we’ve had a month full of wonderful weddings, the first of which was the walker/morell event in los angeles on october 7th. ryan and melissa are good friends and former co-workers, and we’ve always considered her fiancé (now husband) chris one of the nicest dudes ever, so we were super honored when we received an invitation.

besides, what better excuse to hop in the car, road trip it down to socal and leave ellie behind to spend a little quality time with grandma? (thanks, grandma!) oh and when we heard the wedding would be catered by in ‘n out, we KNEW we had to be there.

we’ve done the drive before but it felt especially long, so we were super excited when we arrived at hotel palomar in westwood. it just sounds fancy, doesn’t it? the view of the surrounding neighborhoods from our room on the 19th floor was magnificent, and we stopped to peer out the window at the spanish style houses below at least several times a day.

we took it easy the first night and walked about a half mile down wilshire boulevard to a restaurant called palomino for dinner and drinks. despite my head congestion and not being able to taste much of ANYTHING very well, i had a delicious maple marinated chicken salad and ryan had fresh trout. the food, the drinks, the service and the ambiance were all wonderful. needless to say, we were pleased.

we woke up bright and early the next morning (after a night of sleeping on the most comfortable hotel mattress in existence) and walked down wilshire again for breakfast. nothing fancy, we just went to denny’s, and when we got back to the hotel, we took a nap! those of you with kids know this is a rare occasion and we enjoyed it to the fullest.

post-nap, i walked to a local salon where a lovely french girl curled my hair and made me feel quite pretty. ryan retrieved the car from valet and picked me up so the wind wouldn’t ruin her hour’s worth of hard work, and we headed straight back to the hotel to get dressed for the wedding.

from there we cabbed it with the adorable ciji and doug (another of ryan’s co-workers) to the smogshoppe, an unassuming but totally charming event venue aptly described on their web site as “LA’s greenest urban oasis.” it totally is!

the moment we walked in, i fell in love with all the personal touches and quirky, colorful decor. there was a candy table topped with an array of vintage style candies, brightly colored name tags in the shape of little flags, and each table was named for a beatles song.

the ceremony was short and sweet. melissa was escorted down the aisle by her dad and met a beaming chris surrounded by their best friends and family members. her aunt read some love letters her grandparents wrote each other during world war II, it was pretty much the sweetest thing ever. the reading was followed by vows, rings, smooch and applause, and all was joyous.

then we partied, ate, drank, danced and made new friends. after getting sufficiently drunk and sweaty, our lovely friend bev graciously drove us back to our hotel and we called it a night. thank you, bev!

and thank you, chris and melissa, for including us in your special day. we had a truly fabulous time. best wishes for a lifetime of love and wedded bliss!

three friday sunsets ago, my dad and i left the bay area to spend the weekend in gold country. we checked into our sonora hotel late that first night and spent a few hours talking and listening to music before we hit the hay. we woke up leisurely the next morning and stopped at the local walmart (barf, but their stuff is cheap) for lawn chairs and a bag of trail mix before heading to the 29th annual fiddle & banjo contest in columbia.

i can’t tell you how great it was to simply sit there and enjoy the music without worrying about a 2-year-old (no offense, ells). in all honesty, i can’t even remember the last time i got out of bed when i wanted to and just went about my day casually without having to stick to a schedule. it was the best! so yeah, we spent most of saturday sitting in our lawn chairs people watching, eating chips and hot dogs and listening to contestants young and old put on their best fiddle and banjo performances.

it was also cool to kick down the dirt roads of columbia and take pictures of old buildings i haven’t seen since i was a kid.

later that afternoon we headed back to our hotel and hung out for awhile before walking down the street for dinner at outlaws bbq & steakhouse. it reminded me a little of good ol’ hickory pit in that it was more on the dive level than that of an upscale steakhouse, but MAN the food was tasty.

then we bought a deck of cards and spent the remainder of the evening drinking a little more than we should and playing gin rummy, just like the old days.

thanks for an awesome father-daughter weekend, dad. i look forward to many more before we’re through :) xoxo!

it’s a mild autumn afternoon and i just put ellie down for her nap. ryan is trimming the hedges, bruiser is crouched down in the grass stalking sparrows, and i’m sitting here on our backyard patio enjoying a very welcome fall breeze. my feet are up, computer on my lap, and other than the wind in the trees and the occasional airplane flying overhead, all is quiet. in a few hours my dad and i are leaving for sonora, a sleepy old town in tolumne county where my family took many weekend trips when i was little. it will be the first time i’ve left ellie and ryan for more than a day, and i’m looking forward to spending some quality time with my dad.

this summer has been good to our family. our house-hunting roller coaster finally came to a stop on a street we love in a house we adore. we’ve made small changes that have had a big impact and it’s slowly but surely becoming the home we used to only dream about. one of the best things about this place is knowing we’ll never have to move again if we don’t want to. it’s neat to be able to drive by ellie’s future elementary school and think “yes, that will do just fine.”

it’s also nice to have family and friends over to a place we are so, so proud to call our own. we’ve had countless swim play dates and backyard barbecues. i can’t think of another place i’d rather have a birthday party or a family gathering.

and now we witness our first change of season in this new place. the leaves on the trees that line our street are already changing color. halloween is on the horizon, then thanksgiving and, before we know it, another christmas will come and go. ellie will turn 3 and with any luck, 2012 will be as incredible a year as this one has been.

much love from the lacks!

hello! it’s been pretty quiet around here lately, i know. we’ve been so busy with the move that i even went a few weeks without uploading any photos to flickr. what? who, me? anyway, we’re very close to being completely settled, so i thought i’d break out the laptop and post a friendly update.

a few weeks before we moved, we had our annual family garage sale in san leandro. we made a nice chunk of change. ellie sold lemonade and it was the cutest thing ever.

we’ve had some super fun playdates with friends and enjoyed a few mommy-ellie outings as well.

we moved and spent our first night in the new house on august 15th. a few days later, ellie’s new mattress was delivered and ryan and eric assembled her big girl bed. she’s been sleeping soundly ever since!

we celebrated my mom’s birthday and mine with some delicious grub at two of our favorite restaurants. ryan and ellie made me a cake and it was definitely one of the yummiest i’ve ever had (the pictures aren’t loading properly right now, but hopefully i’ll be able to post them soon).

and that’s a quick recap of the past few weeks in the lives of the lacks. home improvement is an ongoing process, but we’re having some of our extended family over for a barbecue this weekend, so i’ll clean the place up a bit and post some pictures of what we’ve done so far. hope all is well with everyone!

well, we finally did it. after years of saving and months of searching, ryan and i are officially homeowners :)

it all started back in january. we hired a realtor and a mortgage broker and within a few weeks we had made two offers, one on a townhouse in pleasanton and another on a single family home in livermore. the townhouse had multiple offers higher than ours, so we lost out on that one, but the sellers of the house in livermore accepted quickly and we were thrilled. we were pretty sure that house was going to be “the one.” unfortunately for them, they left us without a real update for nearly six months, so we grew restless and started looking at other properties.

it took awhile before we found anything else we liked as much as the short sale, but it finally happened on may 23rd when we saw a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house in another part of livermore. this one was located closer to downtown in an older (but nicer) neighborhood assigned to better schools. it had a bigger kitchen, hardwood floors, prettier landscaping and a pool! so of course we made an offer. by the following week the sellers had accepted without a counter. we couldn’t believe it! we knew it would move faster because it was a regular sale, so we were really excited.

from that day forward, the home-buying process was an emotional roller coaster. inspections cost us hundreds of dollars, negotiations regarding who would pay to fix what were stressful and frustrating and had us feeling on edge much of the time. our realtor stretched the truth on several occasions and we had a hard time putting our faith in her to represent us the way we felt we should be represented. we often felt misguided and manipulated, even up until the very last day.

in the end, the important thing is that we made it through the past two months and came out with the perfect little house for our family. we plan to stay for a long, long time <3

more pictures to come after a new kitchen floor, some fresh paint and a few personal touches :)