Could it be...

The last 5 days saw what was definitely our best National Park trip in recent memory. The family got Daddy Narayanan a L series wide angle lens and a Neutral Density filter kit and volunteered to walk behind for pictures in heat and cold, on dry desert beds to badwater wetlands at the Death Valley National Park.

In the middle of this trip which spanned almost 1600 miles of driving over the five days, an important milestone was reached. Daddy turned 40!

We had a great time driving to and from the park as well as seeing some amazing views. 

When everyone was wishing daddy on his birthday, we happened to be at the sand dunes. 

When daddy Narayanan looked up to catch the dunes he saw an almost unbelievable site. A beautiful woman that very closely resembled his wife was looking down at him with a beatific smile..

"We are in the middle of the desert and it is freaking hot.. Could this be... a mirage?" he thought to himself and clicked away. To his surprise the smile stayed through that day and the next and the next.. and it changed into the stare and frown only after reaching back home and Daddy declared that he had caught a stomach bug! 

Now life is back to normal again.. Daddy is still as immature as ever and the magic day that had such hopes of turning dad into some kind of older mature person having ended, the usual routine continues. 

Death Valley was totally worth the drive and the Cousin family made it all the more exciting! 

Have been hiccuping for 8 hours now with no end in sight. These four photos are the only ones I managed to edit yesterday. The other 3000+ have to wait a few weeks. 

The trail through Golden Canyon, aptly named!

The beautiful Kern river that runs along the freeway 178 on our way to Death Valley..

Darwin falls in the middle of a desert reached after a 1.5 mile hike. Truly spectacular!

Thanks to everyone for wishing me a happy 40th. Your wishes and prayers were definitely answered !

Kids crafts

The kids have been celebrating their brithday multiple times.. with classmates, family, family friends, grandparents only special, dinner at their favorite restaurant on their actual birthday etc. 

Here is a photo from yet another celebration at home!

Wish I had lighting like this at the bowling lanes...

They got  many gifts most of which are arts and crafts stuff. 

Jr. loved this dairy which she promptly bling-ed (guessing that is the right term for it?) 

Today they started working on decorative bangles where you do the decorating yourself. After 30 minutes of going nowhere, they asked me to come help. They were trying to "glue" the ribbons to the plastic bangle and the whole thing was a big mess.  So I asked them to wash the bangles and start from scratch. 

Me : Where is the instructions? 

LO : We threw it out!

Me : GO and GET it, NOW!

Jr. : Here it is. 

Me : (after reading the instruction and figuring out that you are supposed to start with the double side sticky tape before doing anything with glue). You have not even opened this packet with the tape! Why?

Jr. : We don't need the tape.

Me : Says "who?" It says here in the instructions that you have to start with the tape.. why didnt you read the instructions?

LO : It has TOO MANY WORDS!  Who will read that many words. It is not simple instructions!

We finally did restart the project and they did a great job of following the instructions step by step. 

This is what happens when your kids get used to EULA's which run pages long and they just get used to clicking "I agree" on the one hand and have instructions that are "Step 1: sticky tape. Step 2: wrap Step 3: Glue".. 

Today my job is done in this house. Have taught kids something very important.

Always start with the instruction manual!

Birthday season is now open

The first few November birthdays are rolling in.. let's count the number of November folks in the immediate family.

Me, my sis and my mom

San and her dad

Jr. and LO

and my parents wedding anniversary falls in the middle of this! 

We just call all over the globe or get calls from all over wishing each other.. It is a festive month.  The kids celebrated on Sunday with as large a group of friends. 

It was great to watch them be happy and in the moment. Also this year their behaviours are noticeably different and you can also see it in their friends. They are all acting more mature for their age and they are so "polite" for a change.

Last year  3/4 friends of Jr. would respond "I know" if you told them "Hi you look really pretty in that dress!". This year it is "Thank you uncle". That is a good thing! The little one's friends still have a few years to go!

Here are some shots from the birthday that will bring back memories when we look at them 10 years from now.

The lipstick was uncalled for.. but my girls would simply not listen to me..

A thoughtful Jr. gets ready to bowl her turn..

 The little one bowled like a pro given her tiny frame!

Notes to self:

1. Never pick places that have dark walls and have ceilings that suck the light out of your flash or pictures for a birthday party. While the kids have fun, the photographer in me is truly tormented. Had to use every bit of my 24 years of Photography experience to get anything out of this place. 

2. Take enough shots of my head in different angles to photoshop next years photos. The rate at which the hair is disappearing.. will need Adobe's help to fix that problem!

 

Think this semblence of a hairstyle will last me another 6 months at this rate. Should send pictures of my head from the last six months to the scientists who study carbon footprints from analyzing colors in satellite images of the earth and predict when certain forests will disappear or when certain glaciers will disappear.. they should be able to provide an accurate timescale for when my hair will disappear!

We had a blast and it was great to see the kids so happy!

In other news, this year I gifted myself a nice present (Camera related of course) to celebrate my big birthday. Made it look like it came from San through Amazon....  Husbands who are desperately trying to get approval for big ticket birthday gifts, try this method! It has better than 50/50 odds of working. She was thinking of getting mad, then she changed her mind, smiled and said "Fine! Be Happy!"

Starting to like 2012 finally.. when it is almost over!

It is time to make the most of what is left...

A weekend in Pictures

This weekend saw a lot of activity in spite of me being down Friday and Saturday. 

Everything that happened in and out of the house was a cheerful experience.

We did the Varalakshmi pooja dinner Friday and the whole house was full of people, standing room only at one point. It was great to see the smiling faces in huddled conversations and the kids running around gleefully (if there is such a word).

Then we attended a surprise birthday party for my friend who turned 40. Yes, this year is "no one escapes the big Four O" year for our batch. There are only 4 guys I know from our batch who are waiting to celebrate within the next few months. The cake.. Oh What a cake! We have seen a lot of unique cakes over the years but this cake takes the cake!

Came home for some rest and took my parents to Shoreline park so they could watch the geese, pelicans, etc. and get some sun. It was good to get some fresh air and sit on a park bench and get more grounded with the thought processes. Kind of like going into your hard drive and killing all those threads that are running in the background!

After a long time we skipped Yoga entirely on the weekend. The body needed a lot more water and rebalancing before being confident that there wont be any dizziness once in the room. Sometimes, got to give a break when a break is due!

This morning we went and attended a "Kalyana Utsavam" at a friends house. It is a function where they conduct a marriage ceremony for the god and goddess just like the real wedding ceremony for the bride and groom. It is kind of like the "wedding rehearsal" that people conduct in marriages here which gives a "what to expect when your kids get married" before the actual wedding. The priest did a good job of explaining what was being done in a step by step way, something that more priests need to do to set the context for today's generation so they appreciate the reasoning behind the customs.

My parents enjoyed it thoroughly because they don't get to attend outside functions during their visit here but in India they are going to some function or other on a weekly basis. For me, it was great attending a function after a long time where I was not the one doing the prayer! Sometimes it is good to be in the audience.

Then more rest after some heavy food and off we went to get haircuts, an activity that was postponed by the parents demand that it wait till all the functions were done..

Both the kids now sport short hair. A big help once school starts in a few weeks as we will be going crazy with the post swim class hair dry routine and the early morning "combing" ritual which will take an extra 5 minutes.

Now an eventful weekend comes to a close and we begin yet another busy week for everyone in the family!

Happy Monday, here we come!

Birthday month, here we come..

The first grand bash of this month was done today!

The girls turn(ed) 9 and 6 on either side of this weekend!

The kids had a great time with all their friends and played in a Gym. They love this place so much that they want to keep having their birthday parties here year after year.

The best part of this birthday?

The kids have turned a major milestone this year. They have learned the art of emotional blackmail. They called their "Bombay Thatha" on the phone repeatedly and said "Grandpa, you have not been here for a single one of of our birthdays. Please come at least for this one".. etc. etc. This happened repeatedly over many weekends that Grandpa gave in and booked tickets for a short 3 week trip!

In other words, they have succeeded in making their puppy face technique work on another male member in the family. Needless to say, it always works on me.

Now we just have to wait for Daddy and Mommy to turn 29 and 29 in another two weeks!

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