Lake Tahoe Girls' Getaway

We were finally able to pull off a weekend away from hubbies, kids and responsibilities this July. Our destination: Lake Tahoe, California. I flew out to meet up with seven of my high school girlfriends, and we spent the weekend in North Shore Lake Tahoe.

I love flying into my old hometown and cruising around the familiar streets. So much nostalgia. I got a personal car tour of my old high school that is barely recognizable with all of the remodeling that has been done since I graduated. My taxi for the weekend was Kristina and her entourage (complete with Mason greeting me at the airport by slipping on his Spider Man mask). Mason literally wore this get-up 99% of the time I was there. He even needed to be pursuaded that Spider Man didn't wear his suit to bed. Nevermind the fact that the suit was probably 100% polyester.

And his sister Millie was asleep in the car, but it was sleep that was necessary to sustain the girl who bounced off the walls every minute those eyelids were open. She was such a bundle of energy and had no fear in any bone of her little body. (Don't let this docile picture of her fool you!):

Millie and I even have our own personal song we made up. Something that was preceeded by her accidentally calling me "Mommy" and involved the lyrics of "dark and asian". (That is Millie's real Mommy behind her. Not so dark. Not so asian.) 

It was such a blessing to be able to spend extra time with these strawberry-blonde babes, and get to know their fun personalities. There's just something about looking at these babies for almost the first time, and seeing my childhood friend in their faces. It's like instant love! 

Since I flew out a day early, I was able to squeeze in time with Mel and her girls, and even snuck in a quick trip to her new home (with a pool!). 

And a surprise appearance by one of my surrogate moms was also in the cards for me at our coffee playdate on Friday morning:

And I officially apologized for eating her out of house and home while growing up. Upon entering their home, my first stop would always be to their pantry. There were stories exchanged - along the lines of me eating a whole box of cereal by myself once - but I choose to not believe or remember that. Here was our Friday morning reunion at Nicole's:

Mid-day Friday, Kristina and I jumped in Nicole's car and drove three hours to Tahoe. A fun road trip, with more time for girl talk and catching up. With no interruptions I might add. Food for my soul! 

Our accomodations were out of this world! We got hooked up with a luxury cabin by our friend Erin's connections, amazing!

The kitchen, complete with two dishwashers, a built-in coffee/espresso machine, gas stove, granite countertops and all the way up the entire wall. This area that is open to a sitting room (below), is where we spent most of our time:

We were mostly parked right here on these couches, coffee in hand:

A more formal dining room (table to the left) with a wet bar, which went unused for the weekend:

Master bedroom was reserved for the lone preggo, Jen:

Although we did use the Master Bath to get ready in:

Entryway:

*Please take special note of the bench that was used as a blockade to the front door, because we couldn't figure out how to lock the door. Bunch of girls, I know.

View from the top deck:

Yes, if you look really hard in between the trees, you can see there was still snow on the mountains in the middle of July:

We threw a simple baby shower for Jen. Gifts, cookies, and then lunch on the water at Sunnyside:

View from the table of beautiful Lake Tahoe:

It was so fun catching up personally, having uninterrupted convos, talking about life, seeing how much we've grown in our understanding of the meaning of life, reminiscing about high school, laughing, getting drinks, eating lunch on the water, getting dressed up, going in the hot tub, having morning coffee with friends, and just plain making memories. There's just something about being with friends that have known you for almost two decades! No need to explain the reasoning behind why I think I'm allergic to whole strawberries, and not cut up ones. Haha!

And after we said our goodbyes and thank you's, I still had one more oldie, but goodie friend to see. Tallie couldn't make the girl's reunion, because she was in Hawaii, but I was able to see her and her precious baby girl, Tatum:

Aw, love all my SRVHS girls and miss them already. 

And I'll end with this lyrical gangsta video:

Potty Training

At two years and one month, Alexia has officially started potty training herself. I find it quite amusing as I was dead set on avoiding potty training until she was closer to three years old. I hoped it would be less effort on my part by then. I like changing her at my convenience, and didn't want to ruin the carpets of our rented condo in the training process.

Alexia has taken the lead on potty training herself in the last couple of weeks. She refuses to wear a diaper and has now learned how to take off her own diaper after I've forcefully put one on her. So I've been letting her run around without one for most of the day. And when she has to go, she will say, "poopy", and then runs into the bathroom and uses a stepstool to get up onto the toilet and goes all by herself.

Our high fives and hootin' and hollerin' has been enough of a reward. Flushing the toilet also seems to be rewarding for Alexia as well. It has now been three days in a row where she has gone "poopy" in the toilet. Amazing.

I have to keep up with her progress, and find it humorous that she's waiting on me to get big-girl underwear and a portable potty.

Breaky Date. Take 2.

Ryan and Alexia went on their second Daddy/Daughter date downtown. He read a book on raising daughters and was inspired to "date" each of his girls to give them one-on-one attention and hopefully provide security in their little hearts. 

If you recall, the last breakfast date they went on, ended shortly because Naiya decided to eat a yellowjacket and it stung her in the mouth. So we all ended up at the ER, but left with a happy baby that had her first dose of Benadryl and a swollen upper lip. (And a taste of the yummy hospital ice. I love that stuff!)

But this time around, their date ended with a new bottle of bubbles from Grandma:

Birthday Toys

Grandma and Grandpa Griff sent Alexia a doll that I was surprised to watch her take care of. 

She even fed her milk and rocked her singing "Rock-a-bye baby".

And Grandma and Papa Grossman gave the girls their very own industrial size bubble machine. They loved it!

When Daddy Gets Home

The girls get to do this:

Ummmm, no.

Since we got back from vacation with some of our friends and their kids, Alexia picked up a habit of answering with "ummmm, no." Only if the answer was "no" did she say "um" though. It was like we took a little piece of Jackson home with us. In honor of the trend-setter himself:

Alexia Never Did...

this:

Or this:

Nor would she ever have crawled out of the highchair, across the tray, and onto the dining table like this:

This girl's gonna keep me on my toes. She's got her Daddy's blood running through those veins. I secretly have always thought buckles on highchairs or grocery carts were for super overprotective parents. I get it now. I use them now. They still don't keep Naiya strapped in.