At the Beach During Ganesh Festival

According to Paige's Indian Studies teacher, Ganesh's Birthday was a week ago Sunday. Part of the celebration is to make or buy a statue of Ganesh made out of clay. Within 10 days after his birthday, a puja (prayer ceremony) is performed and Ganesh is returned to the sea, back to mother earth. This is done as a rejuvination for the coming year with hope that it will bring prosperity and good fortune.

I was hoping I could see Ganesh returned to he sea and thought I would head down to the beach on Saturday or Sunday. We had our good friends, the Klingonsmith's, over for dinner on Sunday and decided to take a walk to the beach after we ate. We were somewhat bummed when we arrived because nobody was there. After walking 15 minutes up the beach, we decided to turn around and head home. As we got closer to our lane, a lorry pulled up loaded with people and Ganesh statues - Yeah!

The following is a slide show of some of the shots I took on the beach that afternoon. Luckily, Indian people LOVE having their picture taken (they come right up to you saying "photo please") so it was no problem capturing this event.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We're Back in India

We had a WONDERFUL visit to the U.S.!!!!
Our first stop was South Carolina where we visited Corey's family for 3 days.
Then we drove 14 hours to Forsyth, Illinois where we visited our old stomping grounds. Eric and Paige had a blast seeing old friends from school and church. We even got to see a couple of baseball games at the park and buy hot dogs and popcorn at the concessions!!!! I loved seeing my friends, too, but was also frantic about purchasing certain items to take back to India, dentist and doctor appointments, and putting our food shipment order together.
After 10 days, we flew to Saratoga Springs Utah where we stayed at my parents home. Some of the things we enjoyed doing:

• Going to the movies
• Fishing
• Hiking up to Mt. Timp and exploring caves
• Shopping, shopping, shopping
• Going to the temple
• Reading (Great & Terrible series)
• Swimming
• Working Out
• Fun at Cowabunga water park
• Fun at Seven Peaks water park
• Did I mention shopping?
• Eating lots of yummy food!
• Putt Putt Golf
• Go Karts
• Playing Canasta (Kim and I still rock!)
• Triple Birthday Party
• Ice cream at Sub Zero
• Bridal Veil Falls

Anyway, you get the picture! We were sad to leave family and the comforts of the US, but glad to get home again.

Eric and Paige started school yesterday - 7th and 5th grade respectively. They are such troopers - getting over jet lag in a flash and anxiously ready to go to school without complaint. I'm so blessed and proud of them! Now if I could just get back in the swing of things. I am definitely keeping up with my work out program (I feel so much better when I do). And today I think I'm going to scrapbook after I lounge in the pool for an hour (after I work out, of course).

Give me a few more days and I'll get back into the blogger mode. Stay tuned........