Kids are bored

My poor kids...
I've been thinking about how being a Mom 24/7 over the last 2+ months has effected me, but it just occurred to me that my kids have been used to the company and stimulation of other children and a consistent daily schedule since they were 3 months old... they're the ones going crazy with boring old Mom.
School starts Monday, August 11th.
Check out Indus International School, pretty snazzy.

'Quake in California

Sorry to hear about the earthquake in SoCal. I have to admit, with the news saying the next "big quake" is close at hand, it's nice to be far away.

But if you look at the construction of buildings in Bangalore, it's not hard to see why the death toll in countries like this is so high during a natural disaster. The effort seems to be on completing the construction project, very little is put into longevity or maintenance. There are decrepit buildings all over the city because, I'm guessing, you just tear it down and build another one when it is no longer habitable.

Not getting in a car today

Our driver called this morning and asked what time I needed him. I had no idea, so I said noon just for the heck of it. About half an hour later Annika asked if we could not go in a car today. That sounded like a wonderful suggestion since we need a break from long trips in the car. I called Gopi back and told him to go ahead home, we wouldn't need him today.

We played at home this morning. Our front yard is private, free of cars, and very safe due to the 3 guards that police the complex of 10 homes. Annika loves to roam around this small community. At one point Marta, our housekeeper, lent Annika her umbrella so Annika could continue playing outside during a crazy downpour.

We walked to a Chinese restaurant for a late lunch. Chinese is very popular here. I made sure to order a little extra so I won't have to make dinner tonight. :-)

Erik's team building off-site

Erik left this morning. He was up at 5:00am for a two-day team building exercise with the newly arrived French artists and current Indian artists.

Photos from the previous team building off-site in May with the first group of Indian artists, looked a lot like Survivor.

Aaaaaaaants

Feeling a little lonely

Miss my friends. :-)
Miss my family - would like to know how my sister's first week in Egypt is going.
Miss my husband - hardly see Erik and tomorrow he is leaving for a 2-day team building outing

Feeling TOTALLY inadequate in the kitchen. I'm a bad cook at home but I'm a HORRIBLE cook in India. Good thing the kids like it basic and Erik is never home to eat what I'm preparing.

Thanks for listening. :-)

UPDATE: Thanks for all the e-mails of friendship and encouragement. They really helped.

Poor Auggie...

Yesterday about 1:30pm August started complaining of a tummy ache. He didn't eat much at Pizza Hut and was very quiet and still at the restaurant (not like August). Then he stopped complaining. Around 5:00pm, on our way home from downtown, he started complaining of a headache. He complained most of the way home with a terrible wail that he does when he has a fever. By the time we got home, he was hot and in need of some medicine and rest. He hardly ate any dinner.

Around 2:00am he came crying into my room, saying he had to poop. But by the time I could help him, nature was taking it's course. I picked him up, put him in the shower, pulled off his soiled jammies, and put him on the potty. This was our routine for the next few hours. I crawled in bed with the kids so August wouldn't have to wait for help. He cried a lot due to the sharp shooting pains, so I rubbed his back as he tried to sleep.

It's 3:30pm now and he's able to function but his tummy still isn't right. We're taking it easy today.
I have no idea what he got into that Annika and I didn't. The only difference I can think of is Auggie had a scoop of vanilla ice cream after lunch when Annika had chocolate.

Pizza Hut, Indian style

I had to go downtown today to drop off some immigration papers. We got to the immigration office at 1:05pm and they were at lunch until 2:00pm. While we waited, I walked the kids down the street and found a Pizza Hut. They were excited to have pizza for lunch, so we went in.

We ordered the Hawaiian (chicken and pineapple) but they came back and told us chicken was not available. After a discussion about what pizzas were spicy and which ones weren't, we decided on a cheese pizza with pineapple.

In the picture is an advertisement for "Full Punjabi" style pizza with Paneer cheese, lots of crazy veggies including baby corn, and lots of spice. You will also see in the photo that there is a bottle of ketchup. Pizza & ketchup, as American as apple pie...

Night out

Saturday at 3:00am 12 new French artists/animators arrived in Bangalore to work at the new studio. Saturday night there was a welcome dinner with the artists, their spouses, and some of the Indian crew. We found a babysitter using the Yahoo! Bangalore expat mail list (we were desperate) and so I was able to join in the festivities.



The dinner was held on a terrace on the 13th floor of a business building. The view was beautiful and the company was wonderful. I had my first glass of Indian wine, red, served chilled. After being with the kids 24/7 it was fun to party with the DW India folks and actually spend some time with my husband!

In the car...

Gopi, our driver and my lifeline


We spend A LOT of time in the car. There are no freeways so it typically takes an hour+ each way to run errands. We've enjoyed looking out the windows, counting dogs or cows, but it's starting to settle in - that this is how it's going to be. On trips with multipul errands I've resorted to bringing the kids Leapsters in the car so they won't fight or whine insessently.









It gets a little boring for the kids...

Groceries

After you buy groceries, they tie up the bags with plastic ties which makes the bags difficult to carry. Instead of slipping them over your wrists, you have to carry them with your fingertips.
And then a guard at the exit examines your receipt and tied up grocery bags before you're free to leave. They're tied up... what exactly are you looking at??

Cows

Hard to photograph a Monsoon rain

View from the balcony of our bedroom

Getting Annika's school uniform

The tailor for Annika's school uniform was in a crazy back alley of the garment district. I didn't feel like I should take pictures of the rows and rows of women sitting at rows and rows of generator powered sewing machines, but this is what I did take.



The tailor taking measurements


Crazy unfinished staircase to his workshop




A little boy who helped us find the tailor when we were looking lost




Three new friends who were as curious about us as we were about them

Annika learning to swim

We snuck into Palm Meadows again so the kids could swim in PM's assortment of amazing swimming pools. On this day, we arrived about noon. By 5:30pm Annika was "swimming." She could put her whole body under water and move about two feet. Before that day she would hardly put her face in the water. It helped that she met a little friend Olivia and Olivia was swimming like crazy so Annika picked it up from her.





August is very comfortable in the water too. They hung out in a pool that was as deep as August's chin. He lost his footing 3 or 4 times during the course of the day, which made is head go totally under water, but he held his breath, caught himself, came up to the surface, and would exclaim "That was cool!" And it didn't freak him out because he would choose to stay in the pool and continue playing.

Cubbon Park

Cubbon Park is a large park in downtown Bangalore. We have been there twice and both times we were the only white family there. The children were photographed, picked up, pinched and patted on their heads. But it's not as bad as it sounds, it's quite funny actually and everyone is so friendly. I told Annika that people think she's Hanna Montana and that's why they want their picture taken with her.

Annika and Auggie on the kids' train


Guys that sat behind us on the kids' train


Auggie happy to see a character from Ben 10


Dog's life

Military Students going home

I asked our driver why the kids were lined up to get on this military vehicle. He said they are Military Students and that is their school bus.

People are reading...

I'm getting a lot of feedback that people are actually reading my blog. Especially after the bombings.
Glad to know people are enjoying it as much as I'm enjoying creating it.
Thank you.
- Helen

Eight blasts rock IT city of Bangalore, one dead

Read the article
The kids and I were downtown at the time. We were in a mall about two blocks from one of the blasts. I was there on a "cultural orientation" when our guide got a phone call. After he hung up, he turned to me and said "now is not a good time" and tried to usher me and the kids out of the store. I, of course, had no idea and just thought it was a cultural thing.

Once we got back in the car, we started driving away and the guide turned to me and said "Now is not a good time, we need to cut today short and maybe we can resume on Monday" And again, I had no idea.

After we were on the road home for a little while Erik called me on the guide's cell phone (I had left my phone at home by mistake) and he was frantic and told me about bombings in downtown Bangalore and how I should NEVER leave my cell phone at home again. I got off the phone with him and talked to the guide about what Erik had told me. The guide was surprised that Erik would tell me about the bombings.

So, there we were, trying to get home, while EVERYONE in Bangalore was leaving downtown at the same time. It was reminiscent of the 1989 quake when everyone in the Bay Area tried to get home at the same time...

Found out what the moth balls are for

The house where we are staying has a strong odor of moth balls. Every sink and shower drain has 2 or 3 moth balls sitting in it. I had no idea what they were for (besides moths) until today. The moth balls keep the cockroaches from crawling up drainpipes and into your home. In this tropical climate cockroaches are a problem, but I've never seen one in this house.

This afternoon I stopped off at the store to get a couple things for Erik. While I was there, I picked up a carton of apple juice for the kids. I got home, took the apple juice out of the bag, and a little black bug was racing around. I killed it, and the thought occurred to me that the bug might have come from the store. I checked under the lip of the carton, and 3 small cockroaches were tucked away, hiding in the dark cramped lip of my apple juice container. I killed them all, but wondered how many got away.

It's a good lesson. When we move into our permanent house, you bet I'll be checking the nooks and crannies of my items before I purchase/bring them home.

Went to the Bangalore Aquarium today

The kids and I went to the big Cubbon Park in downtown Bangalore so the kids could run around. They were hoping some of the rides would be working this time, but I've come to the conclusion that the rides never work at Cubbon Park. I looked closely at some weeds growing near the tracks of some of the rides and they don't look like they've been treaded upon in quite some time.

Next door to Cubbon Park is the City Aquarium. It cost Rs. 5/ per adult and Rs. 2/ per child, so Rs.9/ for my little family... at Rs. 40/ a dollar, that's $0.25!

We got inside and it was two floors of average sized fish tanks. There were eels and some other exotic fish, but to tell the truth, I don't think I've ever seen gold fish at an Aquarium before and this one had several tanks of goldfish. Hahahaha. They even had Tilapia. We spent quite some time enjoying the different kinds of fish. Every tank had a couple sucker fish to help keep the tanks clean, and our experience turned into more of a game of "where's the sucker fish" rather than appreciating the assortment of international goldfish. But a good time was had by all.

Cooking with bottled water

Dude, it's like cooking at a campsite in your own home.

I made green beans the other night and I was petrified of making my kids sick. I washed the beans three times in fresh bowls of bottled water, then steamed them in yet more bottled water.

Last night I cooked rice for the first time. I know most people wash their rice before cooking it but at home I never did. So, like usual, I was about to throw my rice into my pot of boiling bottled water. YIKES! On second thought, I washed my rice in 3 bowls of bottled water and then cooked it in bottled water. So then I thought to myself, if the bacteria dies in boiling water, did I need to use bottled water?? But why chance it, right?

If the kids want an apple, I wash it in bottled water.
We even brush our teeth with bottled water.

Driving on the left

They drive on the left here in India. It's not so hard to get used to especially when you have a driver doing the driving.

What is VERY difficult to get used to is checking for traffic when crossing the street. For 37 years I've been programmed to check left for oncoming traffic and it really trips you up to have to check to the right.

Funny things about India

I've been having some technical difficulties with my camera, here are a couple images I've been able to upload.

These are the two brooms our housekeeper Marta uses to clean this 3,500 sq. ft. house.


Everything here is so spicy. Southern Indian food is even spicer than "restaurant Indian" at home. And if you buy groceries, the directions usually tell you how to add MORE spice... so SERIOUSLY MILD just cracked me up

Also saw our first armless, legless, blind beggar today

We were in the garment district so Annika could be measured for her new school uniform. We were in a crazy, bustling, back-alley, garment district full of beggars, motorcycles, pushy salesmen and, you guessed it... cows. (no joke)

We stopped for a moment and I saw a man with one hand held out to me asking for money and the other hand motioning to his mouth, like he wanted to buy something to eat. Then I looked down and saw he was pushing a homemade cart and on the cart was an armless, legless, elderly man with milky blind eyes... dear God! And, of course, he was right at the kid's level so they were looking at him the whole time.

Let's just say this has been a big learning experience for them. They've been asking a lot of questions...

Saw our first Eunuchs today!

We were stopped at bad traffic and two Eunuchs made their way through the cars, tapping on windows and asking for money.
I saw them moving through the crowd but didn't say anything. When they tapped on our window Annika said, "Why are those men wearing dresses?" Hahahaha. I didn't know if she'd catch that or not.

How to combat mosquitoes

Just learned this at a Bangalore children's playgroup this morning.
One mother, who is in her 3rd year living in Bangalore, described her regimen:
At 4:00pm she turns on the "All Out" electric mosquito repellent in her outlets (1 per room)
She also closes her doors to the outside and windows (except those with mosquito netting)
1/2 hour before anyone goes to bed she sprays their room with "Baygon" water based flying insect killer
She especially sprays under the beds, behind the beds, curtains and where there is a lot of fabric or hiding places
In the morning she turns off the "All Out"

I did it tonight. Hopefully August won't have any new bites in the morning. :-(

Email from Linda

Well... we arrived just fine...although we're taking our time getting adjusted to the sleep routine here. We're not gettin' the hang of it quite yet. It's hot here, but not so humid, and no rain in the future. It's "overcast" due to smog, not cloud cover. We will stay in Cairo until this Saturday, and Drew has met his boss and driven up to Alexandria to see one of his jobsites. xxxx is delayed 6 months, so
he isn't going to be working to the east side of Alexandria, he will, instead, be assigned to xxxx, to the west of Alexandria, as well as the xxxx to the south of Alexandria. When xxxx breaks ground in several months, he may have to add that to his list of projects to oversee. He will be a busy boy.

We've had really mild tummy troubles (Drew and I) and the kids have runny noses and a cough, so we've encountered different critters on our journey. This hotel has a pool, and both kids enjoy swimming around in it while Drew is at work all day. We can't leave the hotel, because the driver is with Drew during the day. The driver will be the same guy in Alexandria, and his name is Magdee, he picked us up at the airport last week, and we drove a caravan to the hotel, one van PACKED with our 12 suitcases, car seats and carry-ons, and the family and Magdee in an airconditioned little car. The traffic here is CRAZY. ohhhhh my gosh! So far, my arabic lessons haven't really helped, the hotel staff speaks passable english instead.

We're excited that we get to go see the Pyramids tomorrow (it's a holiday here, so we get Drew and Magdee for the whole day).

Kisses and hugs, it's time to log off.
Wendy, Drew, JP (says hi) and Kaisa (says hi, too)

Met Americans in Bangalore today

Well, the kids and I made it through our first day without Erik.

My big plan was to take the kids to the library, then grab some lunch, buy some water, and head home. Gopi found the library I had read about on the Bangalore expat mail list, but when he pulled up, there was a sign saying it is closed on Mondays. He asked me "Where to next, Madame?" and I was at a loss for words... The library was my big outing for the day. So I asked if there was a place he could think of where the kids could run around and he suggested Palm Meadows, a gated community nearby.

While at Palm Meadows, I hung out with 3 American women and the kids played with their kids. One lady is from New York and her husband is an attorney for GE, one lady is from Oakland, CA and her husband is at HP, and a third lady is from Mississippi and her husband is at Caterpillar. They were all relatively new to India, but all had lived internationally before. They gave me a lot of pointers about where to go and where to shop. We also found out all the kids will be going to Indus School so A&A will already know some familiar faces on the school bus.

Linda, how's Egypt??

Linda... I'm dieing to know how your experience is going.
Send me an e-mail.

Laundry

The Villa where we are staying has a housekeeper named Marta. She works Monday - Saturday and she does the laundry, sweeps, mops, does the dishes, makes the beds and cleans the bathrooms.

The house has a washing machine but the drying is done on a line outside. At the end of the day, Marta brings the drying laundry inside and the next day it is all ironed! EVERYTHING is ironed.

But now I understand why... I took a towel off the rack that had been washed the day before and it was still damp. The humidity doesn't allow the clothes to dry all the way so the items are ironed to get them dry.

Thought you'd find that interesting. :-)

Dude, milk is $9.25/liter!

When we finally found milk, we bought three small boxes and some other items.

I just went to the fridge to fix a couple bowls of cereal for the kids. I saw the price was 371 rupees = $9.25 a box! WOW!
I have to say most grocery items are cheaper but this is a bit of a shock.

UPDATE: Dude, I'm an idiot. When I was talking to the expats at Palm Meadows I expressed my shock that milk was so expensive. So they looked at me and said it is less than $1/box. (The milk here is boxed and on store shelves and you refrigerate after opening.) Anyway, I went home and checked my milk and I mistook a "/" for a "1". So the price is 37/ rupees, which is less than a dollar. Hahahaha ;-p

Having a car and driver

Our driver's name is Gopi and he drives us around in a Toyota Innova (a small minivan with 3 rows of seats). It's very comfortable and has air conditioning.

Gopi lives in downtown Bangalore and we live on the outskirts of Bangalore in an area called Whitefield.

For Gopi to come and get us takes 1 to 1.5 hours due to traffic.

I am on my own today. Erik is catching a ride to work with a couple guys staying nearby. So Gopi is on stand-by for me.

Other than just cruising around to see more of the city, the only need I have for Gopi today is to buy a case of bottled water. So I'm supposed to call him, have him drive 1.5 hours to get me, to take me 10 minutes away so I can buy some water, then drive 1.5 hours home??

Also, you can't be spontaneous. If you get the idea to get up and go, it will be an hour+ before you can actually venture out. Of course, there are other forms of transportation if you have to go right at this moment, but it's something that takes getting used to. I need to plot out our activities so Gopi will be standing by.

I would love to take the kids for a walk today, just to explore the area where we are temporarily living but there is no sidewalk. There is a patch of dirt with speeding traffic on one side and a deep ditch on the other. PLUS we had hours of heavy downpour last night so the dirt is now a thick clay mud with lots of muddy puddles.

UPDATE: Erik found the Bangalore Library on the internet and it has a nice children's section. Maybe that will be our big adventure today. Maybe we'll grab lunch while we're out too... (baby steps)

Erik starts work tomorrow

Erik goes to work tomorrow...
And I'm ON MY OWN!! In INDIA!! With two kids!!
What am I supposed to do?!?!?? Ahhhh....

Annika and Auggie are SUPERSTARS in Bangalore

We went to a large park in the center of Bangalore today called Cubbon Park. They had a cute little train that went around the perimeter of the park so we got a good overview of what it had to offer. There was a large children's play area and lots of carnival type rides but nothing was working today. Sunday is the day of rest in India since most people work 6-day workweeks. The train cost 10 rupees per adult and 5 rupees per child = 30 rupees = about $0.75 (it's 40 rupees to the dollar (at the moment)).

The children's play area was crowded with families and nearly everyone stopped and stared at A&A. Many people reached out to touch them, one lady took her hand and pinched Annika's face together then kissed her fingers that did the pinching, and LOTS of people asked to take pictures of the kids or even have the kids pose with them in photos. The kids did really well with all this strange attention. If the kids didn't want to have their picture taken, they'd usually just run off and I'd tell the person that the kids weren't interested, but most of the time the kids just grinned and bared it. One family had Annika pose with them and then had Annika hold up their baby daughter so they could have a photo together... so strange?!? But definitely all eyes were on us. We were the only white family we saw at this huge park. But with Auggie's white hair, he stands out more.

Also, something I love... men often walk with their arms around each other. In a casual setting, such as the above-mentioned park, we saw it all the time. This culture just seems so friendly. People seem to have respect for each other, animals, the earth, karma, etc.

I had my first experience with a beggar holding a baby while knocking on the car window next to me at a traffic stop. I had heard that they drug the babies to keep them quiet while the beggars are working, so after I told the beggar "No", I kept looking at the baby. The little girl's eyes were open, but she never seemed to focus or blink. Before we were able to move the car forward, the baby turned and looked at me, so I smiled and tried to engage her, but she just looked at me with empty eyes...

Lovin' the Indian food

There are so many different kinds of Indian food. It's so wonderful. Erik has gone to some work-related dinners and brought home the leftovers. He's out again tonight, Chinese I think, but man did I have a lot of great Indian leftovers to choose from.

Also, I had no idea Chinese food is so popular in India. Lots of restaurants and products in the grocery store.

Long night...

Poor kids...
Since 4:00am, August has been puking and crying and just miserable with stomach pains. Poor little guy. He's had some juice and dry toast off and on but it seems as soon as he puts something in his stomach it comes right back up again.

During this time, Annika complained of a tummy ache but I thought it was an attention ploy. I gave her juice and toast as well but she seemed to be fine except for verbal complaints and needing cuddles. I was wrong. As soon as Auggie seemed to settle down it was Annika's turn.

I feel so helpless.

August said "I never asked to move to India" :-(

The only thing the kids did differently than us is they went swimming yesterday afternoon. I saw August with pool water in his mouth but I didn't think anything of it. Other than that, we ate the same foods and drank the same drinks.

Another element to this is the ants... there are ants running around everywhere. Well, apparently they're attracted to the juice in the kids' vomit 'cause not only am I cleaning up the accidents, now I'm battling the ants who are attracted to it.

I also had to wash the kids' toothbrushes 'cause the ants swarmed the tips probably due to the bubble gum flavored residue in the bristles.

:-)

UPDATE: All puking subsided by 8:00am, we all fell back asleep until 9:00am, then we slowly ate a few digestive crackers and got ready for the day. No more tummy troubles. Poor kids.

Psyched and exhausted...

Hello friends...
We can officially say "Annika and Auggie move to India" 'cause WE'RE HERE!!!

I'm really too exhausted to write much, but here are some highlights:
- my Dad and Kate dropped us at the airport. After checking in and heading to the gate we realized we were one backpack short. I called my Dad, who was nearly half way home and asked if it was in his car. It was, and he turned around and headed back to the airport to hand it off. Thank you SO MUCH!
- the kids were real troopers on the flights - they had to sit still for nearly 24 hours and they did really well. They each had one melt down but they were tired and hungry so we couldn't be upset.
- Business Class was wonderful. But one of the best aspects was being able to use the Business Class "club" at the airport in Frankfurt. There were big chairs to relax in, lots of snacks and beverages, but best of all... showers!!! Beautiful showers after feeling stinky and sweaty. Oh, what a wonderful feeling. And they weren't youth hostel showers, they were private spa-like showers w/ complimentary toothbrush and tooth paste. Ahhh...
- weather in Bangalore is warm and humid, but not too hard to get used to
- traffic is CRAZY and I haven't even seen the worst of it. We have a driver named Gopi who was born and raised in Bangalore and speaks very good English.
- late this afternoon I finally saw two stray cows walking in the road holding up traffic
- went by the DreamWorks studio and got to see where Erik works and got to see a few familiar faces from the SF bus tour a couple weeks ago.
- the house where we're temporarily staying has periodic power outages
- went GROCERY SHOPPING in INDIA! What a trip! And the fresh veggie/fruit area has a weigh station where a person weighs your bag of apples and puts a price tag on the bag so the cashier just has to ring it up... but of course, we didn't know that. :-) They even weigh your watermelon at this station. A kind fellow shopper had to point this out to me. And I went to the bulk rice section and started scooping rice into a bag and gave the bag to the rice weigh station and apparently you're not allowed to scoop your own rice... you need to tell the weigh station guy how many kg of rice you want and he scoops it to your specifications. Oh well...
- People like to touch A&A's heads and people stare at Auggie and give him big smiles
- kids are watching American cartoons on the Cartoon Network and the channel has Indian commercials... fun stuff.

So far my impression... India rocks!
Erik and I agree that we feel like we're on an episode of The Amazing Race... we're skimming the top of Bangalore but it will be much different living day to day. Like we were at the grocery store but never found a dairy section - so we bought cereal but we don't have any milk.

OK, I'd love to write more but my brain is so fuzzy. The kids and I need to stay up for another 2 hours so we can adjust.

The Adventure begins...

TODAY IS THE DAY!!!

We leave on a Lufthansa flight at 1:55pm TODAY!!
My next post will be from INDIA BABY!!!

Like I said, we're neck and neck...

Erik called today...
Visas are in...
Might leave Wednesday, July 16th...

That's the day after tomorrow!!!

Happy Birthday Mom

Love you...
miss you...
:-)

We're neck and neck...

Linda + family are staying in temporary housing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a tentative departure date of Thursday, July 17th to Cairo, Egypt.

We're staying in temporary housing in Redwood City, California with a tentative departure date of Friday, July 18th to Bangalore, India.

Dad made a joke that we'll probably run into each other during our layovers in Frankfurt, Germany.
Hahahaha... who knows, might happen.

Wisdom from Kung Fu Panda

"Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, Today is a gift.
That is why they call it the present."

Hmmm...
An aspect of life I need to remember more.

Took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda again today to escape the heat. It was our second time and I think we all enjoyed it more. The premiere was just so exciting that it was easy to miss some nuances.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

The kids and I visited the P-Z family in Santa Cruz today. Erik is in LA on business for the next two days and it was 100' on the Peninsula... so Santa Cruz was an excellent activity for us.

The day started with Finn's playgroup on a Santa Cruz beach, followed by lunch at a nearby beachfront taqueria, then it was on to the Beach Boardwalk. The kids had been looking forward to riding the rides for days. I think they got hooked at the Alameda County Fair with Grandpa and Grandma Kate.











A&A went on several kid-friendly rides and then they saw the log ride... they both passed the "You Must Be This High To Ride This Ride" requirement so we ventured on. While we waited in line for our log, Annika changed her mind several times as to if she truly wanted to ride a log or not. I said it was fine if she didn't want to go, but she ended up saying she wanted to. Once the three of us boarded the ride, she was not happy about it and tried to get off, but we were already committed. The log ride was very tame until the very end where there is a sheer drop and we came crashing down into a pool of water. I held the kids tightly as we descended and we all made it to the end safely. Annika was not happy - cold, wet, and very scared. August was exhilarated and said he loved it!!

Bye Simba :-(

Sadly, we had to say Goodbye to Simba today. Taking him to India was just not an option, so we had to find him a new home. Luckily, we kept in touch with his previous owner and she was thrilled to have him back. At least we know he's with someone who loves him as much as us.

Simba, you've been a wonderful addition to our family. We miss you already.