Category: Fun Days

Happy Fathers Day

The shirt is true - Ruby is a Daddy's Girl!

 

Today was Ed’s 1st Fathers Day! I could hardly wait to celebrate this – he is such a great dad and does so much for us that I wanted to make it special. I think I was more excited about Father’s Day than Mother’s Day! Ed wanted to keep things low-key, so I honored his wishes. :)

We started off the morning by presenting Daddy with a few gifts. Ruby made him a picture storybook called “Daddy & Me” with some of the best photos of the two of them so far. Want to see the book?
Click here to see the book
(You’ll see the book on the right, and use the “Next” arrow below to flip pages of the book)

After presents, we headed out to the beach for an early morning run (we had a delicious lunch planned, so we had to get our exercise in early!) Both of us enjoy running together and its always a kick to watch Ruby enjoy herself while she’s a long for the ride. We did about 2 1/2 miles from Bluff Park to Belmont Shore and back.

Finally, the part Ed was really looking forward to – lunch at Porto’s Bakery in Downey to enjoy empanadas, potato balls and ropa vieja sandwiches! We love Cuban food and Porto’s is simply amazing. The place was packed! Lots of families were in to pick up pastries for their own Father’s Day celebrations. It looks like our Foodie-in-Training is learning quickly – here she is making an attempt to steal our empanadas and potato balls! :)

We also had dates with both my dad and Ed’s dad to celebrate the day as well. We took my dad out on Saturday to Schooner or Later. It’s kind of a Long Beach institution and it was featured on one of my dad’s favorite shows, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network, so it was a fitting location! We enjoyed a beautiful breakfast by the water…

On Sunday, we took Ed’s dad out to the new Gaucho Grill in Downtown Long Beach for some Argentinean cuisine. Basically, that means meat! It was delicious, and Ruby was in a really great mood and hammed things up for her Harabuji at the house before went out.

All in all, it was a great Father’s Day. I’m so lucky to have all these great dads around me to celebrate with!

A Day at the Farm


On Sunday, we headed out to Tanaka Farms in Irvine with Ruby’s future BFF’s Berlin & Violet to take a Strawberry Tour! It was so much fun and we even got to pick our own strawberries.

 


First things first – you get to go for a ride around the farm in a tractor! Very exciting, especially for the kiddos. As you roll along, they stop to show you the different types of crops – and you even get to sample the produce!

Ruby was very into her carrot!

Violet sampling some celery …

Berlin double-fisting wax beans and celery!

Once we got to the strawberry fields, we all got off the tractor and got to pick our own berries. Each person got to fill their own clamshell. Ruby was into the picking – those pretty red berries definitely caught her eye!

Tanaka Farms rules! We’ve already talked about making plans to go back in August for the Watermelon Tour … and I want to go again in October to check out the pumpkin patch.

 

Click here to see more pics at the farm!

Art in the Streets at MOCA


To celebrate Ed’s birthday, we headed over to MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary Building to see one of the coolest exhibitions ever, Art in the Streets. This show is HUGE and it shows just how far street art has come from back in the day when people just called it “grafitti” (It’s so much more!). If you really wanna get a good look inside the people who’ve helped catapult the Street Art movement, check out the documentary “Exit Through The Gift Shop” – you won’t be disappointed.

Here are a few highlights!
Hard to see, but this is me standing in front of a bunch of teensy pictures of grafitti art on trains.

Ed and Ruby in front of one of the Shepard Fairey walls

(Does something look familiar about his work? You probably know him from this hugely popular poster!)

Banksy

Mister Cartoon’s Low Rider Ice Cream Truck

Day-Glo room

Fun alley

Spray paint retrospective!

God Save the Queen!

And finally … after all that art … over-stimulation!

Its really tough to put into words what an impact that exhibition has, even if you wouldn’t consider yourself a street art enthusiast. You should see it in person, too!

Check the album for more pics:

MOCA – Art in the Streets

Our First Mother’s Day!

It didn’t hit us until a couple weeks before Mother’s Day, but this year marks the first time Mother’s Day applies to Carrie, and not just our moms! Unbelievable! So what to do? Well, a Mother’s Day brunch would be just too predictable and not to mention crowded, so we opted instead to head out to Palos Verdes for a seaside picnic and hike. Given our new little family’s newfound love of the outdoors, it only seemed appropriate.

Our friend had told us about Terranea, a relatively new seaside resort in Palos Verdes set on top of dramatic bluffs overlooking the ocean, and its many stroller-friendly trails. So we hopped in the neat Chevrolet Volt electric car I was testing that weekend and headed out that way.

First things first: lunchtime! We brought all sorts of tasty stuff to eat out there. We found an amazing picnic spot overlooking the ocean. Seriously, the lunchtime view could not have been better.

No alcohol yet for Carrie (we don’t want Ruby getting drunk during her feedings!), so some festive bubbly apple cider filled in for champagne.

After that tasty lunch, it was off to walk the trails. Spectacular views were everywhere, and Ruby – who loves being outside – loved it too!

It’s amazing what we have in our own backyard; it’s all too easy to take it for granted. I mean, this is 25 minutes away from home!

It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday, especially Carrie’s first Mother’s Day. And as you can see here, little Ruby had a blast too.

Click below to see the entire album.

1st Mothers Day

Ruby Goes to the Long Beach Aquarium

Even though Ruby’s only five months old, we thought we might spend a fun day at the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific, where we’d been told the spectacular displays and colors are exciting even for really little babies.

It had been quite a while since either Carrie or I had been there, but we did remember what a great place it is. Split into numerous areas that represent different parts of the Pacific Ocean, the Aquarium of the Pacific educates and entertains in ways that both adults and kids can truly appreciate.

Ruby, of course, didn’t really understand what she was looking at, but there was no doubt she was fully engaged in the experience. Her eyes followed the numerous swimming sea creatures; it was really neat to see her so into it!

Naturally, it was best to travel by Baby Björn.

Here’s me pointing out some interesting sea creatures to Ruby.

And here’s Carrie and Ruby in front of the sea lion tank.

Are we sane parents for letting Ruby stick her hand in the shark tank? No need to call child protective services…these are very friendly and harmless sharks and rays!

Me and Ruby at my favorite part: the BIG shark tank! No sticking fingers in here, of course!

Carrie shows Ruby some sealife native to the northern Pacific.

Oooh, big jellyfish!

And finally, some serious Ruby cuteness, if I do say so myself…

Awesome day; click here to see the whole album!