August: Ireland and the UK

Hi hi hi hi hi, friends and family!

Guess what? We have had one more month full of celebrations between our trip to Ireland and the UK for Aunty Lyds' wedding, my birthday party (FINALLY, as we were waiting for Ramadan to end), and Mumma's bday!  It's been yet another fun and action-packed month!  Can't wait to tell you all about it!

As the month started, we enjoyed our last few days with Dada, Dadi, and Chacha before we bid them farewell (only to see them one week later in the UK)!  As Eid al-Fitr holidays approached first week of August, we headed off for a quick, but fun trip to Ireland for 3 days!

Our first day we arrived at the Ritz in Powerscourt and soaked in the countryside.  The hotel was situated in the mountains, surrounded by endless greenery!  After 8 months in desert land (more than half of my life!), I was so excited to see something so different - green, lush, nature and fresh air! Mumma and Da-da carried me around the beautiful gardens and they even let me crawl and roll around in the dirt and touch grass for the first time in a long time!  It was so fun! Given the cooler temperatures, I also got to wear the few sweaters Mumma had packed for the first time since we moved to Dubai.  We then headed to the fountains and took in more nature.  It was the perfect kick off to our trip and tired me out by evening!  After I went to sleep, Mumma and Da-da took me in a stroller down to the pub in our hotel, where they had a traditional Irish meal experience coupled with a pint of Guinness, of course!

The next day we got ready
to hit up Dublin!  When we drove into the city, as expected, it was not even close to as beautiful as the surrounding areas of the country.  That being said, BOY was it fun!  We hit up the Guinness factory first thing in the morning and learned how Guinness is brewed.  It was interesting, fun, and best of all, even I got a teeny taste of it (since I'm teething :P).  Mumma especially had a blast at the Guinness factory since she got to drink more than her share given Da-da was driving!  Besides learning about the history of the famous Irish Beer Brand, Mumma loved tracking Diageo's advertising of Guinness over the last few decades, while Da-da loved taking a drinking trivia quiz and learning how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness!  We all loved the great view at the top of the factory of Dublin - it was a great way to take in the city all at once!

  After spending a LOT of time at the Guinness factory, we walked through Trinity College (which was beautiful!) and ended up having lunch in Temple Bar.  We grabbed more Pub food, headed over to the Jameson Factory where Mumma and Da-da tried some traditional Irish Coffee (which they claim is so much better than Irish coffee in the US), and followed that up by meeting our friend Renee at Brazenhead, an adorable pub near the river!

In the days preceding our trip, Mumma posted a "restaurant/sightseeing tips request" note on Facebook and we learned that our friend Renee (from Keith) would be in Dublin at the same time as us!  SO, we got to see her and have a little flavor of Minneapolis in Ireland! We had a great time catching up with her over grub and more beer (not for me!), hearing about life in Minneapolis and the latest in the world of the Dalziels as well as sharing some of our adventures over the last 8 months abroad!

Afterwards, we headed back to our hotel, got up bright and early to drive through Glendalough Valley in the Wicklow Mountains where we quickly explored the National Park, took in the Guinness Lake (which looks like a pint of beer), and made our way to the airport for part two of our trip - UK!  We had a blast in Ireland and I will look back at the photos of this trip (since I won't remember ANY of this :)) very fondly!

We arrived on Friday night in London and met up with Asha Masi for dinner in Paddington!  It was so great to meet the one who gifted Mumma during her baby shower, two of my favorite life-the-flap books Dear Zoo and Where's Spot!  I fell asleep while Mumma, Da-da, and Asha Masi caught up on life (since they had last met up in Spain during Mumma and Da-da's time in Paris 3 years back).  They had a great time and after hugs, kisses, and farewells, we headed to bed for an early train ride, where we would meet Aunty Hannah and Uncle Malick en route to Aunty Lyds wedding to Uncle Tut in Castle Cary, Somerset!



We arrived at the Santa-Olalla/Tuthill Wedding and I spent the afternoon with a great babysitter over a playdate with my new friend, George, while Mumma and Da-da attended Aunty Lyds' wedding and reception at a gorgeous venue.  From what I understand, they (along with Aunty Hannah and Uncle Malick) had a blast celebrating with the Santa-Olallas, Tuthills, and their many British and American friends and family!  The event was gorgeously set on lush green grounds in a venue that quite looked like a castle and Aunty Hannah and Mumma both wore fascinators in true form with the other British ladies!  It was so special to be there to watch Aunty Lyds marry the love of her life!  We especially like Uncle Tut because he and Aunty Lyds plan to move to America over the long run, so we'll get to see them more!  After a whirlwind of fun over 2 days, we headed back to London where Mumma and Aunty Hannah got special time on the train together before we all parted ways.

We spent the evening meeting up with Dada, Dadi, Chacha, and JK Dadi, Jaya Dadi, and Family in London for dinner to celebrate Jaya Dadi's 70th birthday.  I had a blast eating, eating, and eating, while everyone else caught up with one another.  It was great to see everyone and all-in-all we had a great, quick trip!

After a busy first few weeks, we finally got settled back in Dubai and relaxed the following weekend at home.  Mumma and Da-da went to visit Shweta Aunty and Vinit Uncle, who just had a beautiful baby boy, Vihaan, followed by date night at Hakkasan, a very yummy Asian restaurant in Downtown Dubai.  They then went to Da-da's friend Dominik's birthday party at Jetty Lounge.  The next day, we all spent time together and planned my birthday party for the third week in August!

My birthday party was a blast!  We celebrated at Favorite Things in Dubai Marina, and between a puppet show, parachute games, a dance-off, finger painting, and cake eating, it was a FUN party!  Granted I cried about 5 times over the two hour party, but hey, that was a lot of action and attention over a short period time, what do you expect? I smiled when everyone sang Happy Birthday so I feel like I succeeded!  Mumma and Da-da were very proud of me for lasting through my party!

We had a great time celebrating with all of our friends in Dubai and I especially had fun being around other cool kids!  Thanks for making my 1st birthday party so fun, Dubai Friends!

Over the last weekend in August, we had a great time by going to brunch with Tina Aunty, Arif Uncle, and Ishaa at Rajdhani (a Gujarati Thaali restaurant which was super yummy).  Then, Mumma and Da-da went to Thipthara for dinner with Catherine, a friend of Mumma's from General Mills, and her husband Brad, who came through Dubai on their 10 week sabbatical.  They had a great time overlooking the fountain show while eating Thai food and sharing their international experiences with one another (as Catherine was working for Latin America on a 3 year assignment which just ended).

And finally, we celebrated Mumma's bday on Aug 31st!  We celebrated by shopping for me (Mumma said she just wanted to buy me stuff for her birthday - I was okay with that :)) and Mumma and Da-da had a VIP movie date in the evening since they couldn't eat any more heavy meals that weekend!  It was totally low-key, but Mumma said she had a perfect birthday with us and with all the love from her friends and family through phone calls, emails, facebook, etc!  Thanks to all our friends and family for making her feel so special!

On a work front for Mumma and Da-da, things slowed down during Ramadan (since work hours were 9am to 3pm), but then picked right up by the end of August.  Da-da continues to travel 4 days a week to Saudi and now even 5 days a week once a month.  It's getting harder to see him go every week given it's been 4 months since the start of this project, but Mumma and I look forward to December when his project in Saudi will end.  In the meantime, we look forward to capitalizing on his hotel points and miles for our big trip to Bali for his birthday in October!  Plus, he continues to get rich learning soaking in Saudi culture, tradition, norms, and business practice in the public sector.

Mumma has also been busy with work given her role changed and she took on Betty Crocker, which is the largest Betty business internationally.  She is now focusing on launching the business in Egypt (during a time of political unrest), and driving the media strategy as well as overall plan to set it up for success in her final months at GMI MENAT.  This month, she had a busy week recently with the iSquad team in the US who was in town with the AMEA regional team as they collectively developed an opportunity map to identify areas of innovation in sweet treats for MENAT based out of Saudi and Egyptian consumer learnings.  There's no doubt about it - Mumma is going to miss the emerging market aspect of her work.  That being said, though, she is very excited about returning home!

As far as me, where do I begin?? I am cruising and walking while holding one hand of Mumma or Da-da.  I stood on my own for the first time on Mumma's birthday! I love to make faces and especially love making the "A$$hole" face from Meet the Fockers.  Don't ask me where I learned that, 'cuz I have no idea (I swear, my parents don't curse in front of me and didn't teach me that, I just started doing it on my own)!!  I am more mobile than ever and it's hard to keep me in one place for long!  Oh, and of course, I had no teeth last month, and now I have 3! Hooray for teeth!  I am growing up fast, fast, fast!!

That's about it for August!  It was BUSY!  Hope you all are doing great and we look forward to connecting with you all in our September entry!

July: Celebrations in Dubai, Russia, Finland, and Sweden

Ramadan Kareem, family and friends!

While July must have been a relaxing, patriotic month back home with Independence day holidays and beautiful weather, we enjoyed much celebration of our own with Naaya's 1st birthday and our 5 year anniversary!  July is our favorite month of the year given the two most special events of our lives to date occurred this month!

We started the month with the first birthday celebration for Naaya - her Nani (Mana's Mom) came to visit us in Dubai full of treats in hand for all of us (especially Naaya)!  We had a blast with her over 3 days!  We went swimming early in the morning with Naaya, then took her to the Dubai Mall to see the fountains, Burj Khalifa, Aquarium, etc.

We had lunch at Fuego, Mana's favorite Mexican restaurant in Dubai (where Nani enjoyed a Margarita for the first time in a long time), saw "Now You See Me" in the theater, went to the beach in front of Burj Al Arab another morning, had dinner at Villa Beach, and had her teach Myla some goooood home cookin'!  We had some seriously quality time full of laughter, love, and celebration for Naaya's 1st bday.  Nani even drank her first shot this trip in her celebratory spirit with Mana!  We had never seen her laugh and be as gleeful as she was as the waves crashed onto her in the ocean - the joy on her face in that moment will be etched in our hearts forever!  While we missed Nana a lot, we look forward to enjoying and celebrating with him in person in a few months on our next trip to India.

After Nani left, we quickly got ready for our exciting 10 day trip to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Helsinki, and Stockholm!  We collected tips from our Russian friend, Dina (married to Sahil's high school friend, Adit), Pranati Mami (Mana's Aunt in India), Shreya (Mana's friend from LSE), and Mike and Kelsey (Mana's friends from Kellogg) in preparation for a great trip!  We had a flawless flight with Naaya to Moscow - no tears, no fuss, she was a total trooper! After being amazed initially, we realized Naaya will have completed 16 flights by her 1st bday! She is a seasoned traveler!  We suspect that when she returns home, she will have it backwards and consider the car a special treat and the plane the more routine mode of transportation!

We got to Moscow and went straight to our hotel at the Ritz in Moscow.  Sahil's consulting perks have benefited us in many ways, but the fancy hotels may be one of the great highlights - hooray for hotel points! We started day 1 by having the most amazing lunch at Cafe Pushkin for traditional Russian food the way old Russian aristocrats ate and lived.  We ate up our Russian dumplings and pancakes in delight and then headed to the Red Square across the street from our hotel.  We saw the Kremlin and visited the armory to get a taste of Russian culture, explored the largest department store in the world, GUM, and oogled over our favorite structure, St. Basil's Cathedral before visiting the surrounding beautiful fountains.  That night we decided to have a chill dinner at the rooftop bar of our hotel, O2 Lounge, only to realize that we had arrived in one of the most talked about hot spots of Moscow! With its gorgeous views of the entire city to enjoy the beautiful city, this was Sahil's favorite spot in Moscow.

Our Day 2 in Moscow started with great news as one of Mana's best friends from college, Tina, had her baby boy Ajay! After celebrating in spirit with the Dave family, we began our next round of explorations from the famous Moscow metro stations which were gorgeous and worth checking out, followed by an afternoon in Gorky Park, where we had our other infamous Russian meal at a small cafe.  We came across the most amazing Russian dish - Cherry Vareniki! It tasted like melt-in-your-mouth warm cherry pie.  If you go to Russia, you MUST try it!  After walking around the park with Naaya, we headed back to the hotel, packed our bags, and headed to the train station for the Sapsan Express to St. Petersburg!



We thoroughly enjoyed our train ride overlooking Russia's countryside and after 4.5 hours, we made it to
our next destination.  When we got to St. Petersburg, we were picked up by the driver from the hotel and made our way to the W hotel in the center of the city across from the Hermitage.  While it was amazing that daylight lasted until 11:30pm, we had a hard time convincing Naaya that it was sleepytime regardless of how bright it was!  The next day we started early, first by going to the Hermitage and seeing one of the most beautiful palaces that provided a perfect depiction of Catherine the Great's time.  From the gorgeous art to the beautiful architecture, it was well worth our time sightseeing thoroughly (though Naaya passed out through the entire experience!).  After visiting the Hermitage, we took a boat to Peterhof Palace, which is known as Peter the Great's "Russian Versaille".  When we arrived, we were indeed impressed with the

beauty and grandiose grounds on which the palace sat.  However, after going through the palace, we decided that the Hermitage was much more impressive on the inside.  We had our share of fun Naaya memories here between Sahil having to carry the stroller up flights and flights of stairs, changing Naaya's diaper smack in the middle of the garden, etc, but we managed with success!  Most importantly, Naaya continued to have a blast with us and roll with the punches without a fuss, so we were in good shape!

The next day we explored the city by foot, taking a boat tour around St. Petersburg, stopping for draft beers at the cafes on Nevsky Prospekt (which we enjoyed even more thoroughly given Ramadan spirit - meaning no alcohol or food during daytime- back home in Dubai), went to the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, a gorgeous cathedral made up of colorful domes and glass tiles throughout, and went to a local market where Sahil found Russian dolls with Redskins and Michigan on them for himself. He was thrilled with this find!  As we continued to explore, we found a quaint cafe right at which Naaya decided it was time to shake things up and break one of Mana's lenses. Note the photo captured here. :)
All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our time in St. Petersburg before we headed to Helsinki for the third leg of our trip.  While we arrived in full and happy spirits, we had a slight hiccup when FinnAir left our luggage in Russia because the plane was too small to carry it!  Though it was a bit challenging given we were only in Helsinki for a full day, we managed and had a blast!  We arrived at the Radisson Blu, got settled in, and began to explore the city.


We decided to jump on the hop-on-hop-off tour in Finland and took in the cute, quaint city.  Our two favorite experiences in Helsinki was 1) our dinner the first night at Aino, a fantastic Finnish restaurant downtown on the historic Esplanade, and 2) the Rock Church. Aino was a great find with fantastic service from Mila who gave great recs on food and beer pairings. After Mila's raving review, Naaya and Mana were even adventurous enough to try the Finnish delicacy - Reindeer! Though Mana was a bit more nervous than Naaya (who is game to eat pretty much anything we'll let her), Sahil encouraged them to go for it and ultimately, they were glad they tried it!  The Rock Church was a really cool site exactly as it sounds - a church carved from a rock, with a gorgeous copper dome to be perfectly acoustic.  When we arrived, the pianist was playing in the church, and the sound was incredible.  Mana equates it to the acoustics at Red Rocks, in Denver, Colorado - her favorite musical venue to date.

Helsinki was great and Mana's second favorite leg of the trip.  We got our bags in time and then headed to Stockholm for the last 3 days of our trip where we celebrated our 5 year anniversary!  We arrived at the Sheraton in Stockholm, located perfectly on the water right off of Gamla Stan, the old town.  We were lucky to get a view overlooking the city
with a separate room for Naaya to sleep soundly.  It was perfect!

After our success with the Hop-on-
Hop-off in Helsinki, we decided to leverage that tour on day 1 so we could get a lay of the land in Stockholm.  We explored via the bus tour and spend time in the key areas.  We spent some key time in Gamla Stan, medieval Stockholm full of winding alleyways and charming small squares, and the Royal Palace.  We also took Naaya to Skansen, in Djurgarden where she got to experience her second zoo experience ever (the first being in Minneapolis when she was about one month old)!.  We saw all sorts of cool animals (peacocks, brown bears, wolves, reindeer, lions, and seals to name a few)!

On day 2, our 5 year anniversary (July 19th), we took a boat twenty minutes away from Stockholm out to one the islands of Sweden's archipelago known as Fjaderholmarna.  We loved this experience because we were surrounded by locals who do this on the regular during the summertime (though it was very chilly per our summer standards for island relaxation).  Nevertheless, it was amazingly charming and beautiful and a really fun outing!

 

That night we celebrated our anniversary and Naaya's 1 year birthday (1 week early) at a beautiful restaurant in Stockholm overlooking the city: Gondolen.  It was breathtaking in every sense of the word.  We drank a bottle of Louis Roederer Brut Premier and reminisced over our 5 years, with Naaya contributing over the last year of memories, of course.  As the finale to our trip, there was no better way to conclude our whirlwind adventure!

We came back to Dubai after an amazing 10 days only to celebrate Naaya officially for her first birthday!  The celebration started on July 24th, when Mana celebrated her one-year anniversary for the last date she and Naaya shared her tummy - they ate Haagen Dazs ice cream to ring in the 24th.  Then, when Naaya went to sleep that night, Mana toasted with Sahil (over the phone, as he was en route from Saudi) for the one-year anniversary of their first labor experience in the hospital - oh what memorable 27 hours!  Then finally, we celebrated Naaya's actual birthday on July 25th  (her party will be in August post-Ramadan), with the arrival of her with her Dadi, Dada, and Chacha visiting us from the US!  AND they thoughtfully came with LOTS of gifts for little Naaya!

Mana had taken Naaya's 1 year photo in advance to get it decorated on her red velvet cake for her to enjoy!  With the Sanghvi family together in Dubai, most of the Bhatt family in India on Skype through the iphone, and Chacha taking photos of it all, we sang Happy Birthday to Naaya.  It was very special and we enjoyed every second!

Over the next few days, Naaya enjoyed her gifts from Chacha, Dada, and Dadi.  She especially enjoyed the toy car that plays really fun songs and helps her mobilize around the apartment and Elmo!

We all had the chance to show Dada, Dadi, and Chacha a closer look at our life here in Dubai through the course of the next week.  Though it was Ramadan in Dubai (meaning no eating or drinking in public from sunrise to sunset), resulting in occasions where we were stranded without food while out, we still managed to have a great time enjoying each day together.  We went to the Dubai Mall on Friday of the first weekend where Dadi got some stylin' sunglasses and Chacha got a baller wallet.  After seeing the Aquarium, they then headed to the Burj Khalifa.  Afterwards, we regrouped again at the Armani cafe, one of the few restaurants open midday, for a very yummy lunch!  In the evening, we headed back only to get freshened up for a great dinner at Pai Thai in Al Qasr for the first of many great family dinners over the week.

On Saturday, Sahil, Mana and Naaya went to the doctor for Naaya's 1-year appt while Dada, Dadi, and Chacha went to the Atlantis to check it out.  Naaya had her vaccinations and checked out well meeting her milestones of cruising, talking in her babble language, and freaking out as
expected with the doctors and nurses :).  For the rest of the day, she stayed home to recover with Mana while Sahil showed the family around Dubai on a long road trip to both Mana and Sahil's work, Pankaj Mama's old home, and the grocery store at Mall of Emirates.  After

a great day, we regrouped and planned the rest of Dada, Dadi, and Chacha's week full of fun activities to see Dubai.  While Sahil headed to Saudi on Sunday for 4 days, Mana, Naaya, and Myla continued to get good time with Dada, Dadi, and Chacha when they weren't on a Desert Safari, in Abu Dhabi, or in Deira.


We kicked off the following weekend by having Iftaar at the Address Hotel in Dubai Marina.  We enjoyed an elaborate meal that we equated to a wedding reception feel, with lots and lots of food.  After dinner, Chacha, Sahil, and Mana went to smoke hookah and get some quality sibling time together.  Many hours later, we came home only so Mana and Sahil could wake up 4 hours later with Naaya :).  It was worth it, though!  On the last day together, we went to lunch at Loca, Sahil's favorite Mexican restaurant and then after Dada, Dadi, and Chacha saw the fountain show, they joined us at home for falafals over dinner.  All in all, we had a really great time together and made some great memories that we'll look back on fondly!

Wow...this may be the longest blog to date - I guess that is to be expected with all of the celebrations July brings our way!  We'll update you on the work front in August, but as for a quick update on Naaya, she is close to getting teeth (fingers crossed), and crawls more than she walks these days because she has realized how much easier it is to mobilize.  She definitely doesn't want to sit still a whole lot as there is SO much to explore! Luckily we are headed to the UK and Ireland tomorrow so she'll be able to explore 2 new countries this week!  We'll tell you all about it in our August blog!  Until then, we hope you enjoy the last month of summer!