Gia in Texas....sans parental units.

Well, Gia was in Texas with Mimi and Popa for an entire week....without Mom and Dad. Not that she noticed. My mom said that she would ask about us in the morning and before bed, but other than that (which she prefaced with, "don't let this hurt your feelings") she was fine.
Which really makes us happy. I will say that there is no one else on earth that could take Miss G for a week that Ralph and I could feel more comfortable with than Mimi and Popa. Gia was sad to board the plane in Houston with Mommy and Daddy leaving Mimi and Popa behind. Gia and Mimi mad happy cakes, cookies and food galore. My mom said that her favorite part was cleaning up afterwards....how lucky am I?!?!

Gia collecting horse apples to decorate Mimi's front porch. Gia has Mimi's photogenic qualities.

Gia having a tea party with baby on the east deck. Loving every minute of Mimi's huge wicker princess chairs that I so enjoyed when I was a wee one.

Displaying her artwork for the world to see!

Feeding baby in the antique high chair that Gia is too big of a girl for.....until she decides that she wants us to, "hold her like a baby." or "feed me like a baby."

Driving her car. The Houston humidity clearly wreaks havoc on our little munchkins hair.

Here she is dressed in her OU tutu ready to go to the game (Gia had the Sooners play a private game for her as for the rest of the world it was a bi week.) Lucky girl. She said that Sam looked great and the shoulder shows no sign of injury any longer.

She is picking out the next knitting project for Mimi to knit her. Mimi is stupendously talented and Gia is the recipient of many beautiful items. Thank you!

I am sure that Gia can not wait to come back to Texas, but we are looking forward to your visit in a few weeks!

Cars in the park.

Saturday night, we ventured over to Basic to grab a quick salad and mash potato pizza to go. Then we rode over to the park where low and behold, there was a bounce house, bubbles, pop corn, candy and A MOVIE....yep. You read that correctly a movie in the park.

It was a perfect California summer night with no bugs and just the right amount of breeze. Gia met a new friend Owen that might have even been just as social as she is. Gia was successful in using the potty all night long which was something that left dad and I cheering.

We had so much fun and are very sad that this was the last movie in the park of the summer and we were out of town for all the rest....but next year...next year!!!

A potty going maniac.

Mimi did an excellent job of potty training our little one. In fact, we could not get here near the potty or have any desire to wear her panties (despite their Elmo fashion glory).

She would find the said Elmo panties in her drawer and would come out with great excitement, "Mommy yook!!! Mommy its ELMO."

I would respond, "I know G, aren't they awesome? If you use the big girl potty you get to wear your Elmo panties."

"Tat's ok. I put them back Mommy."

Smart kid.

But Mimi is smarter.
In the process she created a potty girl. And a toilet tissue enthusiast.

Gia's first day of school.

Today was Gia's first day of preschool. She will be going once a week (on Wednesdays) from 9a-11:30a. Gia woke up this morning thrilled to have to "Take a bath and eat breakfast so we can go to teeschool with Tieler!!!!" Here she is posing for her first day. (Notice the matching mums, the perfect dress, the backpack, the shoes...)

Today they worked on the number one and triangles. I think Gia worked on destroying her cute, put together self. And my mother is loving every minute of that. And now notice the lack of pony tails all together, the broken button on her shirt and no shoes. But she had fun. I do have a strong belief that if kids aren't getting dirty, they aren't having fun.

She is attending preschool with Tyler. Tyler is the apple of Gia's eye. After preschool, Tyler told me that Gia can come and play in his pool if she wants and Gia told Jill (Tyler's mom) that Tyler NEEDS to come any play with her kitchen.

Next we will be taking the toddling munchkins for lunch and play post learning.

Mimi is here....so we are MIA.

Mimi has been here for the past week and Gia and I have been SOOOOOO busy having fun with Mimi! She departs tonight on the red eye and I think that all three T's are going to have serious with draws once she leaves. Good thing we will see her at months end.

Mimi, you are the best.

Oh, and thank you for potty training our darling Miss G.

Just hanging out with Jace.

Before we headed to Reno, we headed down to the other amazing California city of Modesto (totally kidding) and we met Gia's Aunt Corina (also one of my dearest friends) and Gia's cousin and my darling Godson Jace. Again, Gia mine as well have been in Aruba, because she had a blast. Gia and Jace soaping up.
Precious cousins.

Gia and Mommy swimming before Aunt Corina and baby Jace's arrival.

Smiling Gia.

Handsome baby boy.

We had a blast in Modesto! We will have to do it again soon!

Labor day weekend.

This weekend we traveled to the "Littlest Big City in the World" R-E-N-O. Now while to most of us adults, Reno is less than exciting, because RT travels so frequently to Reno on business, Gia thought she was in Fiji. I. Kid. You. Not.

And to be completely truthful, we had a fantastic time. This weekend was the "Best of the West Rib Cook- Off" at the Nugget hotel, and it has received many accolades for its amazing culinary delights....and it did not disappoint!

So, I figured out how to collage my photos, but I have yet to figure out the entire blogger order thing, so they are out of sequence. Sorry!

Gia and RT checking out the digs at our hotel "The Grand Sierra Resort"....who knew there were really nice "luxury" hotels in Reno? I know? Right.
Here we are checking out the great hotel. Gia LOVED the water wall and the big horse statues. She also had a blast at Johnny Rockets. They had HUGE hot air balloons from the ceiling and she could not have been happier.

Here we are enjoying mojitos and Shirley temples by the awesome pool. It was sooo windy, but still amazing!

Ok, so I am not a huge rib fan, but these potato things were OUT OF THIS WORLD. I thought I had died and gone to carb fried heaven. Next year. Next year. Also, I could not resist the sign, "I'm from Texas, What Country ya'll from!!!!!!" So true. And yet, I do not think we had a single rib from Texas. Odd.

This is from the dinner on Saturday night. If you ever have the opportunity to go to this event, that is the only way to go. You are in a seated area and they have ribs from each of the vendors and the sauces. The only problem? You can never remember where the ribs came from, but they really are all fantastic. Afterwards, we went and checked on the event execution guys where Gia got to hang out with some kids and drive the car. It was so funny, they were instructing her that she was "bat girl" and needed to ride in the back. Miss Thing told them that wasn't the case. Go G.

And here we are at the highlight of the entire weekend. Drum roll please. GIRLY GIRL. Gia had her nails done, hair coiffed and dad lived to tell about it. She could not have been happier. If you live in the greater Reno area, or are ever passing through, Girly Girl is a MUST STOP.

So that was our Labor Day Weekend. We had a blast. Ate a tremendous amount of food. Slept a ton, and had such a great time. We can not wait to go back next year. I really don't think I ever thought that I would say that about Reno. I may even tag along on RT's next trip. Maybe.

Our Bay Area weekend.

This weekend we were ALL OVER the Bay Area. Seriously. On Saturday, it all began with the Raider game. We tailgated and watched the horrible defeat. It is so heartbreaking to watch Ralph get so upset about the Raiders. Come on guys, get good. Please. This is a wifes plea.

We then drove from Santa Rosa (Sonoma County) to Mustards in Napa. Mustards is a place that Ralph and I ADORE. We have been eating here since we were dating long distance so many moons ago. As always, it was perfection to the tastebuds.

We then drove up to Santa Rosa and checked into our hotel. We went down and did some hot tubbing followed by a quick rinse and dinner at Chevy's. The weather was glorious. We followed our dinner up with milk and cookies (Oreo's to be exact.)

The next morning, I headed out to the marathon. To find out more, go here http://amomamarathonamonth.blogspot.com (subtle hint).

Then we came home where we all just about collapsed.

I am so thankful that my family was along to encourage me this weekend and we were able to turn it into a nice little Bay Area adventure!