Another year older, another year wiser!

Happy Birthday to ME!

On this birthday, there are lots of thoughts running through my brain, lots of things I am looking forward to, and lots of wishes.

First off, I am getting old! Or at least feel a little old today!

I was born a little over 3 decades ago. Feels like a long time.. Sigh!

Looking back, I was a very very shy teenager. My 20’s were times of learning, fighting and really figuring out who I was. 30’s have been my favorite yet! I love myself, own my worth, comfortable and feel on top of the world. Ok! ok! I am at least on the 12th floor as I write this post. So that counts! Right? Right!

I have no regrets today. I know everything that happened, both good and bad, were all meant to be. I am grateful for all of them.

Remember Lemon took me on a birthday vacation couple years back? Since then I have loved the idea of travelling on birthdays. To beaches in particular.

This year, Lemon suggested he’d take me somewhere again! So following the same-beach-travel-tradition, we are now on our way to Anguilla!

Ice cream is all I think about (besides cake) tonight! Lemon might take me to some favorite spot on the island to have some. I might even try some Caribbean drinks! Or may be not.

Really, what matters to me so much today is my family. I am excited to spend the day travelling with the kids. Baby Lily is now a troublesome toddler and Lime is a superhero. So, what can go wrong? The trip is going to be super awesome!

So yeah! Happyyyyy birthdayyyyyy to me! 🙂 Can’t tell you my wishes, then they won’t come true!

So, off I go to celebrate!

Lemon has promised to surprise me this afternoon! Can’t wait to see what it is!

Thank you all for the love on this day and always!

Your favorite,

Lavender

My Disney Days – The tale of Christmas necklace [Part 4]

I am not a big fan of Jewelry. But for a Christmas vacation how about something that’s really Christmassy and lights up? Right? I thought that would add some style to our holiday vacation. So I went ahead and ordered these from Amazon. Initially, I thought it would be just ‘us’ wearing these and walking around the parks. Err.. who knew! There were a bunch of people. Kids and Adults alike. All were wearing these with pride. They were even selling mickey-shaped-Christmas-lights-necklace in the parks. 

So coming back to my story, I ordered these 3 days prior to our trip. We were leaving on December 21st. I placed the order on the 18th. And Amazon promised to deliver these on the 20th.

On 20th morning, as soon as I woke up, I was impatient. You know one of those days where you are excited for something to happen? Only in this case I was waiting for my order to be delivered. I knew I had to wait till the evening.

I had got the family pack of 4 so each of us would get one.  That was the one last thing I needed for the trip and then I would be done with packing.

I was checking my phone often to track the package.

Evening came. I saw UPS, FedEx and even USPS trucks pass by my home. However, none of them stopped by my door. The waiting seemed unbearable. At around 8 PM when I was tucking Lime and Lily into bed, I received a text. As soon as I read it, I ran downstairs to tell Lemon all about it. “We are sorry for the delay. Your package is still on its way and will be delivered to you in the next couple days“

I was mad at Amazon. We were leaving for the vacation the next day and they say they will deliver in the next couple days? Insane. I placed the order just because the site said it will be delivered on the 20th. I had no choice but to give up  the idea about wearing something Christmassy for the Christmas vacation.

If all this sounds silly to you, you are more than welcome to stop reading here. Okay? I am a drama queen. I know.

Come next day, we were all ready to leave home. I even checked our mailbox for the package before leaving. It was empty. So, with a big sigh I left. We reached the airport, checked our bags, dealt with Lime & Lily’s drama while waiting for security, got our dinner and ran to the gate. As we settled in our seats in the airplane, my phone beeped with Amazon’s text alert. “Your package has been delivered!”.

My jaw dropped. You delivered it now? Just after I left home? You could have as well delivered it an hour earlier. I felt cheated and angry. I badly wanted this for my trip. Sigh!

I should NOT have ordered something for the trip in the last minute. My mistake. I should have known.

Here’s the pic. It’s still sitting at home. Unopened. I haven’t decided if I am going to keep it anyways or return it. Ufff!

#Blogathon2018 #DisneyTrip #ChristmasVacation

Throwback Thursday

It was just another evening at home. All of us were doing our own thing. While Lemon watched TV, Lime & Lily fought for the same spider-man toy. And you know I was as usual in the kitchen fixing dinner. The song it’s a small world was playing in the background. Every now and then we all would sing along the same chorus lines.

Music is one thing that bonds us all together.

One moment we were all doing something on our own disconnected from each other. But then another moment we were all connected together. We would suddenly pitch in and sing “it’s a small world after all; it’s a small world after all…”

A timeless classic. This has been our recent favorite song. We all love it. We heard it in the Magic Kingdom at It’s a small world ride. I smile every time I think of it.

Here’s a picture that was taken from our boat during the ride

Check out the song:

#ThrowbackThursday #Blogathon2018 #Disneydays #MagicKingdom

My Disney Days – Disney Pin Trading [Part 3]

Let me admit it – Disney Pin Trading was more fun to me than Lime! While Lime wanted all fancy good looking Mickey and Donald pins, I wanted all Princesses and Minnie pins. Lemon as usual was not bothered at all. He would wait outside the shops or take Lily for a walk when Lime and I had a fun interactive experience with the cast members. The great thing about this experience was that there was no age limit for this activity.   

For this fun experience, you just need to locate a cast member wearing a lanyard with pins. And all you have to do is find a pin that they have and that you like, and exchange it for one of your pins. Good part for Lime was that the cast members were all so friendly and cheerful. He loved them all. Sometimes we exchanged two with one cast member. Lime would go first and then me. It was super fun!

The pins are all small and they easily fit in the carry on luggage. So these were perfect for us and so easy and affordable souvenirs!

Tip: Pins in the parks are super expensive. So I would suggest getting this or something else you like from Amazon/eBay. Ours had 25 pins for about $17. That makes it less than $1 per pin. It may not be one of the best options but that was just enough for us to trade for all our favorite pins in Disney.

My Favorites ~ I love them all!

Whether it is the little mermaid or the giant genie you seek, pin trading is guaranteed to add more fun to your Disney adventure! Share the magic and bring home some wonderful memories, will you?

#Blogathon2018 #DisneyVacation #ChristmasVacation #DisneyTradingPins #ILoveDisney #Disney

Read the series here:

• My Disney Days – Part 1
• My Disney Days – DIY Disney Shirt [Part 2]

Stay tuned for more Disney experience!

My Disney days – Part 1

I love fairy tales.

I dream bigger dreams.

I believe in magic.

I love once upon a time and happily ever after’s

And so we decided to spend the most wonderful time of the year in the most magical place on earth – where dreams come true.

DISNEY!

To start with, Disney trips are costly. May be not for everyone but it was for us. Why you ask? We decided to go there during the peak season. Christmas and New Years is when the parks are so full. Many bloggers had warned people of long queues for everything. I was a bit scared after reading such posts. Well, What did we know. We went ahead with our plan anyways.

While Lemon wanted to take Lime on all park rides, I had my own list of things I wanted to do in the parks.

To start with, I wanted nice Disney family shirts! Especially for our day in Magic Kingdom. I searched online in Etsy and the Disney shirts were all pricey. So I ended up making one myself for the four of us for about $10. Here’s a pic.

Next on my list was Disney trading pins. I knew Lime would enjoy trading this with cast members. Many good bloggers had already given the idea of getting them in advance from Amazon than buying them in the parks. So, what did I do? Did I make them myself? Hell no! Stay tuned to know more.

Christmas necklace: Well, I never had one of these before. But I liked the idea. It would be super fun to wear them in the parks. I was so happy to find one family pack in Amazon. I ordered them too.. But… it’s a long story. I’ll tell you what exactly happened in my next post.

Disney Autograph book: First I thought it’s a weird idea. But as I read more blogs from moms around the world, I wanted to give this a try.

Disney Hat: I knew Lime would ask for one seeing other kids wearing it. I also knew he would prefer a Spiderman hat than a Mickey Mouse one. Spiderman is more cooler for him. On the other hand, my little munchkin Lily, loves Mickey and Minnie. So what I did for this will come up in the next few posts.

So stay tuned you guys!

And btw, Happy New Year! 🙂

A peek inside Quebec City

If you are a regular reader here, you would know by now that most of our holidays happen without any prior planning. We decide and go just in the last minute. So like every other time, our bags weren’t packed. The hotels weren’t booked. We did not know French. There was a snow storm on our way and frigid winter temperature was in place. But we expected our holiday to start as-per-our-last-minute-plan.

Since our anniversary fell on a weekday this year, we couldn’t do much. So, we decided to opt for a weekend getaway. At around 1 PM on Friday, we decided to go to Quebec City, Canada. It was a 6 hr drive from home. 

I left from work at around 2:30 PM. It took me almost 1/2 an hour to clean the snow from my car. It was difficult. In frustration, I sent an angry message to Lemon and started driving home. How the message went to my boss instead of Lemon is another story. Lets leave it at that.

Below is how the roads looked-like that day.

As soon as I reached home, I decided to pack dinner for us while Lemon cleaned the snow from our driveway. To my surprise, we finished everything we wanted to do just in time and left home around 5:30 PM. 

We drove for about 4.5 hrs and stayed at a hotel for the night. Next morning, we reached Quebec City at around 12 PM. The french-speaking-city with European-style architecture was charming and beautiful.

The Parliament Hill

Old Quebec

8 Adventures in my Life

Both Lemon and I love being outdoor.  We are a big fan of adventure travel and find it exciting to visit new places and experience something unique. Here are our eight most fantastic adventures so far –

Submarine in Hawaii: When I look back at the past few years, I realize most of our holidays have been so much fun. My very first big trip in this country was Hawaii. The trip was terrific. One of my first one was the submarine experience. As we descended down the ocean, we saw sea turtles, shipwreck, some underwater pyramid structure, other wildlife and colorful fish – cool! I got a little sea sick after we started to ascend – but was proud to claim myself a submariner. 

That’s our Atlantis Submarine!

Parasailing in Key West – This was something on our bucket list for Hawaii but we couldn’t do it due to our last minute plans. So we got ourselves scheduled in Key West. It was an early morning experience. I was very excited for this adventure and it felt like I was participating in some reality show. I was scared initially but now that I’ve done it once, I’m willing to try this just about anywhere. 

 

Snorkeling in Cayman Islands – This was not for me. I neither know swimming or can just walk in waist level water. Lemon enjoyed this though. He snorkeled somewhere in the reef in the middle of the ocean. Here’s the pic.

Visit to the Stingray City –   Stingray City is one of the main reasons we wanted to go to the Cayman. We first boarded the yacht and sailed out through the turquoise water  to the Stingray city. It was my first time seeing a stingray and they were all a lot bigger than I thought. I heard they are friendly but was afraid of them. I was carrying Lime and the waist-level water only frightened me more. It was such a unique experience to be so close to stingrays. They were very very soft when gliding past us. We even kissed the stingray.  May be it will bring us 7 years of good luck? Ha ha ha!

White Water Rafting in Charlotte  –  Who doesn’t think whitewater rafting is cool? The water splashing wave after wave , the occasional intentional drop over one side and another unintentional drop on the other side is soooo much fun. We did this before Lime with the sister-in-law and the brother-in-law. Since all of us were rafting, we hadn’t taken any pics. 

Formula Rossa: The World’s fastest roller coaster [Abu Dhabi] – Ferrari World is the home to this fastest ride in the world. Again, this one was not for me. Lemon went on this with the cousin-in-law. Actually, they went on it just to say they have been on it. They had endless waiting in line but so much fun at the ride. 

Luray Caverns, Virginia – The caves had something unique and a story to tell. There were tons of formations to see and they are were enormous. The mirror pool reflecting the formations was gorgeous. This was quite a site to see.

Alberta, Canada – The Canadian Rockies are just beautiful. We did a lot of hiking in Banff and Jasper national parks. The visit to the Columbia Icefield Glacier was well worth the trip. 

Our unique experiences are what that made our vacations a memorable experience! What were your adventures and how much did you like them? 

#Blogathon 2016

And we are off!

House is cleaned. Laundry done. Dishes are washed. The bags are packed. Our holiday begins in a few hours. 

I’ve been doing a happy dance since 8 AM today. No wait! Actually since last night 😛 

We are going to the Cayman Islands. For a good 5 days. This is a long pending trip. Lemon promised to take me to the Cayman’s for my birthday. But due to his MBA course work this trip was postponed. Every time we see an opportunity to travel we always try to go to a new place. Downtown’s, tall buildings, busy streets all amuse me.. but what we need now is a nice calm vacation. So, we decided to be away from all these hassles.

Last years’ Turks and Caicos Vacation was one of our bests’. I hope this one becomes our best-est! 

Grand Cayman – I can’t wait to see you! 

So, tada peeps. Have a nice long weekend. See you all soon! 

Catching a late night train? No Thank you!

This happened a long time ago. In 2009.

My mom and I had to go for my cousins wedding in Trichy. Mom had asked me to book our tickets. So, there I was browsing through yatra.com and irctc.com for the best possible deals. All looked great except for getting us the return ticket. For the date I needed to be back, only two tickets were available on a late night train. Since both of us had to go to office the next day, I had no other choice but to book that late night train. The train was at 00.30 AM. I got the AC Coach. I booked it. I took the printouts and was all set.

The Wedding was so much fun. I had a very good time with my cousins. The food was delicious and the weather was perfect. And then, it was time for us to leave. We said our good bye and arrived at the train station. 

One of our other relatives also had to catch a train at 11 PM and they came along with us to the station. As soon as they left, the station seemed very deserted to me. It looked to me as if we were alone. At 00:00 hrs, mom asked me to take the tickets from the suitcase and keep it ready. I took it out and looked at the train number, date and coach details. Only to realize that my train was for the previous day.

It was a mistake. A very big mistake. It hit me hard and I realized that I had booked our train tickets for the wrong date. I always thought I was booking a night train at 12: 30 for the 12th November. I did not realize the date changes at 12’o clk at night!! I had mistakenly booked an early morning train on the 12th Nov when I was supposed to book the tickets for the 12th night!! Or I should have at least selected 13th as the date when booking the train ticket. Sigh! 

My mom took it easy and did not get tensed. She asked me to relax. Knowing that we were waiting for a train that already left a day before was scary that too in the wee hours of the morning.

Mom was strong. She did not scold me. She knew I was tensed. She looked tensed and that much I can tell. But she asked me to pick up our luggage and we walked out of the station. There was no one around. I only spotted few porters and some homeless here and there. I thought we were going to the ticket counter to check if we can find a seat for that night’s train. But mom walked past the counter. So, where were we going? Are we going back to my cousins house? Or are we going to just wait in the station till its dawn. I did not know.

But mom had a different idea. We took an auto, went to the nearby bus station and took a bus to Madras and reached safely. Apparently we caught the very last bus that was magically just waiting for us. Believe me! It was such a weird experience.

May be I should I shown the tickers to my mom before the trip? May be she should NOT have trusted me with the tickets? May be we should have both looked at our tickets before leaving my cousins house? Yeah!!! May be!!! But catching missing a late night train and getting into a random bus and reaching home was one hellava experience! Phew!

Turks and Caicos Islands

Yay! It was a super awesome birthday guys. I couldn’t wait any longer to post all about the awesomeness.

It all started couple of months back. We were all about going to a Caribbean vacation and were mostly interested in Bermuda since t’was close to where we live compared to the other Caribbean Islands. All flight and hotel deals were checked and places to visit were noted down. Only to find out in the last minute that Bermuda had no rental car and we would have to commute by taxis or local buses. That hit us hard. With Lime it would be very difficult for us. And so, for that reason Bermuda plan was dropped out.

And then past weeks, we had been browsing through ‘Trip Adviser’, a zillion times, to find the best Caribbean island to visit with a toddler. And that’s when I came across this beautiful place called ‘Turks and Caicos Islands‘ (TCI). Believe me, we never knew Providenciales (Provo) existed in this world. Neither have we heard from someone nor read about it anywhere. But the-crazy-Lemon-and-Lavender that we are, we decided to go this place. The photos, the reviews, the flights, the resorts, the deals were all super awesome. Everything was decided and booked in a day and we left early morning on April 4th, the-best-day-of-my-life!

It was a 6 hr journey from our place with one stop in Charlotte. I was thrilled to see the plane full actually. Full with people – girlfriends & boyfriends, young couples with toddlers, old couples with grand kids, teenagers,the pilots and flight attendants. How did so many people know about the island that we have never heard of? Are they all like us? Travelling for the first time or are they returning visitors? Bunch of questions popped my mind. But I threw those thoughts away and tried to relax.

We fell in love with Provo even before touchdown.The view from the flight was awesome. We landed at around 12.30 PM. The moment I stepped out of the flight, it was hot but pleasant. Lime started sweating in just few seconds. I had to change his T-shirt and pants while waiting for Immigration (Yes! TCI is a UK Territory and requires immigration). We then picked up our rental car. Lemon was jiggling with the GPS for sometime and then he shouted “It’s not working!“. “How will it work? Aren’t we in a different country?“, I shouted back. After that we realized that we had to use the map (which the rental car company gave us) and find our own way. To add more confusion, people drive on the left-side in TCI. So, I will leave it you guys to imagine all the chaos that I would have created in giving directions from a stupid map that had no much details to Lemon.

Our plan for the first day was to relax in our resort and enjoy the oceanfront suite. We booked Northwest Point Resort in the last minute and had no idea what to expect. It was about 30 minutes drive from the airport. We stayed in a ocean front suite and were not disappointed. The only thing was that we had to drive through a dirt road to get to the resort. Yes, the resort is remote, but was definitely worth it.

We went to the Grand Turks Island one of the days. The beaches were so beautiful. We went to the Cruise Center and spent our entire afternoon there. It was initially quiet and empty. And then a cruise arrived with lots and lots of people. But the beach was so wide that it never felt crowded. We had our fun. It was so glorious. 

Everyday was lovely. I would just lie back in the lounge chair and enjoy nature. It was just perfect! All evenings we would get take-outs from Garam Masala and return back to our resort to rest. The food was definitely good. We ordered Shahi Paneer and it was terrific.

Snorkeling in TCI was lot of fun for Lemon. The water was crystal clear with lots of tropical fish and the weather was just perfect. We had our own snorkel gear and all Lemon had to do was force me into trying it. He first asked me to wear the gear and see what it feels like… And then he made me float in water.. I did all that he said only to realize that the water was calm but alive in the beach. The ocean moved and it would just take me wherever it wanted to.. I was so scared. But then, I tried doing it once and I saw not just one but plenty of colorful fish. I jumped in excitement. They were all near my legs you know. Some in blue, some in white and some in rainbow. It was just beautiful but I din’t want to go away with the waves and so I stopped. Lemon enjoyed a lot of this and all I can say is he simply loved this sport.

Next on the list was Grace Bay beach. It was an extraordinary beach. There was no one around and we had it all to ourselves. We were the only two people in sight, if you ask. And then, we also went to Leeward / Pelican beach. This one also had the white sand and turquoise water like every other beach in Provo. I personally loved both leeward and grace bay more than any other beach in Provo.

Surprisingly, I got bored of shopping in the island. Did not like anything other than the souvenirs. 

For the last day of our trip, I just had one mission in mind: Floating in water with Lime. While Lemon did all swimming and snorkeling. I on the other hand got all aquaphobic. Tubes wouldn’t help me as well. So, I usually opted out all water activities. But this time, besides snorkeling, Lemon also insisted that I at least try the Tube.. So, I did it finally.. in Sapodilla Bay! Next time around, I am planning to take a water noodle to help me float. Let’s wait and see how well I do it next time.

Oh, we also met a lot of nice people in TCI. Mostly those were the ones who took our photos. One of them was from Italy, the other came from Colorado to escape the cold just like us and then another came from England to visit their daughter who lived in TCI. It was so nice to know about people.. everyone had a different story but we all loved TCI.

What more do I say? I had a wonderful time standing beneath the bright blue sky surrounded by turquoise water and white sand everyday. All I know now is that I am dazzled by turquoise and aquamarine water and the sparkling white sand. I even remember telling Lemon that I wouldn’t mind dying there. For which he just laughed and said ‘We are not coming back here again. We have so many other places to see in the world‘. Huh! Good for him. But for me, I can never imagine getting tired of TCI. Providenciales, I love you!

Some pictures…

The first glimpse of the radiant sea – Ah I loved it. I wanted to jump off.. but that would be so stupid, and so I stayed in the plane.

Our way to the beach

This was super relaxing

We enjoyed watching him play in sand and the beach

It was funny seeing him talk to the ocean

Lime & Lemon in the sea – Can you spot them?

The Grace Bay ~ The colors made me fall in love

Loved walking in the sea shore with my chweet baby

My darling Lemon setting up the the camera

hi5 in the ocean 😉

And just because Lime loved the pool-like-ocean, we let him float for a while..

That’s Lime exploring the yellow cooper

Look what I found in the island: Lemon 2 go Coffee 😉

And it was fun eating this shaved ice – Lemon, Margarita and Mango flavor 🙂

Okay okay, now I will stop. I am done talking about the beautiful relaxing vacation and all that… Next post, I will come back to reality and talk about cooking, work, laundry, dishes etc! Tada!

#100happydays (Days: 11-14)