Sweet Naomi: The Biggest Little City

I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14)

June 11-13, 2010

One of the best perks that I enjoy about living in California, and the Bay Area specifically, is that you can drive a few hours away from town and feel like you're going on a real vacation. So on the weekend before Richie's birthday, that's what we did. Jasmine and Ken invited us to join the Dolar family on their weekend in "The Biggest Little City" in the world: RENO =) And where is the best place to stay with the kiddies? It's CIRCUS CIRCUS, of course!

If you look very closely, right above Naomi's stroller, you can see the RENO sign in the background...

From Circus Circus Reno

If you haven't already noticed, I always take pictures of the little Princess on the bed at the hotels where we stay first thing. Before we tear the place apart ;) It's fun seeing how much bigger she's getting with each trip:

Right above the bed frame, there was a painting of some elephants and horses pulling a circus-style carriage. Naomi stood up to the picture, pointed at it, and said "Wooh, wooh!" I've heard her say wooh wooh when talking about dogs (as in woof woof) but apparently, all animals say "wooh, wooh!" I think that she was specifically looking at the horses, because when I pointed to the "horsies, like the one at home" that's when she would bark. We recently were given a darling rocking horse, that at the moment was a little too large for her to sit comfortably on top of, but she knew it was her Horsie. I love that she noticed them in the painting, too. Mimi is quite the observant little sprout. Too cute!

So, it wasn't just the three of us on this mini-vacay, we drove the mini-van with Naomi's Nana Lily and Tita Angie on board. Mimi is really sweet with all of her auntie's and uncles, but I love the special way that she smiles at Angeline. Ang can be quite shy at times, but Mimi knows how to bring a beautiful smile to both of their faces:

We were invited to celebrate the Kevin Dolar's recent graduation from nursing school - he's my bro-in-law Ken's younger brother. This was the first time that Naomi and her cousins Andrea and Meleia got to share in the games and prizes experience together. We all took turns strolling the little ones around "Midway" and winning a bunch of stuffed animals for the girls.

I usually don't play too many of the "hard" games but Richie encouraged me to try my hand at the game toss a ball into a large basket, if the ball stays in, you win a prize. I figured out the technique that worked for me and to my surprise and enjoyment, I kept winning! I lost track of how many times I won, but Naomi had two large prizes and I won several prizes for Leia and Drea, too. Who needs blackjack when you can toss a ball in a basket!

The girls had a blast playing with all of the stuffed animals. My sister really wanted to trade some of the smaller ones for larger prizes, but Andrea wasn't havin' it! The more the merrier, right? Now, I totally understand why my dad always tried to win just one jumbo prize. All of those toys are just gonna add to the mass of toys already at home, but winning them is so much fun!

My absolute favorite moment of the weekend was classic Naomi at her cutest =) I was noticing that my nieces had some duplicate toys. Jas told Drea that the girls could have up to two of any toy and if there were any extra, that Ken would trade them or they would give them to Mimi. I think I noticed that there was a small teddy bear that looked similar to Naomi's security-"baby"-bear. Jas then brought out a large plastic/garbage bag and dumped its contents on the bed. Santa Clause had just stepped into the picture: another 5 or 6 more baby bears came tumbling out of the bag. Naomi didn't skip a beat: her eyes got wider and she said loud and clear, "WOW!" No, lemme rephrase that, it was more like "WAAAAAAAAOOOOW!" Super drawn out and full of amazement =) Naomi has no idea what the super lotto is, but in her innocent eyes, she had definitely hit the JACKPOT!

The girls danced and sang along to Beyonce.
Andrea: "All the single ladies! All the single ladies!"
Meleia: "Oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oooh, oh-oh-oooh!"
Naomi: dancing and trying to sing along with her cousins!

The next day, when Naomi woke up, the first thing she said was, "oh oh oh" =) Me to anyone whose listening: Hey, did you guys hear that!? Looks like songs can get stuck in the minds of babes, too!

On Saturday night before heading back to the room, we took a pit stop/photo opp at the little stationary rides that they have in the arcade for the tykes.