We had the very great pleasure of Brookie and Daniel in town to celebrate Brookie’s 35th birthday! It was awesome. Irene through a great party in her new, renovated kitchen to celebrate…and all the homies came out to raise a glass!

Susan, Janna, and the Kelly-Green’s

The Kelly-Green’s with Lil Bro

The Kelly-Green’s with The Mama

Cute Kids!

Irene doesn’t like to show her teeth when she smiles

Brookie and Rachel…I am so jealous of Rachel’s hair.

Next up…Brookie’s birthday dinner! Oooooooooooo…

Oh my goodness! I know I am so so so behind (again) on updates…but all I can say is that I am sorry :) And now…on to the show!

So, Ali got married a few weeks ago! I don’t have any photos from the wedding, but I do have some lovely photos from her nice bridesmaids luncheon and shower.

The lovely bride, her sister Lauren, and Mandy!

Mama of the bride and her lovely friend who has a name, but I forgot it.

My lunch. Some kind of chicken lettuce wrap thingys…they were pretty tasty. But not as tasty as the corn fritters I had for an appetizer. I couldn’t get a photo because I ate them too quickly :)

The bride and I!

And Mandy and I!

And Lauren and I!

With the mama of the bride…

The bride with Andrea and Kristina…

and finally…The Eckert girls!

I’ll try to get some of the wedding photos when they’re available :)

To help celebrate C-Lowe’s impending nuptials, a bunch of her biggest lady-fans headed out to Santa Barbara wine country to raise a glass in her honor. We actually stayed in Buellton, at the Days Inn featured in SIDEWAYS. We even got to stay in the SIDEWAYS room…or so said the young lady who checked us in! The motel has seen better days, but it was still fun.

Some photos of the entirely civilized debauchery that ensued…

The lady of the day with her pecker veil

C-Lowe and Alex

Emily and Danielle

Emily, Suzanne, C-Lowe, and Alex

We had a picnic!

Emily made peanut butter chocolate cupcakes…from scratch. We’re soul mates.

They were delicious. So I ate two of them. It’s OK…I am going running tomorrow.

We also celebrated C-Lowe’s birthday!

And this guy sat on our picnic table throughout the lunch.

Dinner! OMGSFG. I don’t know if that is a legitimate internet slang, but the SFG stands for So Fucking Good. Because this pasta was, OH MY GOD, SO FUCKING GOOD.

These are the only photos I got of our wild night on the town…that’s funny because we were all so wine drunk from our day of tasting, and tired from the enormous meals we kept eating, that we ended up in bed by 1am. Oh well, cheers to getting old(er)!

C-Lowe taught us all a knew pose for optimal pretty photo-taking! Emily and I trying it out…I think I need to work on not looking so stiff. But mostly I like it! Perky boobs, thin arms, no double chin. Win-Win-Win.

Danielle’s take…

I took another stab with Alex…she couldn’t stop giggling. But I think it’s working!

And…the weirdest/coolest-looking teenager in Santa Ynez. He’s wearing an AC/DC t-shirt! I tried to sneak this photos by pretending I was snapping Suzanne, but I think he caught me…whoops :)

…one of my favorite parts of the trip was all the hang time with everyone. It was so much fun getting the know everyone. I am so cheesy. But genuine nonetheless.

First off, the Church of the Loaves and the Fishes, in Galilee. It’s a Catholic church that was erected at the spot in Galilee where Jesus turned 5 fishes and 2 loaves of bread into enough food to feed an enormous crowd of people. The mosaics on the walls and floors of the church were so beautiful.

The sea of Galilee!

This is the Greek Orthodox Church that is right next to the sea…

This place is basically the opposite of understated…

AND…a bunch of us went swimming…in the actual Sea of Galilee. RIIIIIIGHT?!?!?!

That’s me behind Niko’s arm…

And…we went north! Somewhere in the middle of our trip, we headed up north to check out Nazareth, Galilee, and Tel Hai.

Nazareth is awesome. Also, it’s NAZARETH. From the BIBLE. NUTS.

Please ignore the disaster in brown below…I have no idea what was going on that day, but it was not representing well in my personal appearance…sigh.

Just look at the view!! I think I sweated off my face that day…

UPDATE!!! It was just pointed out to me by an eagle-eyed reader that this is an incredible lookout of the view towards the Golan Heights and LEBANON…not Syria.

This is Esby, who grew up down the block from me! She went to Elysian Heights Elementary, which is the school my mother taught at forever and ever. She didn’t have my mom as her kindergarten teacher, but it’s still a small figgin’ world. Don’t you love our fabulous red carpet poses? One hand on the leg…slims you out! Esby’s is better than mine, but I’m working on it.

We went on a hike through the Banias River Nature Preserve…waterfalls!

The whole group…awwww

Banias River Ruins…

I don’t know what’s up with these next few shots…I think the humidity fogged up my camera lens or something…or maybe I am just a master of the cool-effects photo.

Eh, I guess it was the humidity.

Here is the perfect example of why multiple takes are needed on photos!!

Final photo…

First attempt, where I panicked and couldn’t figure out where to put my arms. Multiple takes, people…necessary for a happy and successful blog.

And now a quick word on Kibbutz. We visited some Kibbutzim, and I am officially OBSESSED. I love it…communal living, collective childcare, everyone has to share their snacks with each other. What could be better? In fact, I have decided to open my OWN Kibbutz. It’s Kate Payne Kibbutz. It is going to be magical, people. You have no idea.

Next time…Galilee!

A bunch of us went out CLUBBING in Tel Aviv. Yeah…it was awesome.

Pre-game!

This is Amanda…she is quite possibly the world’s most photogenic person. She’ll be popping up a lot in upcoming posts…so just pay attention. She ALWAYS looks FANTASTIC in photos…it’s incredible. She’s my idol.

The main event!

I honestly could not tell you what was in that neon yellow drink…WTF?!?

Not it! (I secretly want to be in Isabel and Jaz’s clique…one day…)

Favorite shot of the night…we all had fun. But mostly Roberto did.

Wine Club was a marvelous way to get back into the swing of things in LA. Danielle was our gracious and gorgeous hostess and she did a bang-up job, let me tell you. We had a LOT of new faces this time around…mainly editors that Danielle knows from AFI and from work. It was really fun to get to know these awesome new ladies. All in all, another successful meeting…we checked off everything on our agenda: eat food, get drunk. Yep, that about covers it!

The spread…

Our lovely hostess making chocolate-chip-BACON-cookies and a quiche. I love her.

All of the beautiful ladies…

I like to make funny faces. My mother hates it. I think that’s why I like it :)

And this is Lucy…who is just too cute NOT to put on the blog!

Here is a little photo roll of some of the truly wonderful meetings of Wind Down Wine and Eating Club. International travel is no excuse for missing wine club. Also, when you are traveling abroad, it’s OK eat like a little piggie the entire time. International calories don’t count.

Okay…Photo-blog-style it is! I know, but shut up please. I just can’t deal.

Day 7!

Little kiddies at a school we visited…they were so cute and they sang songs for us!

Little kiddies were followed by some grubbin’…

Check out my monster salad…oh YEAH.

Next was a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial. It was an incredibly sobering experience and one that I know will stay with me forever.

After our visit to Yad Vashem, we made our way into Jerusalem for the evening, and had some dinner…I can’t remember the name of this restaurant, but they served the MOST DELICIOUS HUMMUS I HAVE EVER EATEN. EVER! That is all.

The most fun part of posting all of these photos so late is that I get to look through them again and see the pretty faces of all of my new BFFs.

This is an incredible-looking graveyard on the way out of Jerusalem.