Long Beach – thosecoolkims

Santa Visit Success!

After two years of terrifying visits with Santa, it seems that Ruby has finally warmed up to Ol’ St. Nick. We’ve been taking her every year to see the Santa Claus at Lil’ Devils Boutique, a super rad shop on Retro Row in Long Beach. It’s casual there, Santa is slightly punk rock with a small tattoo under his eye, and we just like to support small business.

The 1st year was easy … Ruby was just about 5 weeks old. She slept through the whole visit.

Then, at 13 months, Ruby was NOT feeling it.

Last year, at two years old, the visit was equally as terrifying.

But this year, somebody wised up and figured out there’s nothing to be afraid of … and, you can even ask him to bring you something that you want!

I guess it’s all just proof that this little girl is growing up!

Saturday Fun, parts 1 and II

Today Ruby went to her 1st full-length feature film. We hopped in the car very early and drove up to the El Capitan in Hollywood to catch the 10:00am showing of Monsters University. We were excited to find out if Ruby could hang with an entire movie, and we couldn’t deny being curious about the latest Pixar movie, either. The verdict? Ruby loved it.(And, she seriously loves popcorn, too.)

We celebrated this first movie milestone by having ice cream sundaes at the Soda Fountain next door.

Later that day, we were feeling a little antsy and wanted to spend some time outdoors. We headed to Belmont Shore, grabbed an early dinner on 2nd Street, and decided to play at the beach a little bit before bedtime. It was gorgeous out there today. I was lucky enough to have the best view around — watching Ed + Ruby play was the best way to wrap up our fun little day.

We proclaim Parents Day!

So with Ed’s big 40th falling on Mothers Day this year, I gladly forfeited celebrations so we could focus on his big milestone. Then, we found out a very good friend will be visiting from Germany and staying with us during Fathers Day weekend, and although he probably wouldn’t mind celebrating what a great Dad Ed is with us, we thought it would be better to just combine the two into our own holiday this year. So this Sunday, June 8th, we celebrated Parents Day.

To start things off, Ed totally surprised me with an awesome turntable and a set of 3 re-issued Sun Records 45s by Third Man Records! I was completely stunned and speechless after receiving this gift. I had NO IDEA this was coming (he told me no gifts!) and I am so incredibly excited to finally start a vinyl collection! It’s going to be pretty cool that Ruby will grow up knowing what a record is, too.

We kinda lagged on getting out of the house because we were listening to records, and by the time we headed out for lunch, Ruby crashed out in the car. So we went to our favorite Taqueria, ordered burritos, and ate them in the car while Ruby slept. It wasn’t fancy, but it was totally delicious.

After Ruby woke up, we went to our favorite coffeeshop in the LBC, Berlin, and sat outside while sipping on cappuccinos. Fingerprints Music is right next store, so I also got a chance to browse the vinyl! When I found this Patsy Cline LP, I knew it would be the perfect inaugural purchase for me!

So while it may not have been a typical Mothers Day/Fathers Day celebration — it was a day having fun with our little family of three. It was perfect!

Happy Record Store Day!

We were proud to support the best record store ever today — Fingerprints Music in the LBC — and an added bonus was that we got to see Best Coast perform live in-store! It was Ruby’s 1st concert, and she hung in there for about 7 songs, and then she said things were just “too loud”. She’s a big fan of the limited edition single we picked up though.

We can’t let record stores go extinct! We love having Fingerprints in our town, and we had a blast seeing Best Coast!

The Exxopolis Luminarium

We went to see the Exxopolis Luminarium this past weekend when it was set up at CSULB. All three of us were blown away! We wish the pics could capture it, but it simply can’t. It was a very unique experience!