Happy Tuesday!

It’s finally time for me to share the rest of our trip today. We ended our trip with some fun in Madeira, Portugal celebrating the wedding of a beautiful couple.  While there, we had a little bit of an “itinerary” for out of town guests, should they wish to participate which was really nice!

Day 6:

It was 2 am before we finally reached our Airbnb.  After meeting with the owner quickly for the keys, we headed to bed.  Jess and Jeff arrived around 10 am to our place (we stayed together!) and we set out for the Lava Pools!

If you ask Logan what his favorite part of Madeira was – he’d say these pools, hands down!

The Lava Pools are a natural man-made swimming pool made from lava rock with the ocean tide sweeping in.  We all were under the assumption that the pools would be almost like a hot spring… I mean, the name has lava in it BUT these were nowhere near warm!

After the pools, we headed back to the Airbnb to relax a little bit before walking down to dinner.

Day 7:

Today, we had bachelorette festivities all through Madeira!

The bride is from Madeira so it was really fun to help her with a scavenger hunt to get to know the city better!

First stop was a selfie with Christopher Columbus!  He spent a year in Madeira learning how to sail before he made his voyage to America.

Next, we headed to see Cristiano Ronaldo’s statue as he’s from the island as well!

We stopped by one of their wineries for a tour and tasting of Madeira wine.

Side note, their wine is all port wine – at 22% alcohol content, it was crazy strong! And since I really just love sweet wine – it wasn’t for me!

We made a pit stop at one of Lara’s favorite bakeries and tried her favorite; their traditional cake! While enjoying that, I also tried some gelato because #whynot

Our last stop before dinner, we headed to a little hole in the wall bar (so cool though!) and enjoyed a shot in a chocolate shot glass!  After we took the sweet shot, we got to eat the chocolate cup 🙂

Dinner was at a cute little restaurant that had the BEST Sangria and bread!

We walked through the city and they have the cutest cobblestone roads all along the ocean that we later met the guys at and “partied” on!

Day 8:

We went back downtown Friday with Jess and Jeff and enjoyed more Sangria 🙂

We also enjoyed some great pasta before heading back to the condo to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal dinner was so much fun!  There were probably 50 people and not only was the food amazing…

but the performers were so fun as well.  We could all feel Lara’s culture through and through!​​

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Day 9:

This was our last day in Madeira (and on our trip) and the day of the wedding! Logan and I started our day late – or I should say HE started it later 🙂

But we walked back downtown again to look at a few places and then grab a quick lunch.

I had Sangria one more time and this time… not so great! Turns out, not ALL Sangria there is amazing! ha!

We had to stop for some gelato before heading back to get ready for the night.

The wedding ceremony was at a church that overlooked the whole island.  I’m not kidding, it was just beautiful everywhere you looked!

After the ceremony – which was a traditional Catholic ceremony in Portuguese – we set out for the reception.

This wedding was just gorgeous – I can’t even begin to explain how beautiful and spectacular it was!  The champagne started flowing and macaroons were passed around immediately before the cocktail hour began.



How cute are the bride and groom riding up in this vintage car?!

The cocktail hour was overlooking the ocean and the drinks (and apps) were all so tasty!

At dinner, we definitely were at the table to be at; “Table 19!” right next to the bride and groom!  

We sang the night away at our table to the live music especially when the Disney songs started 🙂

The dance started back on the roof top overlooking the ocean around 11-11:30 pm and even featured a fog machine, some great 90’s songs and fireworks!

We left the next morning around 7 am and headed back to the US.

This trip was truly a once in a lifetime experience and having friends along with us made it even better!

We are both still exhausted but can’t wait for our next trip!

Bonjour!

I’m recapping the second part of our trip today and what we did in Paris. We enjoyed so much about this city and while we did a lot of “tourist” stuff – it was such a blast!

Day 3: 

We arrived in Paris around 4:00 and immediately set up an Uber (best advice from my cousins!) to pick us up from the airport and take us to our hotel.  We stayed at XO Hotel and absolutely would stay there again! It was a great location and our room was perfect.  I loved that you could open the windows and the view was like a movie!

Any way… we checked into the hotel and hit the town for dinner! 

And dessert because #wereinparisWe picked a little cafe/restaurant (everything is known as a cafe there!) and tried our best with their menu and recommendations.  

Also – wine.  

After dinner, we stopped by another cafe for a quick drink before heading back to the hotel for bed!

Day 4:

Another busy day and it was full of tourist things! We started our day with a walk to the Arc de Tromphe (and climbed the stairs to the top).

We then headed to the Eiffel Tower!  

We decided to walk up that as well – i mean, we hadn’t walked enough yet, right?!

Then after a lot of “no, no, no’s” we headed up the elevator to the very top of the Tower.. 

I wouldn’t consider myself afraid of heights but the thought of that elevator and seeing it all get so small – gives me the shivers!

After the Eiffel Tower, we headed to find the subway station to head to Notre Dame. A creepy clown stopped us and much to my hesitation, grabbed me for a picture.. and then grabbed Logan. He was legit, the clown from IT and was so creepy!

He insisted he take pictures of us (for money, of course) and thought these were perfect in front of the port-a-potties.. umm no thanks!

We figured out the subway station like pros and headed to Notre Dame next.

Then walked over to the Louvre.

We stopped for a Nutella Crepe quick on our way back to the hotel for a little bit of wine. 

Did I mention, they had the best wine in Paris?! Well they did…

We met friends for dinner (the same friends from London!) and enjoyed a cheese and bread board! Oh yeah, and wine 🙂

We headed back to the hotel for the night and some football.

Day 5:

Today was Logan’s birthday and guess what we did bright and early…?  We had our pictures taken at the Eiffel Tower 🙂 Not the best birthday present, but it was the only day our photographer was available!

Unfortunately, it rained the whole time for the pictures – I swear, we have the WORST luck with professional pictures – so I’m so interested to see how they all turned out!

We headed back to the hotel to change out of our wet clothes and to take a warm shower – so cold!!  After, we headed to our favorite bakery for some chocolate eclairs and croissants.  

It was his birthday, after all 🙂

We hit a few stores at this point and I brought home just a few souvenirs (two scarves to be exact!) and headed back to check out of our hotel.   We took the subway to the Musee d’orsay but after arriving, we decided we didn’t want to wait in line for the museum since we were headed to Portugal that night.  We walked our little butts to the Montemarte and Sacre Coeur – which we realized VERY quickly that even though it was supposedly 3 miles – it took about an hour and definitely felt like 20 miles!

On our way back towards the train station, we stopped and checked out Moulin Rouge – so cool!

We headed back to the hotel area (as our stuff was hanging there still) and stopped by a few cafes to enjoy a few  glass of wine and beers while sightseeing.

I told Logan I could totally move to Paris.  The architecture and just way of living is so fascinating and beautiful to me – sign me up!

After drinks, we stopped by the hotel, grabbed our stuff and headed to the airport for our flight to Madeira!

Paris was truly our favorite city – we liked London but Paris… has my heart! We’re already planning our next visit there!

I’ll be recapping the final installment of our trip (to Portugal) next week and can’t wait to share with you all the fun we had there!

Have you been to Paris?! What was your favorite part?

Have a fabulous day!

Kristi

Happy Wednesday!

I am still trying to get back into the swing of things after our long trip and my exciting news I received when I got in on Monday (see bottom of post for the news!). I thought I’d share our trip in sections so it’s not too overloaded with pictures!

So without further adieu… the first part of our trip started with London!

Day 1:

We arrived in London around 11:30 am (5:30 am our time in the US) and were ready to get rolling!  Our flight left at 7:30 pm the night before so we were able to get a few hours of sleep in on the plane, thankfully.  

We took the subway/train to our hotel from the airport, checked into our incredibly small room and hit the streets for Kensington Palace!

The Palace was beautiful with so many different “apartments” with the original decor of the previous King/Queens.

After the tour, we headed to get some dinner and hit up a sweet little pub.  I had the Roasted Chicken (yum) and Logan ordered a steak pot-pie (not the actual name but basically the same thing!).  Funny story… When Logan got his meal, it looked a little different… I mean, it had a huge bone in it! When I asked him about it, he said “Kristi… this is ‘their’ type of steak.. duh!” Well, after the server coming over and asking what he ordered and then coming back over to let him know he actually had the Lamb Shank instead in front of him.. I knew I was right after all 😉

After dinner, we stopped by a bar near the hotel for a quick drink. 

I thought it was funny the “his and her” drinks! Yes, the pink drink is Logan’s 🙂

Day 2:

This was our busiest day in London!  We were a little worried because of the train bombing that was the day before (we got an abundance of “are you safe?” texts when we finally got WIFI the previous day – so scary!) but headed out for our original itinerary.

Our first stop was Tower of London!

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This was the coolest tour we did!

After the tour, we headed to lunch with some friends before going on the boat cruise tour!

Next, we saw Big Ben and headed to the London Eye.

After, we walked to Westminster Abbey and then onto Buckingham Palace.

We headed back to the hotel to freshen up a bit before the Tottenham Spurs soccer game!

I wasn’t kidding when I said we had a busy day 😉

We finished our night with a cute pub by the hotel with some friends!

Day 3:

This was the day we headed to Paris!  We got up early and packed up our stuff, changed and checked out of the hotel.  Logan is a huge fan of the movie Love Actually and when I first met him, it was his favorite “Christmas” movie.  The hotel we stayed at was about a 10 minute walk from the infamous scene “to me, you’re perfect” and the pink house so we headed over there but not before stopping by Starbucks for a PSL!

I loved all of the streets and buildings in both London and Paris. It’s amazing how beautiful all of it is!

We stopped for breakfast quick before heading to the Eurostar train and it was delicious!

We headed to the train station after retrieving our bags and set off for Paris! Two hours later and we had arrived!

I’ll share about the second part of our trip in Paris tomorrow so be ready for a ton more pictures!

This has nothing to do with our trip BUT my sweet little niece Nora Grace waited for me to come home from our long trip before gracing us with her presence! She’s incredibly sweet and honestly so beautiful! I’ll share more about her on Friday but had to share a picture because she’s gorgeous!

I now have 3 amazing nieces and I can’t wait to see them all together!

Do you have any plans for this hump day?! Is the weather fall by you or is summer still sticking around?

Have a fabulous day!

Kristi

Longest blog post title ever, am I right?

I thought I’d share a few of the pieces I’m bringing with me this weekend for our little getaway to Charleston!

Can you tell I’m so darn excited for this trip?! 🙂

This romper seems to be the perfect color for the colorful town!  I always think rompers look a little silly on me but the top part helps to break it up a bit!

This next dress is probably my favorite that I’m bringing along…

when I ordered it, I thought it was more of a canvas feel but oh my, is it soft?! It runs exceptionally big so I recommend sizing down and ordering it in every color!

I need to plan better so that I could have tried the bright orange color for the trip!

I shared this next dress yesterday as I tried it on and I fell in love! It’s perfect for this weekend with either my Tory sandals or with wedges depending on what we’re doing that day!

How comfy does this romper look?! I can’t wait to wear it after some beach time!

This next dress is so stinkin’ cute! It comes in three colors and I think I might need the orange dress as well.. I’m planning to try it with a belt so it doesn’t feel so shapeless!

Well, that’s a little bit of what I’m packing for this weekend!  Don’t forget I’m bringing my DIY sunhat as well as a beach bag (even though the hubs thinks I’m totally crazy!).

I was debating sharing our time this weekend on Instastories or on Snapchat but think Instastories might win out 🙂 Do you want to follow along?!

Have a fantastic Wednesday, y’all!

Kristi