goin' to the chapel...

and now back to the tour de france... i have so many posts to catch up on, i have no idea how i'll get them all done... eventually... eventually...

and so... drumroll... we are back in normandy at the chateau in roni's room where we all got ready and prepared for her big afternoon/night.

courtney expertly applies her make up.

sarah expertly does yoga stretches

roni does a lovely job on her own make up. i love that you can see becky in the mirror.

i somewhat expertly applied sarah's make up.

and attempted to do my own as well.

i'm such a dork!

3 very lovely bridesmaids!

roni putting on her gorgeous dress with a little help from her mom and becky

courtney practices her reading...

benoit gets a smooch from his soon to be sister-in-law

everyone heads out to the cars in order to caravan over to the church

the beautiful church

roni's brother, bri yen, and his son, jaxson

benoit's grandma's house literally across the street from the church where the staging for roni took place

pretty sure it was a sin to take photos in the church... pretty sure i went ahead and ignored that since i couldn't understand french.

such cute little flower/ring boys!

everyone sing now: here's comes the brrrrrriiiiiiiiide!

such a lovely wedding party, isn't it?!

you can't tell here, but we are freeeeeeeeeeezing!!!!

and because it was such a fun and beautiful night - i took a TON of pictures (imagine that?!) and so i am splitting up the posts... this is the church portion. i promise to show y'all the reception portion where the pictures get waaaaaaay more fun!

the b-town 5k

it's october and therefore time for the annual bucktown 5k. i've done it now for three years and it's always a lot of fun since i usually meet devs at the little loft, then run the course, then do brunch with devs. this year, both me and dev were ahem, not in running shape... she for obvious baby having reasons and me for sheer laziness in working out/running. so instead of making a fool of myself, i suggested to d that maybe we could waaaaaaaalk the race course with piper and since she is too little to run we could just get out there and walk it. and so we did. piper has now completed her first 5k! and it happened to be all through her neighborhood. we may not have won (shocking, i know!), but we did have fun! and afterwards, we found ourselves debating about where to go to brunch and so we finally decided on filter. filter has become a new hangout for us with loads of comfy seating, room for baby and baby accessories and great food/coffee. luckily, the other racers did not have the same fabulous idea as us and so we were able to eat fairly quickly. good... i was starving!

we are total walking champs!!

see? even this picture says there is proof of what champs we are!!!

see? not last, there's still a stroller rolling past the finish line behind us!

stormin' norman-dy

and just like that, our time in paris was over and it was time to meet roni and benoit in normandy! we all took the train in first class style with our own cabin which we may or may not have spread our baggage and stuff everywhere so as to discourage any else from joining us...

see?! more self portraits!

it was a quick 2 hour train ride... not bad at all...

and then we found roni and benoit at the caen station where it was raining and much chillier than in paris! brrr! but that didn't stop us from going to bayeux for lunch and sitting outside! under a tent... and with heaters of course!

scrippsies in normandy!!

yummy gallette for lunch!

check out my awesome room! so pretty! i loved it! and huge!!! and next door to courts and across the short hall to sarahs and just down the way from roni's! it was so just like being back in the scripps dorms again... i kinda was ready to move right on back in!

later that afternoon, the girls had rehearsal so i managed to relax and read in the room and just enjoy. and then roni's grad school friend, shane, knocked on my door and the two of us went in to town and explored the cute seaside village (name of which i am forgetting) and had dinner at one of the restaurants. i was so grateful that shane was so sweet (and had a car) and willing to meet a stranger and hang out! i was just about ready to fall asleep when i heard the commotion of the wedding party coming home and so i leaped out of bed and hung out in courts room with the others until bed time.

taking paris, part deux.

on thursday, c & i had a great many things to do. and to start of the day, we needed to shop. and so we hit the champs d'elysee and checked out many of those stores. including the flagship louis vuitton store to do a little drooling and dreaming...

such a sophisticated self portrait, right?!

ohhhh louis, some day... some day... in courtney's hand is her lovely new lancel bag in orange. it's so cute. and so cute that when i saw one at the airport and had leftover euros, i promptly bought myself one in brown (the airport did not have much in the way of color choice).

court got her lancel bag the evening before and i'd seen a great bag... but i decided to 'think' on it. and think i did. so we had to go back and get it... and some other cute accessories like change purses. and bracelets. our lady was awesome - we asked her to take a picture of us in the store and she totally got in the act and put on the gloves and acted like she was handing us our bags!

sarah was not with us that day for the shopping spree, but we sent her to lancel to see our lady who happily took care of sarah's lancel needs and then reenacted our posing with gloves and bag!

hmmm... that's a lot of lancel!!! albeit we did intentially spread every little bag, bow and red lancel thing in our combined possession to show it all off.

i mentioned that we bought bracelets there. all 4 of the scrippsies at the france wedding of roni and benoit now have matching orange ostrich/alligator leather bracelets!

after dropping our bags off at the hotel, we checked in with sarah to see if she was caught up on her nappy nap time from the jet lag and see if she would like to join us for a tour of the eiffel. a sleepy sarah declined our offer to climb the tower and instead agreed to meet us later for drinks and dinner with court's friend, jeremy. more to come on that in a bit.

we were going to take the elevator to the top so we wouldn't get all hot and sweaty, but the line for the elevator was ridiculous. the line for the stairs was much shorter. and way cheaper. so we trudged up to the first floor which really wasn't that bad of a climb.

we could have climbed to the second floor but b/c we were running short on time and b/c we felt the view from the 1st etage was lovely and perfect, we did not climb any further. besides, we had gotten a couple of cute pictures and really, could we have done any better higher up? we thought not... and so we headed back to the hotel via a quick pitstop to a market in order to pick up some wine for the room and champagne for c's friends.

back at the hotel, we found sarah and then we climbed in to the bathtub to soak our feetsies before getting ready to head out on the town. ohhhh. mmmmm... gggg.... soaking was so necessary after our two days of walking through paris! please note the wine in our hands and on my wrist is our bracelet.
no, sarah has not picked up smoking in paris... but, she is sitting on the potty with a breadstick... and glass of wine while we soak our feetsies.

with our feet soaked, make up applied, new french parfum sprayed and cute outfits on, we found ourselves in a taxi taking self portraits. we were on our way to court's friends jeremy and clemence's chic apartment for some drinks before dinner. their apt is fabulous! i thought: hmmm, maybe i'll move right on in and they won't notice!

we all went to dinner at a very chic and trendy place near jeremy and clemence's place called la societe. b/c i'm the highly embarrassing photographer type who doesn't really care about embarrassing myself for a good photo (usually) the girls made me promise to keep my camera in my purse at all times. until we were about to say goodbye to jeremy and clemence. and so i got one picture of us dressed and ready for a night out in paris. and some random guy jumped in!!

retourner a paris!

after brussels, i came back to paris to meet up with courtney. we managed to find each other in the lobby of the meridian etoile sans cell phone and i couldn't have been more excited to see her! as much as i enjoyed the empowerment of traveling solo, i was so ready for someone who spoke good english... and a friend!

we started off the afternoon (we met up about 1pm) with some wine. being in paris, it was definitely a necessity. so we found a cute looking cafe with outdoor seating and plopped down. can someone puhleeeez note the man behind me... how low can you go?!

doesn't court look great?! no jet lag there!!

after wining and dining for awhile and catching up... probably with me talking way too much in my excitement for a friendly face... anyways, afterward we went walking and walking and walking... and during our long walk... we stopped by notre dame.

and then we walked around the jardins du luxembourg. that is the right garden, right?! in any case, we checked out the garden.

we posed in front of the louvre, but didn't go in... you know... we needed to keep walking. and then do a little shopping... and then some more walking and talking!

i love this picture of us! pretty scrippsies taking on paris!

self portrait ... we did tons of these. some cute... some, well maybe we won't post those...

kissy face!

that evening we found dinner at buddha bar and continued sampling the vino in paris. delicioux!! we shared a few different plates and then ate the best maccaroon. yum! and then, both of us being utterly exhausted we found our way back to the meridian etoile which was actually in a fabulous location and crashed in to bed!