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Usually summer is very busy for us. Yagnam in temple for 5 days, Shivani, Suhani, DP birthdays. Our wedding anniversary and temple anniversary. This summer we had our parents visiting us. We are glad that they could see Suhani’s Graduation and girls birthday parties at schools. Suhani’s Brithday fell on Saturday during yagam on which Telugu’s lunch was sponsored. We were in temple for more than 16 hrs. And she took that as oppurtunity and told almost everyone in the temple that it was her b’day. She had fun cutting the cake in the cultural center. We then had her b’day party celebrations in our back yard with the huge water slide. More than kids all adults had fun sliding on the water slide. Pictures are here. That late night Hari/Shiva and Navya/Bharat visited us from Chicago. The very next day early morning we (26 ppl) started out to HotSprings. Everyone loved the boat ride. We took the boat for 8 hrs and went in 3 groups. 

Chaitu, Siva and Hari came for Shivu’s Birthday and Chaitu’s baby shower. We celebrated Shivu’s at Wolfchase mall. Kids enjoyed ”Hannah Montana” movie, Carasoul ride, picking their own good bag gift from Disney store. Unfortunately it was Sunday so they closed the mall at 6pm. Click here for pictures. For July 4th long weekend we went to Chicago and kids stayed back there for almost four weeks. Hari enrolled them for swimming classes under Pasumarthi’s name as they offer for localites. The swim center was nearby so my parents walked them up there everyday. Shiva taught girls how to climb trees and taught Suhi ride her bike with out training wheels.

On Aug 1st I and DP drove to St.Louis. Other part of the family drove from Chicago. We enjoyed our stay at the hotel, went to Arch, Six flags and next day we visited the famous St Louis Zoo.

Brought back kids and parents to Memphis. We gave a very nice surprise party to my parents on their 36th anniversary, which was on Sunday Aug 8th. Party pictures are right here.

We went to one of our favorite chinese restaurants, Mulan Bistro. On the dinner mat there are 12 animals representing 12 Zodiac signs. Chinese Zodiac signs are based on which year they were born. As Shivani is year of birth was 2002, she is a horse. Suhani is Monkey as everyone guessed, Myself and DP were Rabbits. When everyone were checking theirs, Shivani said “Amma, there is bad news, it seems I have to marry a tiger or a rat”. She was so worried thinking that she had to marry a “real” Tiger or Rat, instead of the other zodiac signs. I and DP laughed ourselves out loud.

Shivani was complaining that she cannot finish her dinner at restaurant. When asked the reason, she said she had her stomach full at home, which made me surprise as they did not eat any snacks as such. When I asked her what she eat she simply answered ”Lunch”.

When paying bill, DP gave his card and left a tip of $5 cash. Kids thought the whole dinner costed only $5.

On Moday we went to Incredible pizza, Tuesday Zoo, Wednesday Shivani and dad did cycling from home to Johnson park- Shivani really did good with out training wheels on a 24′’ bike all by herself. Thursday went to skating and Friday stayed at home watching Red box DVDs. Sunday played Holi at temple. Playing holi in water was absolute fun.

Suhani was hyper past week. She was very allari and cranky. Last Sunday dad gave her several timeouts. One time of the day we both screamed at her and sent her to kids room. DP felt very bad and went to her room to talk over that issue. Before DP opened his mouth for discussion, Suhani said “Naana, I read (yes, I READ) in a book - there is a boy who does lot of allari and their parents always speak softly to him”. DP came back from kids room with look on his face like he is coming back from a timeout and Suhani followed him with a great satisfaction of changing his dad forever.

Our unplanned Thanksgiving trip to Chicago 

Reached Chicago little after 10pm, Tues Nov 23rd. Hari made sure we reach them hungry to eat Chicken biriyani and Fish fry from Saffron.  Then we watched ‘Fashion’ movie until 2am.  DP was trying hard to put Suhani to bed but she was as active as it was 2pm. He said “Suhani you cannot wake up early tomorrow morning”, but she answered him saying “You cannot either”.

We researched little bit about Chula Vista indoor water park at Wisconsin Dells. We reserved a studio for a night at the resort for fri/sat. Next day we visited temples nearby - Arora temple, Sai baba temple, Swami Narayan Temple. We then went to ‘hot breads’ owned by telugu’s, Hari got mehendi, some paan and fresh Jilebi from Jai Hind along with Indian DVDS. On the way back home Siva ordered and picked Goat Biryani from Saffron. We watched Dasvidaniya while applying henna to kids.

Third day we went to Devon. Shopped at patel bros, eat tiffins at Udipi Palace and visited most of the Jewelry stores and ofcourse picked a nice necklace for Hari at Devi Jewelers. Spent some time with Damaraju’s, we stopped at different other shops and last eat chats/snacks/sweets at a snack corner.  We headed towards Padmakar & Malathi’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. Around 11:30pm we started back home, after which we watched Dostana movie.

Friday - Woke up leisurely, packed our bags for water park trip then went to Hari’s office, visited their sears sample store and bought few things. We then went to DP’s favorite authentic telugu restaurant ‘Cool Mirchi’. From there we headed towards Wisconsin Dells watching ‘Chirutha’. Checked into the resort and went to campfire where we met another family and shared scary stories with them. From there we went to the Chula Vista indoor water park and it was so very beautiful and great. As it was our first time indoor water park experience it was awsome. We left the place only when they completely closed it. We then ordered Pizza to hotel and then had a good night sleep. http://www.chulavistaresort.com/waterparks/Lost_Rios.htm

Saturday - We opted for buffet breakfast where we can make our own waffles from already made dough. We had stomach and hearts full and were eager to go back to the water park. There were total of 18 rides in the indoor park with a temp of 82 degrees. Kids had a ball, they loved and loved and loved water. They never wanted to come out of that place. I and Shiva went on each of those 18 rides. All others members in the family also covered most of the rides. We reached Chicago around 8pm and started cleaning the house and cooking for Damaraju’s. We spent time with them and realized that Pavan and Srini are related. We called it a day and went to bed ofcourse late.

Sunday - Last day, we headed back to Memphis reached by 7pm. Last but not least DP stopped at Baskin & Robbins (23 miles to Memphis) for brownie sundae. With that I put on a total of 3 pounds in 5 days. I HATE Chicago or may be vacations :)