Solar Eclipse!

Today, well yesterday, was the solar eclipse! We weren't anywhere near the path of totality so I didn't think that we'd get that great of view of it, but by the time we remembered and went outside it was pretty neat! I snapped a few pictures without looking right at it, and Jacob figured  out that if he put on 3 pairs of sunglasses it darkened the sun enough that we could see the edge of the moon.  Too cool! We watched the last 1/2 of it online but it was really neat to be able to witness this! I can't wait until we have the money to fly to the next total solar eclipse!! 

Aquarium of the Pacific

Our nearest aquarium to us is the Aquarium of the Pacific, which we absolutely love! They've had a few weddings and Proms there lately so while they close the main part of the aquarium, they keep the shark touch tank open and free to the public so we've gone 2 or 3 times.  Oliver absolutely loves it and asks at least 3 times a day if we can go see the sharks! We're looking into getting a season pass so that we can explore the rest of the aquarium!

That's the Queen Mary in the background!

Jake pretended that this shell was eating him, and Oliver was trying to rescue him...

Then, when Jake tried to get Oliver to get in, he absolutely refused, haha!

Oliver loves Jake so much! He wants to do every single little thing that Jake does.

We love Long Beach so much, it's so pretty at night!

Easter & San Diego

Easter is a low-key holiday with my Uly's family because his parents are usually in Mexico for the holiday and we wait to celebrate it when they come back.  This year I was missing my traditions that I had grown up with and a little homesick for my family so I decided to do a little Easter celebration anyways!

Uly's family does Easter a little differently - they save their empty egg shells for months, then fill them with confetti.  After dinner Uly's sister and parents hide them all over the backyard and let everyone lose to run around and smash the confetti filled eggs on each other! It's so much fun! They don't really dye eggs though so I decided that I'm going to dye eggs with them every year, probably the day before Easter. :) I wasn't sure if they would like it, but we ended up having to go back to the store for more eggs them to dye! 

Everyone stuffing their faces.  I made everything myself and it was so good!! I did a turkey in a roaster and it was delicious, despite being just a little overcooked.  I was so proud of myself for pulling it off!

Ignore my unmade bed - I couldn't resist putting this picture of Oliver talking to my parents on here!

The next weekend we drove down to San Deigo to go to the Zac Brown Band concert with my friend Cory and his boyfriend Jon.  We had an absolute blast at the concert and the next day Cory cut Oliver's hair and bleached and cut my hair! 

The before...

I love how he's looking at me like what the heck are you getting me into mom??

Now he's really unhappy!

Diaper bum!

This is all the hair that Cory ended up taking off of him! Crazy, huh!

The final product! It's so adorable and I just love it.  I know he loved his long hair, but I think he's so much happier with the shorter hair and it'll be so much cooler for the hot summer months ahead!

Renaissance Faire

The first weekend in April was the start of the Renaissance Faire in California! The Faire here is the oldest, biggest and original Renaissance Faire and it was so much fun! I've always wanted to go to one, but it's just never worked out, and I was so happy when it did this year! We got a Groupon for a family pack so we took Uly's little brother and niece with us.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these two kids.  There were so many adorably dressed children I kept flipping out over how cute they were. We're definitely dressing up next year!

Jake got chosen to go on stage for this funny show this guy did.  He was so excited to have been chosen!

Peek-a-boo!

Queen Elizabeth!! I may or may not have gotten all a-flutter whenever we saw her, haha!

Can anyone see who I found?!

The Queen, again!~


One of the sweet older ladies that was working the kid's area told me that they do a knighting ceremony for the kids after the Queen's tea time and to hurry up and sign the kids up, so we did and I am so, so, SO glad we did.  The ceremony was just adorable and I am nerdy woman enough to admit that I was teary eyed the whole time.  I just am such a nerd about that time period and I know how much it meant to the men who were able to become knights, so to see these little kids get to be knighted, even if it wasn't real, was so adorable.

Of course, Oliver totally stole the show.  After each kid got knighted the gentleman in red on the Queen's right would yell out "I present to you Sir so-and-so, huzzah!" to all of us would yell out "Huzzah!" Oliver figured out that after the guy yelled it, he got to yell it too, but he yelled it AFTER everyone else had, which cracked everyone up.  

Introducing Dame Yasmine!

Introducing Sir Jacob!

And finally, Sir Oliver! Isn't that smile so darn cute?!

Sir Oliver and his daddy

He loved that sand pit and was just brokenhearted when we made him leave.  We're so mean!!

The Queen eating dinner...I think the guy on her left is supposed to be Robert Dudley.  I'm not sure how historically accurate they were keeping their "roles". 

And, of course, what day wouldn't end perfectly without Oliver conning two girls working a jewelry booth out of a cookie? 


We had such a fun time and we're already planning our trip there next year! If anyone wants to come, start planning your costume now!