catching up

It's been a long long time since I last blogged...or so it seems. Life is breezing by (I guess if I add "at a fast pace", that would be an oxymoron). :)

Nalin's school is over. So we organized a few playdates with some of his class fellows. The first one was at Fowler creek park and the kids had fun which prompted the mommies to set up a second date at Boggini park. That day was jam packed for us (birthday party in the morning, race across town for swimming classes, come home and prepare our dish for the play date potluck, rush to the park). So, we (the parents) were pretty tired by the time we reached the park. The kids were full of energy and started playing while the parents got into socializing etc. Food/snack were good but the hit was the ice cold water I took with me... it was a very wamr day and everyone appreciated the cold water. As things cooled down, the weather became very pleasant and we chatted away into dusk. At that moment I felt quite happy. This was similar to the childhood I had in the sense that the kids were playing around unrestricted without being told "don't do this or don't do that....". I always feel we as parents are always sitting on their heads monitoring and telling them what to do and what not to do... so this was a welcome break....and safe. So good time all around... the next weekend (last weekend) was 4th of july...so no date.

Fourth of july weekend we went camping - nearby county part (about 25-30 min driving) on Mount Hamilton Road. There were 4 familes with 8 kids in our group. Quite relaxing... we had several hiking trips, trip to the Observatory, camp fires, s'mores and what not. On one of our hiking trails (just me, ruchi, shruti and Nalin) we saw a coyote at relatively close quarters. This was our first camping trip with kids (before kids, Ruchi and I used to go camping quite often... Sequoia, crater lake etc etc). We spent two nights there and as usual woke up early enough to see a spectacular sunrise. We made tea and food on charcoals.... :) very nice experience for everyone in the family. We feel emboldened to try more camping adventures with the kids next time around. :)

We were back on sunday morning, quickly unloaded the cars, took showers and went to the gurudwara for langar. They were offering chilled rooh-afza milk and vanilla ice-creams in addition to the regular langar (dal, matar paneer, raita, carrot-peats roti, burfi, salad ). A very sumptuous meal. Came home and slept for a good three hours.

Start of the week now and legs ache... :)