happy birthday to me!

  i was spoiled rotten today.  thomas and the girls woke me up with breakfast in bed, fresh avocados and tomatoes on toast, yum!  then it was a snuggle day!  blanka and her family came over to join us for cake at the german bakery.  but not before blanka and zoe decorated themselves with shiny wrapping paper.  very stylish young ladies.

 most of us "carpooled" to the bakery where we had super yummy cake.

  zoe chose to have "happy birthday mommy" on the cake, too cute.  then a delicious dinner on the beach with kingfish vindaloo and good company.  a fantastic birthday.  now i just hope i can make thomas´ just as special next week.

happy christmas! india style

santa claus came to goa!  we woke up this morning with eijla bouncing a ball on our heads.  our ikea shopping bags worked great as stockings, and old saint nick did not miss a beat.  there were pens and stamps, and stickers, and of course the balls.  oooh!

 the booty!

 then it was another fun afternoon at the beach.

 with ice cream of course, cuz as zoe says it is christmas and that means an extra special day with extra special belöningar!

 and then a tasty dinner on the beach and flowers in our hair.  merry christmas and happy holidays to all!

JULAFTON!

christmas eve!  the girls are super excited!  here they are with their pretty christmas fancy updos, enjoying a little bit of morning entertainment on the itouch. 

 we have met another swedish family here, so we will go out tonight with them and celebrate the swedish julafton, though santa is not going to make it here until tonight!  we even got ourselves a sparkly little purple tree!  here are my christmas girls...

the beach continued...

what´s that?  another day or two at the beach, really?  yup. and loving it.  we walked all the way to palolems main street yesterday.  seems like everyday we explore just a little bit further, but never get very far at all!  nothing to complain about there. 

  but all the fun and playing and sand castle building does wear one out.  eijla enjoys her daily naps on the beach, and looks adorable doing it.

ah, still enjoying the beach...

ah, life on the beach is good.  really good.  the girls love the sand and the creatures and shells they find there.  today was a big crab hunting day.  we even found starfish and watched while they buried themselves in the sand again.

 

being in the land of amazingly good food, zoe has of course been begging to have boring noodles like  the ones that she eats back home.  so we finally found some and the girls enjoyed their "not so gourmet" noodles on the porch.  hmmm, think i will stick to my palak paneer!

 

and off to paradise we go..

after a month in rajastan, we are ready for some laid back beach time.  but the beaches are far away, so this time we took an airplane (or two).  here are the girls on our lay over in mumbai airport, on our way to goa.

we arrived in the middle of the night, but the girls awoke to the sound of the waves outside our bungalow.  white sand beaches and the prefect temperature in the water, this is really paradise. 

 we spent our first couple of nights in a hut on the beach...

 but then we found a house a little bit off the beach, i would say it is a quieter location except for all the dogs barking, roosters crowing, and the other odd animal fight, but we do have a small kitchen and tiled floors.  we tried to go into town to buy all the necessities, but then realized it was sunday, so managed to get some of the stuff we needed, but not all,  though we did manage to do the christmas shopping for the girls.  even bought a tiny bit of christmas decorations.  this morning thomas and zoe drank their breakfast on our front porch, yes zoe is very happy we live in a very pink house!  looking forward to a month of relaxing here.

horseback riding and traditional dance

this morning we woke up bright and early to go horse backriding.  both zoe and eijla were super excited.  we went just 10 or 20 kms outside of udaipur and were in beautiful natural surroundings.

 eijla rode with me for awhile, but my horse preferred to trot rather than walk, and it was just too bumpy for her once she started getting tired.  so she slept with pappa on his calmer horse.

 we had a great time, but both zoe and i were pretty sore on our bottoms after riding on my bumpy horse!  good things we only booked  a morning ride and not a day ride! then this evening we went to a traditional dance and puppet show.  there were lots of sparkles and bells, the girls really enjoyed it.  since my favorite lens died on me, i have been bad about bringing my camera anywhere so i have no pictures.  but the girls got early christmas presents as we bought a puppet from the puppeteer at the show,  and he gave eijla a little camel puppet.

our last stop in rajastan

 we started our trip to udaipur with a bit of adventure.  managed to hitch a ride on a jeep since waiting for the bus seemed to be taking forever,  about 3 km into the trip the jeep blew a tire on a bridge, and a swerve away from crashing the driver managed to keep us on the road, however it meant back to the bus stop. though luckily the bus arrived very shortly and we were on our way.  the road is narrow, mountainous, curvy, and well, pretty darn scary, but we made it without any further mishap.  the girls had been so great for the trip that we enjoyed an ice cream break!  yum!

 then we wandered around checking out the local highlights, including the lake.

 we even got our first glimpse of christmas with a tree outside one of the shops.

 and how could i leave out a picture of a tinfoil deity.  they have small shrines all over here, but this is the first tinfoil one i have seen!

 

then one day we even headed to the zoo, though the playground was more of a highlight than the few sad looking animals.

 zoe and eijla checking out two big crocodiles...

 thomas snapped this one, didn´t think it needed any explanation...

the jain temples of ranakpur

so after our train ride, we arrived late in jodhpur, where we just spent the night before hopping on a bus to ranakpur.  we had decided on a cute place out in the jungle which was supposed to have a swimming pool.  but as it turned out it was all but shut down. the manager was getting married and the entire staff was there.  so we ended up having a very quiet  stay,  the temporary staff was friendly but the swimming pool and the jungle treks were not an option. oh well. we made our own safari on the way to the temples,  a 2 km walk.  we saw peacocks, preying mantis, monkeys, cows, and more,  not too bad for on our own.

 eijla trying to blend into the carvings at the temples...

 our cozy, but not quite staffed hotel.  it had a lot of potential, but was pretty run down.

 the view from the patio and pool area.  not bad at all.  it was a great place to see birds and monkeys.

 thomas and zoe pinky swear to not tease one another.  yeah, that did not last long!

 the place had a little puppy as well,  sadly all of its siblings had been eaten by the crocodiles in the lake, but the girls had  a great time playing with reiki.  and then it was off to udaipur.

saying good bye to jaislamer

we spent our last day enjoying the fort and the views.  zoe is really looking forward to our train ride back to to jodhpur this evening...

 just had to include this pic,  the girls are not always the angels they appear to be in this blog,  escpecially when they do not get what they want!

our little camel safari in the rajastani desert

after our practice run, we were ready to head to the desert.  zoe was very excited...

 but the sun was strong, so pappa and eijla covered up...

 zoe had a bit fun playing musical camels,  she rode, in turn, with thomas, me and even the camel guide.

 eijla wanted to ride on the camel all by herself, and could not understand why we wouldn´t let her!

 then we rode out to the sand dunes, definitely the highlight of the safari.

 where we had fun in the sun and played in the sunset...

 then the stars came out and the temperature cooled down...

 and a stick on fire was ever so fun.  are we bad parents we let our five year old play with fire?

 then after a yummy dinner cooked by the fire,  it was time for nighty nighty under the starry sky!

 sunrise over my cute little family.  mys.

 then it was up for a yummy breakfast, and a couple more hours of fun in the sand,  there were sand angels....

 buried angels...

 and then we were off again before the sun was too hot...

 on our lunch break zoe even managed to pick flowers in the desert.  that kid can find flowers anywhere!

then it was time to say good bye to our camel and guides,  it was a great adventure!