Week 8 and 9: Texas Diaries

For those who are not aware, I am on a 52 weeks adventure this year where in I decide my own adventures! For more details, check out here!

When we booked our tickets for Texas, I sent a mail to my cousin giving her my Texas trip itinerary. I had mentioned in the mail, "We are arriving on 26-Feb-2015 and would be put up at our friend's place that day. We will come to your place on 27th evening. On 29th morning, we will go again to our friend's place and then leave for Florida on 30th morning."

My cousin replied plainly, "We are soo excited to meet you all. But this February has only 28 days. I am confused how the airlines gave you tickets for 30th. Please look into it."

Ha ha ha! In my defense I was too excited to meet family away from home and I just didn't care how many days February has :P 

This trip's whole purpose was to be with family and friends and not sightseeing per say. Whomever we told we are going Texas, they were like "Why are you going there? There is nothing to see around in Texas." We had to convince everybody on why we are really going to Texas :P

As the flight was approaching DFW Airport, the change in the landscape was drastic. From the greenery and waters of Florida, we were landing on a barren land with almost no trees or trees with just branches and no leaves. That point I knew, it is going to be an interesting stay!

What new things I did in this trip? Quite a few -

My tryst with cold weather and snow: I had started feeling the chills right from DFW airport. I hate cold and just cannot bear it. The moment we came out of the airport, I wanted to just sit in the car as soon as possible with the heater on. The cold was unbearable. I know for sure now that I just cannot survive in cold weather. The second day of our trip it started snowing slowly and steadily in the morning. Brown ground slowly started becoming white, first slightly but then heavily. There was white everywhere, no other shade to be seen. Cars started getting covered with snow. The sight was lovely to see from indoors. I saw snow slowly forming a layer in our balcony and I thought of venturing out. I stayed outside for entire 2 minutes, played a little bit and then rushed in. It was maddeningly cold. 

Beginning of Snow

Everything getting painted white!

My play with the snow

The layer in our balcony

Snow everywhere

On the second day of snow, I was at my cousin's place who has 7 year old twin boy and girl. My niece and her dad decided to make a Snowman with the abundant snow. I was also very excited and ventured out. I started collecting the snow with  hands. And after exactly 5 minutes declared, "Please call me when the Snowman is done" and ran into the house. It was so cold that I just could not stay outside for that long. They indeed built a very big Snowman and I loved it! :)

My super enthusiastic niece

Our Pinky Snowman

That was my story with the cold and the snow. I love the sun. Snow is depressing and you feel as if you are house arrested. I just wish and hope that I am always there in a warm place.

Being a child again: The highlight of our trip was meeting Kedar and Ketki, my cousin's twins. As I mentioned they are 7 years old and we had the time of a lifetime with them!

Kedar is the cool dude of the house. Give him a Lego box and he will be happy. He is least bothered about what is going on around, if he is getting late to school, if he has not done his homework. No, nothing bothers him. The only thing that bothers him is if his Mommy isn't smiling! 

He is a 'quizzard' i.e. a quiz wizard. He will ask you math questions and if you give a wrong answer, he will make a cross with his hands and make a noise which indicates it is a wrong answer. He is so smart that he will ask difficult math, check the answer on the calculator, remember that answer and then ask you the question. He can convert anything into a quiz. We had gone to Olive Garden for dinner and this smart fellow converted the kids menu into a quiz and was asking us what will you have? He took quiz to next level.

He has these small small notes pasted all over the house. The kitchen has a note that says 'Manasi's Restaurant' (Manasi is my cousin's name). Since it was cold, the plants were shifted to one of the bathrooms. Kedar's note on the bathroom door reads, 'Please do not enter. PS: You can enter only if you are going to water the plants'. On his room door there is a chit saying, 'Office timings 6.00 am to 3 pm.' Kedar and his notes!

He is a negotiator. Ask him to eat anything and he will negotiate the time for it. He will fight for even the minutest minute. He will never do something without negotiating the time. We were playing hide and seek and it was my turn to seek. I counted till 50. Kedar then says count till 75. I thought he needs time to hide. I counted till 75, then he says count till 100. This went till 120. Ketki came out slowly from her hiding place and told me Kedar will not hide now because he is busy building his toy house! Beat that! A 7 year old made me count till 120 when he was not even intending to hide. That is Kedar for you!

Kedar telling me one of his stories here :)

Ketki is the sophisticated giggling lady of the house! Oh my God, she giggles more than she breathes. Extremely caring, takes very good care of Kedar. She knows all Kedar's favorite food and hobbies. We had gone to buy vegetables and she saw a watermelon there. She asked her mother, "Mommy, can we take the watermelon for Kedar?" At 7 years, that is a very rare quality.

She has been born and brought up here and hence she has american accent. I just love the way she says 'Kedarrrrr' with rolling Rs in the end. She adores food and eats everything. She draws well and I was lucky enough to get a sketch of mine drawn by here.  

'Me' sketched by Ketki

She just can't sit still and we have to play always with her. We played monopoly, hide and seek and another board game. You just can't sit idle if she is around. And yes, you cannot stop laughing too amidst her incessant giggling. My jaws were paining at the end of our trip.

Ketki swims, learns Kathak, enjoys Bailey and is a great gymnast. She loves to be on her toes always just like her mom. 

She asked Sujoy to bend down saying she wanted to say something in his ear. As Sujoy came to her height, she slid a ice piece in his shirt. Naughty miss Ketki! We were playing catch the ball and all Ketki did in those 10 minutes was giggle! :)

Love them! :)

3 days we became kids and enjoyed being a child again. Laughed till our jaws hurt, played a lot and most important forgot all our adult worries for those days!

Being a child again!

Funny Kedar with his cheese face!

It was a short trip but never the less a very rejuvenating one. I am happy to be back to Florida warmth, but what I do miss is the warmth of loved ones and family. Till I am with family again, I have to be happy with the Florida warmth!!!