The Aquarium and our Junior Rangers

On our final day we went to Gatlinburg to visit the Aquarium. It was a very rainy Saturday and the place was packed. It was as good as I remember. We even went through the shark tunnel twice. Then we all went our separate ways. Sushama and Brian (Seema and Nitha) left for home. Shashi and Sam went back to the lodge with Grandma and Grandpa. Ravi, Renee, Katie and Samantha stayed another night too. We headed into the Great Smokey Mountain National Park to get the kids their Junior Ranger badges.
They now have earned them from three National Parks: The Great Smoky Mountains, Hot Springs and Big Bend.

River Rat - Year Two

We took the cousins to do some tubing with the River Rats again. The ambient temperature wasn't as stiffling this year and the water was almost cold. But the river was flowing well and the kids had a great time. I did not take my camera to the river but Ravi may send me his picture of us all after the first run down the river. I'll post it when I can.

The Track

We actually spent two afternoons at a place in Pigeon Forge called the Track. The first day we were there with cousin David et al. They are "regulars" there. Not really, but they do own a discount pass that let's them buy ride tickets for half price. The second day we went with all of the Sharma/Brimmer cousins. We drove the go-karts on a couple of different tracks (with kids along for the ride), played putt-putt golf drove the bumper boats and the bumper cars. Sunil was big enough to drive the kiddie go-karts (5 mph max speed). The first time he was the only child on the track (probably a good way to learn). But by the time we left he had the opportunity to drive against a couple of other boys and passed them all up in a cloud of slow moving dust.

Sheela, Seema and Nitha were all big enough to drive the rookie go-karts (10 mph max speed). All around a big hit with the drivers. In this shot Seema is preventing Nitha from passing her and receiving an illegal bump in return.
Here Sheela is attempting to sneak past Nitha. She didn't make it on this corner but managed before the end of the lap to get on by.

Charrit Creek Lodge Trip

While in Tennessee to retrieve our oldest kidling, we managed to make an overnight hike down to the Cherrit Creek lodge. The lodge is in the Obed River area on the TN/KT border. The hike down was less than 2 miles over what the map describes as Steep Stairs. Sunil was a little bit tentative at the first staircase but loosened up considerably by the end. We went down the Twin Arches trail across two limestone arches that are nearly 100 feet high. From underneath they were very impressive, from the top you can't tell that they are arches, they just seem like a narrow ridge. The view was well worth the effort.

Here Sid and Sheela are enjoying the view from the top of the South arch.
As was the opportunity to wade in the river at the end of our flatlander efforts.
In honor of Tracey's Year of the Snake.....If you look closely you can see the head of the watersnake coming out from under the rock in the river. He was in with us while we were wading but we didn't find him until we were getting out.
There were two cabins and a main lodge house in the valley. This was our cabin. It had bunk beds for 12, but we were the only guests in the valley that night. We had a camp fire, watched the stars, caught fireflies and just enjoyed being out of the city.

This is my little hiking buddy all set for the climb back out. He was an excellent sport about the whole trip and carried his own pack, water and food with minimal complaint. He even shared his hiking stick with me.

Vacation Countdown....

10 - Arrange for home renovations in our absence- Check
9 - Pack the obvious stuff -Check
8 - Pay all bills - Check
7 - take the cat to the vet - Check
6 - Buy car snacks (or not) -
5 - Tour Amy's Million Dollar Homes - not part of my normal vacation routine but this is the only day I can get down to Dallas

4 - Get directions (or not) - it's not like we haven't been there before
3 - Pack last minute stuff (from the list we've been making all day) - also known as fill up all remaining space in the car with anything that is not nailed down

2 - Load it in to the car (don't forget Sunil) - the real key to a good trip
1 - In the words of Bart Simpson, "So long, Stinktown!"

Hawaiian Falls

Sunil and I took a day to play yesterday and it was nearly perfect.  We went to a local waterpark called Hawaiian Falls.  Sunil is just over 40" tall and he would have needed an extra 1-2" to be able to ride the moderately thrilling rides, but he wasn't really interested in those anyway.  He was a little concerned that I might make him ride on the Hawaiian Half-pipe (a shear drop on an inner tube that eventually shoots you back up the other side of the canyon) -- no thanks.  We spent our gorgeous 105 degree day speed walking between Keiki Kove (the kids area), Splashwater Harbor (a swimming pool with waterfalls) and the Kona Kooler (a lazy river with inner tubes).  It was wonderful and we both came home in desperate need of naps (which we actually got).

I aquired a minor suburn on the backs of both of my arms and one bonus streak down the front of my left arm..... apparently, I didn't do a very good job applying the spray sun screen. At least Sunil didn't burn.

Handy people to know....

that's us. On Saturday Sid, Sunil and I went to Farhana's house to paint Jazmine's bedroom. The wallpaper had already been stripped but the walls needed some repair. That took Sid (and Robert) most of the morning. Then they put up a coat of bright blue primer. In the afternoon Jaz, Sunil and I put up the bright green primer (on the lower third of the walls) while Farhana painted the chair rails battleship grey. They were supposed to be silver but it didn't come out quite right. Sid has suggested that they use polyurethane and silver glitter to spruce them up. On Sunday Jaz and Farhana finished up with bright blue paint and bright green paint. I can't wait to see it all done. They've been in the house almost six years and this is the first decorating chore that they've tackled. I expect that all of the other cabbage rose wallpaper will disappear in relatively short order.

Sunday Sid and Sunil went to the zoo, but at 105 degrees they didn't stay as long as usual. When they got back Sid and I went to Alma's house to help them put up their built-in microwave. Its been sitting on their counter top since February. They mis-read something in the instructions about the mounting bracket and their attempts at installation didn't work out to well. I'm sure that was completely unrelated to using whipped cream to mark the screw holes. While Mark and Sid tackled that, Alma and I changed out the bathroom light switch. The one that we installed has turns on with a motion sensor and then turns off automatically. Their girls are apparently notorious for leaving the bathroom light on all night.

Sid also got another handrail up in his folks shower. Now his mom can get herself in and out of the shower without assistance. I know that she feels much better about not being so dependent.

Oohnorak...a Bionicle

When Sunil traded in his scooter for his new skates he also picked up a lego set to build the Bionicle Oohnorak. We haven't read any of the Bionicle stories yet, but Oohnorak appears to be a mechanical "bug" with (only four) articulating legs, a pair of pincers and the ability to launch flying disks off of his back. This is the second set that Sunil has, but select pieces of the first one disappeared before we managed to get it built. This one did pretty well but the set was missing one of his "thighs". Sunil managed to find the appropriate replacement piece from the old set.

A life outside

Saturday Mommy finally got a chance to break out of the house for a little while. She practiced getting into (and out of) the Taurus. I feel a lot better knowing that it really isn't hard for her to do. While she was out they went for a spin around the block in her wheelchair.

Since then she has actually been out to the store a few times. We tried to get her in to the new van, but it is still a little bit too high. She doesn't have the upper body strength to pull herself up into the chair from the floor and she can't stand up well enough on either foot to push herself up and in. The Expedition is going to be even less likely, but we still have a few weeks to work on that before we leave for Tennessee.

The only bad news is that someone ran a red light yesterday and smashed up the Taurus. It's still drivable (if you don't count the missing headlight) but the passenger door doesn't open. Luckily Mommy wasn't in the car at the time and daddy wasn't hurt. She can still get in the backseat and the repairs are set to occur while we are out of town.

Telling Time

I know that I should be helping Sunil learn to tell time instead of working against him, but I was so tired yesterday. He did exchange the scooter for a pair of skates. Then we went swimming and that wore us all out. Sunil can actually swim now. So he went back and forth between us endlessly (in really shallow water). I fell asleep twice after we got home and before dinner. By 8:00 PM I was ready to bribe him to go to bed. Instead I told him it was 9:30 and he'd already been up too late. He went right to bed with no complaints. I was in bed by 8:30 more or less. I had to get up a few more times to switch around the laundry but I feel like a whole new woman today.

Merry-go-round

While up at the mall for ice skating adventure with Grammylyn Sunil took a ride on the carousel.

Let the vacation begin...

Sheela and Grammylyn have left for Tennessee. I'm sure that they will have a wonderful time while we sit here at home.

To fill our lonely days we are intending to overwhelm poor Sunil with way more attention than he is used to as a second child. His new scooter is not working out. The ride board is warped (I thought that his balance just wasn't that good) and it isn't ride-able. So we will return that today. He may choose another scooter if the next delivery has come in, but if they don't have another one he has his eye on a pair of in-line skates with training wheels. Too cute!

We may even get to the roller rink to break them in, and then we plan to go swimming at the natatorium. His swim classes start again tomorrow night and will take up most of his evenings while Sheela is gone.

Playtime

Well Grammylyn has been here since late Wednesday night. She and the kids are having a ball. It makes it hard to enjoy working when I know that they are off having fun. My vacation is coming and it is almost Friday afternoon. I guess I'll survive. Sheela is still going to Kids Club. Sunil is getting to have someone-on-one time with Grammylyn. Yesterday they went ice skating, twice. Today they may even go again. Sheela will go to friend's house for awhile this afternoon and then Grammylyn is going to take them to a play.

You call that a storm?

We finally had a little bit of rain here. Massive thunderstorms flew through last night they actually had to cancel the Grande Finale of the Kaboom-town Fireworks show. The storms that came our way were a little bit more tame. We had nearly 10-minutes of great, big, beautiful rain drops but when it was all said and done, the grass underneath the Frisbee wasn't even moist and the ground wasn't muddy. We still need 20 inches of rain to get out of the drought, storms like this just aren't going to do it.

Our traditional fireworks show is put on by the city of Plano. When we lived there we just walked across the street to the park to watch the show and then walked back home. Last year we drove back over, so we had to deal with traffic on the return trip, but the viewing was clear, easy and free. This year when we got to the park, it was empty (except for one group of four teenagers). I was afraid that the show had been cancelled due to weather. So we drove South to the launch site to make sure. Normally the high school is all roped off to restrict access (unless you walk-in and pay to enter the grounds). This year there were no gates, banners or signs (there was one sign -- we'll get back to it in a minute). We waited in line for a few minutes and joined the throng to enter the grounds, once we got in to the parking lot we realized that it was less than 1/3 full but everyone was set up to watch the show. I thought I'd seen a sign on our way in, it was the size of a "FOR SALE" sign in someone's front yard. I wasn't sure but it looked like it said "Oak Point Park", which is about five miles away. We went back to see the sign and sure enough "Fireworks moved to Oak Point Park", so we left everyone else sitting there and tried to get across town. Because of weather they started the show 20 minutes early, we didn't make it all the way over. We stopped to watch from the Wal-mart parking lot. Sitting under the parking lot flood lights cost the night a lot of charm and magic. At least it didn't rain on us, and we had chairs.

Independence Day

Happy 4th of July! We have nothing special going on today -- its all general clean up and home maintenance. Boring but necessary. I wanted to take the kids to the pool but of course, as a National Holiday the pool is closed so that everyone can spend time with their families (doing nothing, because all of the fun things are closed).

OT and PT

Having Mommy home is better than having her gone. The nurse came by on Saturday to check on things. She will start in-home occupational therapy and physical therapy on alternating days. They may come today, or today may be a holiday. Someone will come for sure on Wednesday.

She is only getting up to go to the bathroom and to take meals. The rest of the time she is staying in bed. I expected her to want to be up in the wheelchair at least.

We installed remote controls for her ceiling fans (since she can't reach the pull chains). Unfortunately, we managed to lose one of the remote controls before we even installed the receiver. I'm sure we will find it just as soon as we quit looking.

Adequate Protection

Here the kids are showing off their new toys. Sheela bought herself in-line skates and Sunil bought himself a scooter. They actually already had all of the pads and such but its been awhile since they've been fully decked out.

Lemon Battery

Here Sheela is showing off the lemons that she used as a battery to light up this LED. We had to move the whole contraption into the laundry room (the only dark room in the house) to really be able to see that it was working.

Parched Earth

This is what the ground looks like where the city has stopped watering the parks. Some of these cracks in the ground are over a foot deep already and some are three inches across. There is a lot of concern over how safe it is for the kids to run and play in these parks. This is right across the street from us, but our kids don't play on the grass. They either go all the way to the playground or stay in our own yard.