Crazy Wedding Weekend

I have been away and very busy and I have a good reason! The weekend was crazy busy and getting back in to the routine was even crazier. My little sister got married this weekend in Maryland and my older brother had baby boy in Philadelphia over the weekend! Alot went down! And yes I went from California to Maryland to Virginia to Philadelphia to Maryland and back to California in 4 days! It was a fun but quick weekend!

Bride

Umair and Humnah

Umair and Ismaeel BFFs

 

Typical Haseeb

Getting the kids back in to some shape or form of a routine was difficult. Umair seriously thinks we are on vacation! haha!

Oh My Starry Eyed Surprise....

I think Umair has found a new hobby!

The skies are really clear! Its kind of addictive! Umair is so excited about his telescope. Thanks Chachoos and Amna Chachi!

And....ACTION!

We dropped the kids off at the masjid and we went to find a MACY'S! I was having Macy's withdrawals!=D We found I think the messiest Macy's ever. It was small and very disorganized. I was very disappointed.  This Macy's was located in La Jolla on top of it. La Jolla is supposed to be a pricey area. I thought it would be like the Woodfield Macy's or the Oakbrook one but it was wasn't! Ok enough about Macy's. We were walking around the "mall" (it being outdoor is going to take some getting used to) and Majid wanted Starbucks (surprise surprise). I don't what it is with California Starbucks, its never quick! It took Majid at least 18 minutes to get his tall Pike. While we were standing in the Starbucks we hear someone yelling in the doorway, "Everyone act natural, we are shooting a movie!" Next thing you know these guys are placed in Starbucks and one guys screams, "OMG, I can't believe it" and throws something at another guy and run out. End scene. That was my 2 seconds of being on camera! I have no idea what they were filiming!

New Kid in Town

Since my sister's wedding is coming up I thought it would be a good time to get the boy's hair cut. I miss my Big League Barber Shop in Mishawaka. They were good and they knew what they were doing. I realized how important it is to have a good barber! Should have moved the barber out here too! =D
Anyways, I wanted to introduce the new kid in town...Umair is all California now!

After the stylist cut Umair's hair Umair said he wanted spikey.... so while she was spiking his hair she was trying to sell me the product she used and she told me it had the same ingredients as Elmer's glue. I told her no thank you I will just go buy the Elmer's glue! =D

SAN

Airport Code...for anyone of you that want to visit.  Its not that nice of an airport. I guess they are renovating it. Alot of construction going on.  If you are wondering what I was doing there, I had to pick up Majid, haha of all places he was coming from Indiana(Indianapolis)! His flight was retarded. He flew from Indy to Atlanta to San Diego. Makes NO sense. But whatever, hes back! :)

The San Diego Sea Port is actually right by the airport.  The harbor area is a like a dream come true for the kids...you have the coast guard with helicopters flying in and out, you have sailboats, you have airplanes landing and taking off, you have so many different kids of boats, there was even a submarine in the water. And we cant forget the aircraft carriers floating in the water.  All we heard was, "WOW! Look at that, BEEB!" "Look over there!" "Oh my Gaad, look at that...so cool!"

To convince Majid to let him take a tour of the boats, the conversation btwn father and son:
Umair, "Baba, lets go see the boats!"
Baba, "Umair I am really tired maybe some other time!"
Umair,  "But Baba, look look they even have Coffee!"
HA HA HA !

Coast Guard

Airplane

There's the submarine!

mA, look at thier smiles! esp Beeb's!

Sailboat, just added sailing to the to do list!

The Marine Time Museum that has coffee!=D haha

We were hungry for a snack and went to a restaurant called Anthony's Fish Grotto and we had some yummy fish tacos, (nothing like Bilal's though). 
Voted Best seafood in San Diego! http://www.gofishanthonys.com/index2.html
While we were eating there was so many annoying pigeons eating whatever fell on the floor.  There was a glass wall because we were sitting on the Pier and there was this one seagull tilting his head back and forth just waiting for someone to throw him a bite, it was hilarious. Silly bird tacos are for people!

bird wants la comida!

On our walk along the pier, there were some scupltures displayed for the summer a part of thier Arts program...and my favorite piece was this one..

 

Birdcage

and NO its not because I can cage up my monkeys! =)

Lastly I will leave you with this picture of a vehicle we found outside the visitor's center!

Camper Vans for Rent!

 

OMG, I almost forgot....look who was walking up and down the pier! These ppl are intense! Maybe because it was Sept 11th...who knows!

Its BORDER PATROL! haha!

Sunday School on a Saturday

I took the kids to the masjid today for Sunday school...but on Saturday! Haseeb was so excited to go in to his classroom! Haven't seen him so excited about learning in a while....maybe I am holding him back....thats it vacation is over!!! So Umair and Haseeb go to this masjid for Sunday school.....

MCC of San Diego

They were in school for a while so I went out exploring. I had to put gas in the car and this is what I see

gas pumps with tv screens...wouldnt want you to be bored for the 5 seconds it takes you putting in your gas!!!

Black Out Pakistani Style....

We were left in the dark yesterday starting at 3:30pm. There was some major power failure that affected alot of the southwest! It was massive chaos around town.  No traffic lights worked, cell phones were not working.(it was weird, we were disconnected from the rest of the world) Anyways, I wanted to take the kids to the beach and went out and came right back. So what to do in a power outage situation when its hot...take the kids to the pool! Burn some energy =)

Thumbs Up

The power came back sometime during the night.  Got up in the morning to take Umair to school for half day....did I mention that Fridays are half days here.!?!?! Go figure! Get ready go to school and noone is there....they closed school for POWER OUTAGE!!!! I guess not everyone had their power back.

So I decided to take care of a few things....I went to the library to get a library card. The librarian needed an ID, so I gave him(yes the librarian was a guy) my license.  He asks me what is the abbreviation for Maryland. Are you kidding me? Why don't ppl know the abbreviation for states?

Took the kids to the beach today just to see the ocean...had an interesting experience there...Haseeb fell off the retention wall in to a bush at the beach....only Haseeb! Alhamdulillah he was fine! The wall was like 3 feet off the ground, Alhamdulillah the bush was there to break his fall.  He had sand and branches and feathers in his hair!

I had to be back at 1pm bc they were FINALLY delivering our car. It took the car 14 days to get to California from Indiana! I could have driven it faster here.  So glad to have my car here though. Now I know why cars have sunroofs! Cars with sunroofs are meant to be used in California!

I wonder how many heads I am going to turn with my MD (abbreviation for Maryland) plates driving around in California!!

First Day Of School....

What a day. Today was the first day of school.  Umair had butterflies in his stomach....nervous about making friends.

Schools here are weird, no actually wrong word they are different. Nothing like what I have dealt with before.  So no buses. Basically you drive to the school park on the street and walk your kid to his classroom. The classrooms are outside.  They don't have concepts of hallways...so you can really hang artwork.  Then for pickup you do the same thing....park your car like 1/4 mile away (walk uphill)and go to your kids classroom and grab them and go. The cafeteria is outside and they hang their backpacks outside.  He told me his Nutella sandwich was all melted. (its like 95 degrees here) very uncommon.

So I noticed something about the parents. All the moms had a cup of coffee in one hand and ready to jog after dropping their kids off.   Even some dads...everyone was dressed in work out clothes. Ready to run a marathon...or training for one at least!

But Umair made some new friends....that's what matters. All the boys wanted to know who the new kids was.

Haseeb thinks he is going to school too...

1st day of 2nd grade

It was a long day for all of us.

While Umair was in school I was on the hunt for a preschool! No luck yet. There are wait lists for getting tours of the preschool! =S The hunt goes on......

Labor Day

We just explored San Diego...

Went to the San Diego harbor, walked along the harbor and the kids were jumping out of their skin when they saw the aircraft carrier, USS Midway! It was closed, but I think we will be re-visiting this spot in the near future. I heard they have great tours for the kids.

First weekend in California...

So it is our first few days in Califonia.  The kids are waiting for a Legoland driveby!

I feel like I am in a different country. In fact it feels like I am in Spain. The houses on the hills, the weather, and the spanish spoken everywhere!=) California is very pretty I have to admit!

Its all about the view here....even our apartment has a view. you can kinda see the ocean on a clear day!  But if you really want to just go to the beach its 10 miles away. Just have to remember don't take it for granted like my sister told me!  

On Sat, we enrolled our kids in the Sunday School and went to an Eid Mela at the another masjid. I found a Halal Meat Market with a resturant attached to it...what more could you ask for! =) oh wait they had marinated chicken fajita and marniated STEAKS! NOW what more could you ask for?!?!? =D

On the way home we said our salaams to the beach. Carlsbad State Beach aka Tamarack Beach! So many surfers in the water...one day iA it will be me and Umair! Everyone was out jogging and enjoying the sun sinking in to the Pacific Ocean!  Its funny watching the sun go down in the opposite side of you. Everything is kinda flipped. Need to reposition myself, by telling myself the ocean is on the west side not the east!

It was a long and fun weekend....we did alot of exploring! I think I am going to like it here!!!

Midway...by Friday!

We started the day off with Walker Bros pancakes. (alot of food entries)  Good breakfast, beats IHOP for sure! =)
Headed over to Midway Airport with 7 pieces of luggage. How do you pack for 3 months? What do you take what do you leave behind. Well too late now.  The stuff is going "as is" to California. Thank God southwest didnt weigh my suitcases...bc they were over 50 lbs.!!

Saying bye is hard. Noone looks at you in the eye...otherwise waterworks start! Try to shoo you away quickly too...I guess before the waterworks start.

Alot of hard good bye this time around. Its always hard moving...but this was especially hard.
Chacho and Chachi the kids are going to miss you alot!! Hopefully we will see you guys soon!
 
Good Bye Chicago! Good Bye Indiana!

Sept 1st

where did August go?!?!?!? I blinked and August was over.
We have officially left Indiana and drove to Chicago for a day then we fly out tomorrow afternoon. Umair is really sad that he is leaving behind all of his friends and so am I. Haseeb has no idea whats going on. You ask him where are you going...he says"California, Carlsbad."

We visited the places in Chicago that will be greatly missed....
1st stop Adnan's place (of course)
2nd stop...ice cream Capannari Ice Cream...five words for you "Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Crunch" omg, yummmmmmmmy. whoever is reading this and frequently go to Chicago, go eat ice cream here. It is the best ice cream I have ever eaten!! Voted "Best Ice Cream in Chicago"!

and last but not least.....
Shahi Nihari...had to eat thier club sandwhich one last time! =) It was a good food day!  Almost forgot I was moving....!!!

Day after Eid and we just EAT!!!!