




Marya sweeping up!




Aunt C - always arranging something!




The happy couple!




The first group to hit the dance floor - Carolyn, Joe and Audrey!




Amber and Ryan doing a Polish tradition that involved bread butter, vodka and a sweet message that I can't quite remember - but it had to do with a lifetime of happiness!




Cute girls!


We had such a great time seeing our family and friends celebrate these weddings! What an exciting time!!


This weekend has been nice and relaxing one with not much going on. I found a restaurant (self proclaimed American brasserie) in Mayfair that makes hamburgers with American beef - so that's what we did for a late lunch/early dinner and it was goo-ood! We're doing Thanksgiving next weekend and then we'll be in Edinburgh, Scotland the following weekend to celebrate my milestone of a birthday! I really can't believe it's the end of November. We'll be heading back to the US for Christmas before we know it!



Hope everyone is doing well!


xoxox, Kari and Chad

Hiya!

Hi Everyone!

Hope that you had a great weekend!  We have been doing well lately.  We celebrated Chad's 30th last weekend in Geneva - he's so old!  He was there for work the week before, s0 I went and met up with him for the weekend!  It was a very fun weekend - I still need to upload the photos!

This weekend Chad was in Ohio for his brothers bachelor party.  I 've been jealous because I was all by my lonesome in London!  But it was a beautiful weekend with sun and no rain so I was able to get outdoors and enjoy it!  Plus I got a little shopping in, so that's always a plus!  And I got my hair cut and watched the Sex in the City movie and Baby Mama - so I did all the girlie things I could think of while he's not around!

So that's what's been going on with us!  It's hard to believe that's it already mid-October!  We've just have a few more weekends and then we'll be back in Ohio for Luke and Erin's wedding - we can't wait!

Have a great week!

xoxox, Kari

Bonjour, mes amis!

It has been quite awhile and I have a lot to blog about! Chad's parents left yesterday afternoon to head back to Mt. Vernon after a whirlwind European vacation! We has so much fun with them in London and in our travels in France and Italy!

Their first week here, they spent a few days in Scotland and were able to take a day trip to St. Andrews, which they really enjoyed! I'll try to make a long story short - we had a crazy beginning to our 9 day trip with them at the end of that week. Chad was in Germany for work and Linda, Keith and I planned to take the Eurostar through the chunnel to meet Chad in Paris Friday evening after I got off of work. Well, unlucky for us, there was a fire in the Chunnel on Thursday and we found out on Friday morning that all trains were cancelled! So needless to say, we had to think quickly and we got Linda and Keith on a Friday afternoon flight to Paris (via Dublin because there were NO flights available) to meet up with Chad. I got on an early morning flight on Saturday and we were all together by Saturday evening!


So we continued to have a busy trip but there weren't any other major travel delays along the way - other than the fact that Linda and Keith were delayed out of London and missed their connection in Chicago and had to stay there the overight. We did get our fare share of flights, train rides, driving and taxi's so cover a lot of ground but it was worth it!! So here it is....

View from our hotel on the corner of Rue Cler and Ave Motte-Piquet. We decided to take Rick Steve's advice and really enjoyed staying in this area of Paris. Our hotel was very close to the Eiffel Tower and Rue Cler was a cute little shopping street!

Chad and his parents on Rue Cler! I wasn't there on Saturday when the toured the city and went to the Norte Dame, the Lourve, Champs Elysees and Arc de Triomphe so I don't have any photos of all that excitement!


And of course - I had to take tons of pictures of the Eiffel Tower. We went at night and got to see it light up with blinking lights. Right now it's in blue lights and has the European Union Flag stars because France is currently the head of the Council of the European Union.

After leaving Paris, we flew to Florence and stayed an hour away in the Chianti region. It was so beautiful but a little colder than we had hoped!

We stayed in a cute place, Il Borgo Pietrafitta. We had our own little unit with a living room and kitchen (and horrible TV - oh well!) Anyhow, we had a nice and relaxing time touring around the region and relaxing!

Grape vines!

The infinity pool - it was pretty cold but still beautiful!

Chad and Linda convinced me to get in the freezing pool and here's the proof!

Tuscan Sunset!

We also did a day trip to Florence and hit the major sites, David, the Duomo, shopping in the market and just enjoying the warm sunny day!

A huge row of motorcycles!

The Duomo

We also took a hike up the hill to see the city from Piazza Michelangelo and it was so worth it!

I don't think I've ever had so much Gelato in my life!! I made everyone walk all over each city just to find that perfect place. Here's a pic of the goods in one of the many! And us enjoying our selections of course!!

So after Paris, Florence and Tuscany, we headed to Rome for a few days......

Our first night in Rome, we did a night walk. Here's Linda and Keith in front of the Trevi Fountain...

and making our wishes!

Here are the Palmers outside the Pantheon! Our day started out ok but by the time we went to the Vatican and saw the Sistine Chapel, it started raining and did not let up ALL day long! It was quite a day but we kept walking and saw St. Peters (after waiting in line in the rain) and headed back to our hotel exhausted and soaked!!

View of St. Peters from the Vatican

The morning we left Rome, we did some walking around the ruins and went inside the Colosseum. Thankfully, the rain had stopped and we could enjoy the sun!

So we left Rome and headed back to Paris for a night before we got on the Eurostar and through the chunnel and back to London! Linda and Keith were with us for the rest of the week and we were so lucky to have them for company, make us dinners and do our laundry - we were getting sp used to it - this weekend has been a struggle!

Finally, here are some pics in front of the major sites in London, Paris and Rome. Linda got us all t-shirts that say "London, Paris, Rome and Mt.Vernon" so the girls decided to get our pictures in front of each site on our shirts! Mt.Vernon is yet to come and I can't wait to be back in Ohio to complete the shots, but here we are in the others...

London - Big Ben!

Paris - The Eiffel Tower!

And Rome - the Colosseum!

We had such a fun and memorable time with Linda and Keith and can't believe that our visitors are gone! That also means the end of summer and a busy fall and winter ahead, which is not so fun! This weekend has been really relaxing but we've got a busy travel schedule ahead - with work and a few weddings - the next few months will go by pretty quickly!

Until next time, Au revoir! xoxox