The CT Baby Shower

My mom and dad threw us quite the bash in CT at Steps in Time a local ballroom dance facility. When my mom throws a party it is never small. Every seat was taken and the place was generally packed. We had a nice time seeing people we had not seen in awhile. Thanks to friends Amra, Dara, Jessica Scholls and Jessica Stewart for coming from out of town to be there. My father-in-law, Barbara and Veena also came from California for the day which was nice.

There was a lot of dancing (my mom got a DJ), a small puja, some entertainment and a "Special Delivery Divya Shenoy" cake. I guess my dad, the cake orderer, forgot that I'm a Gupta now.

Thank you to all my cousins who helped out!!!

GG is growing bigger now. I can feel kicks and I can't wait for her arrival and to finally get to hold her. It is weird thinking that I am carrying a baby in my stomach, although my crazy weight gain and constant bumping into things makes it obvious that there is something in there. Starting to have a hard time bending over so chores are getting harder. . .

Avi's Graduation

So my brother Avi graduated from high school today our family went to see him get his diploma. He also played with his band "ABC" by the Jackson Five and coincidentally it was planned before the untimely death of Michael Jackson. Sunil's sister, Veena, who had flown in from CA for the baby shower also joined us.

Congrats Avi! He will be joining us in Philadelphia next year when he starts college at the University of Pennsylvania.

Babymoon: Part 3

Maybe I should have just written a long post. . . . Next we went to New Hampshire to our first bed and breakfast. While up there we hit up some outlets (there are a lot of good ones in VT and NH) including LL Bean one of my favorites.

Next we went to Portland, Maine where we saw a beautiful lighthouse, again stayed at a B&B and walked the beach the next day (the day we were returning home was one of the only days it did not rain). I highly recommend staying at a B&B by the way- really great breakfast- the best pancakes I have ever had!! and it is cozy personalized service, which is always nice.

Babymoon: Part 2

So today was the start of the never ending rainfest that because the rest of our vacation. We drove to Cape Cod from Boston not on a schedule since we wanted to relax. Unfortunately, when we got to the hotel it turns out that it had closed a year ago and we were actually booked at a hotel on a different part of Cape Cod. I was the one who looked up the wrong address on google and Sunil was pretty annoyed.

We decided since it was already around 2pm to look into ferries to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard to see if island trips were feasible. We were surprised by how expensive "fast ferry" (1 hour ride) tickets were (they were about $50-70 per person each way plus parking). We ended up finding a ferry that was more for locals that was reasonable price (though the ride was almost 2 hours) and so we were off to Nantucket. We were initially disappointed that we wouldn't get there until 5pm and had to head back on the 9pm ferry, but our greater disappointment was forgetting that it was Sunday. When we got to the island it was about 50 degrees with misty cold rain and I was freezing. Even though I had on jeans and two light sweaters I mistakenly did not pack a jacket for our "summmer" vacation. Sunil and I walked down the cobblestone streets for awhile. I could tell he was really bumming about not being able to rent bikes and ride around the island. This was the awesome activity I had been bragging to him about for the last year. We ended up eating at a local restaurant and walking around some more. By that point I was soo cold, we had to buy a Nantucket sweatshirt. Since there was nothing else left to do we upgraded our tickets to the fast ferry and sat at a cute local coffee shop reading the newspaper until it was time to go.

The highlight of the trip was who was directly in front of us in line for the ferry --- JOHN KERRY, yes the former presidential candidate and Senator of MA, who happens to have a house on Nantucket and was vacationing for the weekend. You know I'm not shy, so of course I got a picture.

The next day was super low-key. It rained even more so we ditched the idea of going to Marth'a Vineyard and stayed indoors. First we went to the Cape Cod potato chip factory and saw how they make their yummy crisp chips. Of course we bought like 5 bags of chips.

After we headed to thte mall to get some medicine (Sunil was quite sick and I was still getting over being sick) and stuck around to get some baby stuff. We also saw one of our first kids movies together- "Imagine That" with Eddie Murphy. I thought the movie was really cute, Sunil thought it was a little slow.

Over all a good visit to Cape Cod!

Babymoon: Part 1

Since Sunil and I never really had a honeymoon- two days in a Bangalore hotel doesn't really count, we went on a 7 day babymoon (which I hear is the term for a vacation taken by a couple prior to becoming a family).

Our first stop was Providence, RI where we forgot to take pictures. We drove through Brown University where I had done a summer session back in high school. Sunil loved the school and wished that he, in retrospect, had applied. We spent a half hour at the Brown book store where Sunil found the medical books section very interesting and I browsed the baby section.

We ate at a small cafe that had outdoor seating and went to "The Proposal" starring Sandra Bullock after dinner at Providence Place. We had forgotten but we had already visited Providence together a few years ago when my family and Sunil went to the Newport mansions and stayed in Providence. I can't find pictures of that, but it feels like ages ago.

Then we headed up to Boston where we checked out the Science Museum- the pic above is us in front of the museum. At night we went to Stephanie's a restaurant on Newbury Street with my friend Jessica Stewart. After we got ice cream at this cool shop, walked around the area and had a drink at the Westin, Copley Square (Sprite for me of course).

It was a fun couple days and luckily the weather was nice and for the most part sunny. Unfortuately, we had rain the forecast for the rest of the week. . .

Philadelphia Baby Shower

So I am quite behind in my posts for the crazy month of June. It began with our packing up our old place in Center City and prepping for the move to our new apartment in Old City. In between boxing our stuff friends threw a baby shower at the Ellington Club room.

The party was really nice and casual, with pasta salad, mini sandwiches, watermelon, cookies and thanks to Melinda a lovely strawberry shortcake which I ate for days to follow.

We played a few games including crosswords and a taste the baby food game. We seemed to have a lot of double winners since Sara and Gina each one two of the four games.

I had a good time and was super happy to see some friends who really made an effort to be there- special shout out to Jessica who came from NYC and Priya who came from DC for the day. Others like Sara who had stuff to do in NYC and Elisa who was in DC that weekend came back early just to be there.

Thank you all for coming and for the lovely gifts. GG is going to love them and use them in just a few months. . . .

Cape May

So for the first time since moving here, Sunil and I made it out to the Jersey shore for some sun and waves on Saturday. We had brunch at a pancake house overlooking the beach at Cape May with some friends and then walked around the old town and relaxed on the beach. I got a bit of an odd tan given that I didn't wear a swim suit and had already packed my sunscreen for our upcoming move. Sunil was surprised that there was such a nice beach and town so close to Philly and I think if we get vistors in the summer this will be a nice place to take them.