Summer 2022

I finally made the time to write about our summer. After two years of not traveling, this summer was a welcome change. The summer went by in a jiffy – maybe I should say summer vacation because in California, summer is not over until end of October. Our summer vacation was super busy yet relaxing 🙂 It was filled with emotions, frustrations, tiredness and all other possible feelings thrown in a mix.

Summer Camp

Summer break started with Covid. We all got Covid one after another and we had to miss the thread ceremony of my SIL’s son. We were all looking forward to that and were very upset that we had to miss it. Right after we all got better, the kids went to summer camp for a week. It was the first time for Sanjay and first time that both the boys were out at the same time. Sarath had been to a couple of summer camps before, but this was the first time with his new troop which is much bigger than his old one. It felt really weird that one week. I just didn’t know what to do half the time. But, I do have to say that I handled it very well. Here are some pictures from their summer camp. Such a beautiful place!

India Trip

The boys had a blast in summer camp. They came back stinky and tired with endless stories to tell. As soon as they came back, I travelled to India with the boys. It has been over 3 years since I saw my parents and I couldn’t wait to go. The flight experience wasn’t as smooth as I would have liked, but overall we were happy to be home in Hyderabad.

My parents were also super excited. We were there for one month and that was the best month for me. Even though I was working from India, I had a relaxed time. Didn’t have to cook or clean much. We went to Delhi and Agra for a quick 4 day trip which was great. That was my first time visiting Delhi and the trip to Agra was great. We also visited Mathura on the way back from Agra. It was super hot, but we had loads of fun.

As soon as we came back from our Delhi trip, there were heavy rains in Hyderabad. The rains stayed until it was time for us to come back. We couldn’t go to any of the other places we wanted to like Charminar or Golconda fort etc. We were able to take the kids to The Birla Planetarium the day before we left. The kids got pampered a lot which was expected and I got pampered too. I would start my work in the afternoon and work late night. Amma would nicely make tea for me in the morning and in the afternoon and bring it to me while I was working 🙂 That is the kind of pampering I like. She made all the yummy stuff I like for the entire month and kids got their favorite foods too. It was an amazing month.

Family Time

My uncle celebrated his 60th birthday when I was in India. They did not do a full scale shastipoorti, but did some pooja at home. We went there and had a good time. I got to meet a few people whom I haven’t seen in years. The kids also got to meet my cousins (two of them are closer to their age than me :)) So, they got along well. I visited a few relatives and a few others came home to visit me 🙂 It felt good to meet everyone.

I am really thankful for being able to work from home and also that I was able to work from India for an entire month. If not for that, I wouldn’t have been able to visit India for a month. Sometimes, the little things are the ones that matter the most.

This was only half of our summer break. Will post the rest of it soon.