South Africa 2014 - Part 2

The weekend of Darian's party was quite full on. With all the family over from Cape Town and all the birthday's in April, we were quite busy. The Sunday after the party we decided to go to uShaka Marine World. It was so nice watching Darian's first experience at such an awesome place. He was in awe of all the sea animals and absolutely loved the Seal & Dolphin shows. He was super excited and was the loudest child at each show. With Uncle Allan giving him all the attention he craved he was just in his element.

We went for lunch at our favourite Restaurant, Ocean Basket and had out usual order, Seafood Platter... best seafood platter in the world! Love it! The food at Ocean Basket at uShaka is just awesome. We were not disappointed at all. But our little mr didn't want to eat food, no instead he ate bread rolls - go figure!

After lunch we headed towards Sea World but while we waited in line uncle Allan and Frankie took Darian for a play in the sand, much to his delight.

We then headed to the Aquarium and Darian was afraid of some of the tanks, especially the sharks (Fathers child) and the big fish like the giant groupers and even the jellyfish.

After the Aquarium, we walked around and made a stop for ice-cream. Mine was hijacked by a little 2 year old.

It was a good walk around the park, and we got to see some interesting things (stingrays, the ocean walk, shark dive, etc).

We stopped at the Penguins but had missed the show. Darian just loves penguins so I was disappointed we had missed that. We did manage to see them huddled together and basking in the sunshine though, so he was happy with that.

We then made our way to the Seal show, Darian was so excited and screamed at the man, every time the Seal would come out (part of the play is that you have to warn the actor when the seal shows up). We couldn't contain his excitement. It was so worthwhile.

He was very unhappy that we had to leave the Seals but got him interested again when he realised there was still dolphins to see. This time he sat with uncle Allan and for some reason, thought uncle Allan controlled when and where the Dolphins would jump out the water so didn't want to leave him alone!

After uShaka, we headed back home as we had dinner reservations for Pam's 50th birthday. It was a lovely family dinner at the Blue Waters Hotel. Darian had such a full day that he fell asleep before we could even get to the hotel.

The birthday girl

As Monday was a public holiday we were invited to Uncle Selvan & Aunty Bernie's place for a braai. A real South African braai... yum! The boys did their thing on the braai stand and Aunty Bernie taught me how to make Soji, let's just say with all the butter and sugar in that, we won't be making it anytime soon... but so glad I know how to make it cos it's one of my top fave desserts.

April is a month full of birthdays in the Pillay family, not only did the twins (in the above picture) turn 18 in April, Pam turned 50, Darian turned 2, and Cameron turned 36. So as this was the last opportunity for the family to celebrate together this holiday, uncle Allan and his family were heading back to Cape Town the next day, which happened to be Cameron's birthday, we had a very impromptu thanksgiving before dinner. We also took this opportunity to honour my in laws (Cam's parents) as the head of the family and give thanks to God for his protection over my father in law after his health issues over the last year. Needless to say it was a tear fest but it was a good way for us as a family to give honour where honour was due. Also to acknowledge the next generation of the family and for our generation to begin to take the reigns as the next leaders. With Darian the first of the next generation in this family and with Nicole (Cam's cousin) and Randall's baby due in May, & Bradley & Shamini's little one due in August, it was quite fitting to acknowledge the next generation of this amazing family.

I'm so blessed to be a part of this amazing family. Thank you Lord for the blessing which is this family. I'm so honoured that my son will grow up with such a supportive, loving family in his corner.

The time we spent with everyone was undoubtedly the best part of our whole holiday... thank you to the Subban and Pillay family for making it so special.

Corrinne