08.05.11

We spent a weekend in early August in upstate New York celebrating the wedding of Paula and Ankur for the second time!  They were officially married last summer but held a traditional Indian wedding in Rochester this summer and who are we to pass up a celebration??  We met up with three other couples (all of whom I had traveled to Chile with the summer before b-school) and took a day trip to Niagara Falls (for the obvious reason) and Buffalo (for the wings)!  In other news, introducing baby to spicy Indian food was apparently a good idea as the bump seemed to double in size from Thursday to Sunday.  I swear you couldn't tell I was pregnant when we arrived and by the time we left there were complete strangers rubbing my belly on the airplane!  

 Marisa and I at the Falls (American side)

 View of Canadian side

 Sporting our blue trash bags on Maid of the Mist

 Kristy and Nathan

 The whole gang (minus the bride and groom)

 

 Spicy buffalo wings in Buffalo

Post-meal pic at Duff's in Buffalo

 Raas Garba dancing

 Our kurtas

 Coles in Kurtas

 We were a colorful bunch!

The ceremony 

With Ankur and Paula.  She was one of the most beautiful brides I have ever seen! 

The instigator of my growth 

07.15.11

We spent a gorgeous weekend in Chicago with some b-school friends to celebrate Paula's birthday and get prepared for Paula and Ankur's wedding festivities.  Ankur took us all up to Little India where they outfit us in kurtas and sold me more gold bangles than any person could ever wear in a lifetime!

 Brunch at Birchwood.  We have now been there twice as a group.  Does that count as tradition?

 Trying on clothes in Little India

 Chicago skyline from the rooftop - I miss this city!

 Scott + Marisa

 Turning 30 never looked so good!

07.16.11

A few weeks ago we celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday by taking the whole fam to North Captiva island off the coast of Florida.  None of us had ever been there before but I have a feeling we will be going back sooner rather than later!  

 Due to the fact that you had to take a $60 ferry to get off the island, we had one shot at getting the right amount of groceries for the 9 of us for a week!  

 Tori

 Ellie

 Katie

 Our view

 Cartusciello ladies

 Playing with Uncle Dave

 Post-pool smoothies with Elle Belle

 Three men and three ladies

No one thought we could eat this jar of pickles but Mr. Pickles and I got darn close!

 Morning hike with Dad

 Golf cart shenanigans

 Classic Tori

 Evening nature walk - our house in the background

 One day we chartered a boat and my dad drove us all over the place, hopping from island to island for lunch, shelling, and a little manatee watching!

 Shelling

 Cabbage Key - where Jimmy Buffet wrote Cheeseburger in Paradise

07.04.11

Happy Fourth from Cincy!

06.12.11

We flew home for Memorial Day weekend to spend time with both our families and the Burks.   We couldn't have asked for a better start with my parent's treating us to dinner on the rooftop of Reata.  Lovely weather, good conversation, and delicious food!

Saturday morning we headed over to the Burks for breakfast and proceeded to work off our Whataburger and Starbucks treats with playing inside and outside with the two big girls.  To be clear, Dave worked it off playing; Tash and I worked it off chatting.   It is always so good to catch up with that family!  

On Sunday we had fun visiting Fielder and eating lunch at the newly opened Babe's Fried Chicken.  Nothing like fried chicken on a Sunday afternoon!  Luckily we got to see Gran prior to the Babe's-induced Sunday afternoon nap.

We came back to summer in full swing in Cincy.  I have been re-adjusting to my loss of a "house manager" and we both have been enjoying the stressful, late nights watching our Mavs in what has been a fantastic series thus far!