Kavitha's wedding

Now, Kaitlyn may think the reason we came to Ohio was so that Grandma and Grandpa could spoil her, but it was actually to see my friend from high school get married. Kavitha is Indian- her parents came over to America about the time she was born, as I recall. And I may be biased, but I think the Indian culture is one of the most beautiful and fascinating. I wish I could wear a Sari every day- they are gorgeous!

First up was the Henna party. It was the night before the wedding, and a chance for everyone to get their hands done for the big day. It was quite the experience! This older lady just flew through making the designs on everyone's hands, using a little tube to push it out like frosting. And then you can't touch anything for a couple of hours while it sets, and keep it away from water for a full day. But it looks so cool!



This is a terrible picture, but this is Kaitlyn and I with my friend Kavitha that night.



The next morning started early for the wedding. Now, most of my description is going to come from what Kavitha told me while we sat together at an Indian wedding in high school. So if I get things wrong, I apologize for a faulty memory. There are a lot of different customs and ceremonies to it all. The stage was beautiful!



Indian weddings have a lot of traditions based on the idea of arranged marriages. The groom is greeted outside, and then comes in to meet with both sets of parents. The parents agree to the wedding of their children at this point. You will notice that her groom is not Indian. She met him in Med school. Kavitha got his entire family Indian outfits to wear though, and that was really fun- especially the little neices Kaitlyn's age!



When the bride comes in, the groom is hidden by a quilt until she is ready, and then the pull down the blanket in a grand unveiling - because this was supposed to be the first time he met the girl he was going to marry!



Good thing they already knew each other and liked each other. :)



Now, I am shortening this by a lot, mind you. The priest was chanting for a couple of hours, and there was a lot of different things that each person had to do to bless the house and bless their marriage, etc. But I couldn't understand a word he said. And neither could the groom, I'm sure. In fact, as Kavitha put it, "it's not a silent ceremony." People in the audience are chatting with thier neighbors, and relatives come up on the stage and go back down for various parts, even bringing thier cameras up to take pictures while they are there. Eventually, Kavitha changed outfits for the second half. And they took seven symbolic steps around the fire, to mark seven commitments they made to each other.



Then she put her foot on the grindstone so he could put a toering on her feet.



Now, once again assuming that this was an arranged marriage, there is traditionally a game to play (since they would have been children, bored by the long ceremony). They had a contest where a ring was thrown in a bowl of water, and the first person to pull it out "gets the upper hand in marriage."



Sorry, Kavitha. She lost, even when they made it best out of three.



And finally, there is an exchanging of rings. Ahh, something Americans understand. I wish I had met her husband before today- living on the other side of the country makes staying close rather tricky,I suppose. But I have a feeling he felt like he was in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" for some parts of this. What a good sport!



Most of all, I am just so excited for my friend! She is honestly one of my favorite people, and one of the hardest working to boot. She just finished up her residency, but has three more years before she is a specialist in pediatric respiratory systems. So she will work with kids who have athesma, Cystic Fibrosis, and the like. Her husband also finished residency, so he will start working as a Pediatrician while she finishs. Congratulations, Kavitha!

Cleveland Zoo

Today my parents and I took Kaitlyn to the Zoo. Kaitlyn loves zoos, because she is enjoying learning the names of all the animals and their sounds. We were nervous when we got there and saw the hundred or so school buses and felt the sticky heat, but we had the best day!



Unfortunatly for you, animals are fun to take pictures of, especially when you have a long range zoom lens. So you guys get subjected to those pictures.



At home, her hair is mildly curly. Here in humidity land, her hair is VERY curly. Awesome. Oh, and did you know that at this zoo, you can pay to ride a camel? How cool/odd is that? We didn't, but this kid did.



It is rather fun to be with Grandpa and Grandma and my kids, if only because I remember how cute they are. Sometimes I get bogged down with the day to day dealings, but they think taking care of her is a special treat.



It was very kind of this cheetah to take a nap near us. Kaitlyn liked pointing out every body part and talking about him a lot.



Anyway, it is a great zoo. It was much bigger than the Hogle Zoo, and so we didn't really mind the crowds. And despite the huge hill we had to climb, it was okay because there was an air-conditioned building at the top, and an air-conditioned place for lunch. Not to mention that the walkway you come down on is fun.



These painted dinosaurs were everywhere. I don't know why, exactly, but they were cool.



The grass is truly greener on the other side of the fence . . .



Yeah, this is how I spent my day. Not being able to photoshop before I post pictures feels odd, but I figured it would be more important to keep up with things. And today was a good day.

Just me and my girl

I ditched the boys for the week and flew to Ohio yesterday. I have to say, it is a rather odd feeling. Being without my other half is odd enough, but having one kid and not the other is even weirder. But plane tickets costing what they do, it wasn't really worth buying 4 tickets to see my high school friend get married. It will be very worth the 2 tickets though! Kaitlyn and I are having a lot of fun.

Kaitlyn liked seeing the airplanes at the airport. And she wasn't too bad on the flights- we watched Caillou for three hours, then cried for the last ten minutes when they had us turn off the netbook. Then we RAN through the Memphis airport, got a pizza, made our connection, screamed loudly for the first ten minutes of the flight when she was overtired, and slept the rest of the way to Cleveland.



When we got to Grandma's house, my parents had a panic moment when she got excited and said "train!", expecting to see the one that went around the Christmas tree. I was just impressed she remembered it from five months ago.

Not to worry. Grandma had lots of things to spoil a little girl with. Next door neighbor was done with this kitchen and a cozy coupe car, for starters. That was a big hit.





And, since my brother is currently living at home, his cats are too. Socks is honestly the best cat I have ever met. He is smart- comes when Dan calls him, etc- and very patient with my kids.



And this was my mom's big "suprise" for us. And let me tell you, she is in love. These things are a mess and a half, but my kids both love spending hours moving sand around.




As our suprise for Granmda, we brought her doughnuts from Daylight because she loves them and gets them whenever she comes to visit us. But they got a little smooshed on the way. Grandma enjoyed all the big pieces, but we had our little girl help us out with the crumbs. Yum.



Yup, life is good at Grandma's house.

Jump on it

Tonight we went to Jump on it with Christopher's company. My kids LOVE that place! Seriously, they were jumping and grinning from ear to ear for two hours solid. Oh, and hubby was rather happy too.



Basically, this place is wall to wall trampolines, with a grown up section and a kiddie section.



Daddy liked to show off his flips. The kids thought that was hilarious to watch.



So, this shot might be technically terrible, and Christopher doesn't like it- but I thought it was fun! It's like he's a ghost . . .



Anyway, back to the cuter people. They loved the blow up slides and such when their little legs got tired of jumping.



And pretending to be stuck in the bounce house.



Man, I love our life! It is busy, and often very stressful, but little days like today make it all worth it.

Next up, on Tuesday I fly home to Ohio for a friend's wedding next weekend. The scary part is that I am only taking Kaitlyn. That means that not only does hubby have to feed and take care of himself, but Tyler as well! My poor man can't cook very well, and informed me happily that he will just eat at Carl's Jr for every meal. I posted a list on the fridge of meals that he DOES know how to cook so they haven't gained 10 pounds by the time I get back. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I plan to have a blast with my parents, who are really looking forward to at least one grandkid to spoil. I'll miss my boys though!

Preschool Graduation

These things crack me up. Everybody acts like they are a huge deal, breaking out cameras and inviting grandmothers. But since Tyler has another year in preschool, he's not actually graduating from anything. It is just a chance to sing some songs for the parents and be adorable. Which Tyler is good at. (Being adorable, that is. He doesn't much go for the songs.)



I loved the little hats! Hilarious.



I had an interesting camera day. I would get my lenses changed up just when things changed, etc. And here, we have Tyler and Daddy looking good and Kaitlyn doing . . . something.



And now, Tyler and Kaitlyn are being cute, and Daddy is doing . . . something.



This is "Miss Jennifer", the preschool teacher who Tyler likes to talk about a lot.



After the presentation, it was time to play! The sixth grade puts on a carnival for the Kindergarden and Preschool classes, and the kids had fun fishing for otter pops . . .




. . . throwing the beanbag through the hole (Tyler made two in!)



. . . ignoring the fun games because otter pops are more important . . .



. . . hitting a pinata . . .




and running an obstacle course. It was a great day!

Kaitlyn isms

* The other day, Kaitlyn was doing something adorable and my husband told her "you are just priceless!" She nodded very solomnly and added "and LOUD!"

* We have had a johnny jump up hanging in a seldomn-used doorway ever since Tyler was an infant. Tyler loved to jump in our laps, but not in the seat. Kaitlyn never figured it out either. But then, a month ago, Kaitlyn discovered it. She got to be a pro at using the changing table to climb into and out of the infant jumper, and then would bounce and swing and spin herself silly. And on Sunday morning, after I had gotten them dressed for church, she apparently had such a good time that the spun and bounced herself until she puked.

* Today, Tyler was sad about something, so I rocked him in my chair for a minute. I don't even know how Kaitlyn knew that's what I was doing, but she came in with a blankie for Tyler- because when Kaitlyn goes down for a nap, I rock her in that chair with a blankie. So she handed us the blankie, watched to make sure I spread it on Tyler, and then closed the door behind her telling us "sweet dreams!" in a whisper.

BYU Baseball

One of the things we love to do with the kids is go to BYU Baseball games. They aren't as exciting as Basketball or Football games, but that means they are nice and low key for the kids. We can wander over and get great seats, run around when the toddlers need to blow off steam, and (most importantly) eat hot dogs.




Today was the last home game of the season, and they had a tailgate party beforehand. We loved it! For $12, we all got to play Plinko (we won two beach towels and a pom-pom) . . .



. . . eat J-Dawgs (the best dogs in the valley, yum). . .




. . . get face or hands painted (Tyler wasn't so sure about this one) . . .



And see Cosmo the Cougar. What's that? You don't see Cosmo in this picture? Kaitlyn loves to keep track of Cosmo's every movements and point them out to us every five minutes. But when we found him to go give him a high five and get our picture taken, she bolted. So we picked her up and encouraged her . . . and she cried.



I don't think the picture does justice to how terrified she was at this moment, but trust me - Daddy is laughing for a reason.