Oh, hello there!

Yep, it's me...long lost Mallory.

Things have been a little busy around here lately and I've been neglecting the blog. But here I am with some pictures and collages and updates for you!

You might have heard at the beginning of the month we had a big fire here in Ventura County: 28,000 acres burned, lots of evacuations (but no homes lost), lots of fire crews working on the fire and lots of work for us in dispatch.

From the local newspaper.



On my drive home the morning it started

That created a lot of work for us all. It was wonderful to see how my coworkers all came together to get the job done and I'm glad to say that we did a great job!

Some friends and I did the Color Run in Orange County. My first 5k. We ran for a bit over a mile and then walked the rest. It was hot and the run was on an old airstrip making it even hotter out. It was fun getting doused in color and going to lunch after all colored!

We also celebrated our 3 year anniversary. We had a nice relaxing day: Chris made us waffles for breakfast, we went to the park with Bailey and then he took me out to dinner at Craft.

My delicious waffle, the restaurant, our granola goodie bag, Stack wine

We love watching the show Top Chef where Tom Colicchio is the head judge and have been talking about going to his restaurant for awhile. It was very classy and a special experience. We tried foods we normally wouldn't have and had a nice adult evening out. It ended up being a six course meal, enjoyed with glasses of champagne.

Course 1: Tuna tartare {we didn't order it, it just came before the meal}

Course 2: Ricotta cavatelli & wild mushroom pasta and a beet & Gorgonzola salad

Course 3: Quail and Beef short ribs

Course 4: Butterscotch panna cotta {my absolute favorite dish of the night}

Course 5: warm chocolate tart with salted caramel ice cream (inedible to my taste because of the saltiness of the ice cream)

Course 6: Chocolate cookies, oatmeal cake, and pecan bars {pecan bar was my second favorite}

They sent us home with goodie bags of granola.

Chris also found me Stack wine. It has four individual glasses of wine stacked together. Perfect for people like me who don't drink an entire bottle of wine, but a glass sounds nice every once and awhile.

Chris had to work on Mother's day, but it was ok because Bailey and I got to meet my parents at the Santa Barbara Zoo. (The pictures of my Mom are all on my home computer, so those will have to be posted later). We had a wonderful day together and I'm glad I got to be with my Mom on my first Mother's day.

We are finally getting our backyard into shape! Well..we aren't, Chris' brother-in-law's Dad is doing it for us. We are adding planters, wooden platforms, and new sprinklers and sod. I'm so excited to see (and show you) the results in a few weeks!

Bailey and I got the flu this last week, fortunately for her it only lasted two days {it lasted three for me and now it's turned into a cold}. My thoughtful hubby surprised me and brought me a Wendy's frosty tonight at work to make me feel better. Yum!

We have spent most of our time cuddling our sweet girl {and each other} and it has been nice getting time together.

Because I can't resist more pictures of our sweet girl...

{Even when she decides that 6am is a much better time to wake up than 8am}.

Although by the looks of the above picture, she's not a big fan of 6am either!

I can't get the video to upload, but we now have a full fledged walker in our life. Bailey cruises around wherever we go and is fun to take walks with.

I will do my best to post more regularly, but no promises! I hope you all are doing well and thanks for sticking around even when I've been MIA.