Kara’s Korner

Our next stop in Colorado took us further north of Denver and west of Boulder to a little town called Erie (pop. 40k) where Matt and Julia (Natalie’s younger sister) live. 

Among many other adventures (see below by clicking on the picture) we visited the Rocky Mountain National Park and drove up to 14,000 feet above sea level.We stopped to enjoy some breathtaking views and hiked some of the way up with Kara in the snuglie.

Click to see more…

Boulder

Our time in Colorado started with a visit with Shallu Maushi (Ashish’s aunt) and her family. It was a joyous reunion for the aunties and for the most part all Kara had to say was "I like the weather around here much better, lets move to Colorado!" We had a great time with the Gaikwads - Anil, Shalini, Soni and Teja! We went for many walks to the park, up to Manitou Springs, rode the cog train up to Pikes Peak, looked around the haunted castle, had a tour of the Summit ministries campus, and ate lots of delicious Indian food cooked by three experts!  

See more of our visit by clicking the picture below…

Colorado Springs

With two sisters in Texas, and their (long lost) third sister in Colorado whom they had not seen in 4 years, a trip to Colorado Springs was not too far away. Instead of flying them across, Kara decided that she would escort her "grannies" personally on a road trip via New Mexico!

We decided to leave early (6:00am) on Saturday, June 14, 2007. Needless to say, we left by 11:00am!  But it was exciting for all and Kara turned out to be the best traveller among us! She slept through most of the journey, did well to play with the grannies in the back seat and ensured that she was at the center of everyone’s attention most of the time. She did break down late in the evenings as if to say - "That’s enough for one day! We ought to stop now!" and we knew better than to argue with that!

 To see more pictures from our exciting road trip, click on this picture…

Roadtrip!

Kara’s grandmother from India visited her in June 2007.  After months of planning, trips to the visa office, passport office, they finally settled down for the long flight to the opposite side of the world.  Mumbai to New York - Sixteen hours non stop flight time. Two hours layover in NY, then NY to Atlanta another two hours. Four hours layover in Atlanta and finally another two hours to Dallas, TX. That makes a total of 26 hours journey. And "mummy" (Ashish’s mom) has never been on an airplane before! It was quite the adventure, and both mummy and akka maushi (Ashish’s mom’s elder sister - his aunt) took it all in with great delight.

To see their time with Kara in Dallas, click on the picture below…

Grandmas from India

Cultural Notes: In Maharashtra, India (especially within the Marathi language) there are titles for certain family members (in addition to their actual names). In Ashish’s mom’s family they have 5 sisters and 2 brothers. The eldest sister is called "Akka". The second eldest is called "Tai". The third and younger do not have any special titles. Among the sisters, Akka and Tai (Ashish’s mom) are visiting. Sister #4 lives in Colorado. Sister #3 and #5 live in India. The word "Maushi" means auntie. So for all of us cousins, we get to call them Akka Maushi, Tai maushi, Shallu maushi etc. (Shallu is the nickname for auntie #4).  Kara will know all three (and the others when she meets them) as "Grandma."  To make life simpler (?!) we call mummy, "Mothi Ayi" (Grandma in Marathi, pronounced "motee iee"), akka maushi "Aji," and Shallu maushi "Shallu Aji."   I know, I know, this is all very confusing; but India was never plain and simple to begin with! You get used to it after a while.

It used to be frogs…hop hop hop… Now its BUNNIES!  Kara LOVES her pink stuffed bunny - she snuggles up with it to sleep at night, she pulls it off the shelf during diaper changes, and most of all, she chews on his poor pink ears mercilessly.  Chewing being her latest pastime, she has also adopted "blanket bear" who has a wonderful teether sewn on, thereby protecting his own appendages.  Sadly, there is no such provision for Bunny.

GRRRRRR…See Kara the predator by clicking below

Kara-Bunny

It was a beautiful day, and we couldn’t wait to show the grandmas around Dallas…so where should we go?  We finally decided on a train ride to the zoo!  It was a gorgeous day with lots of fun times - we even stopped at Reunion Tower on our way back to go up and see the view!  It made mom dizzy, but Kara’s grandma loved the up and down ride on the glass elevator.

See our whole trip by clicking below!

The Zoo! June 2, 07