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Make a Smilebox photobook

Katie is taking the day off, so I have been enlisted for blogging duty. It worked out anyway, since I took the kids on an outing today (more on that later).

This morning was a great morning, probably the coolest it has been since we arrived. I took the kids to daycare about 7:15 and it was actually "crisp." Awesome! The business Spanish class was a little disorganized today, but the history class was great. We are studying modern Mexican history and got to learn about this huge student uprising in 1968 that I had never even heard of. It is amazing how little I really know about Mexico. After class we came back to the apartment to get ready for the trip.

I have been planning to visit the Grutas de Garcia, a cave system about 25 miles outside of Monterrey. Well, with one thing after another, today was our first good opportunity. I took Jared out of daycare early and invited some of the kids to fill out the trip. Katie is not a fan of caves and it probably wasn't a great trip for Drew, anyway, so I ended up squeezing five girls in the van for the hour drive (that is right, 25 miles took about an hour. Love the roads and traffic in Mexico!).

We got there and I was pleasantly surprised. The whole rest area was new and well maintained. (In fact, they probably had the cleanest bathrooms I have seen in my three weeks down here!). Like I said, it was a cool day so we had a lot of fun playing on the playground equipment while waiting for our teleférico ride (that is a cable car to most of us) up to the top of the mountain where the cavern entrance is located. Once we got up there and were able to enter, it was just awesome. Jared was impressed by all of the stalactites, stalagmites and columns of rocks. He especially got into the game of trying to see the various shapes that have been identified in the rock formations. We spent about an hour being guided up, down, and around a series of caves before taking the teleférico back down the mountain and piling into the van. It was a great trip, but half the girls were so tired from spelunking that they fell asleep on the way back!

We got back around 6:00, collected Katie and Drew and headed out for dinner (I know that I am doing the blog for Katie today, but it wouldn't seem complete without a mention of food, right?) We tried a new restaurant and got some great service (a very nice waiter who tried to speak English while I tried to speak Spanish). He brought us all kinds of extra salsas, fresh limes, grilled onions, etc. to go along with some excellent steak tacos and quesadillas. It was one of the best places we have eaten while in Monterrey! On the walk back we stopped for at our new favorite ice cream place (of course). Drew started chanting "bite? bite?" before we even walked through the door :)

Jared and I played some catch afterwards while Drew and Katie got cleaned up. Jared's arm is getting stronger and he is doing well with pop ups as well. He is still a little afraid of the ball when I throw short hops, but given the unpredictable ground we are playing on I guess I can't blame him too much for that. All of the people walking around the park are really impressed by Jared. They frequently come over and compliment him on his "beisbol."

Cola de caballo

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Wow. We are exhausted. I am just going to post these pictures so you can see how sleepy Drew was after the trip, Jared on his pony and of course the waterfalls themselves. Everyone else is asleep and it is only 8:52 pm. I am still up because I was finishing my grad work for this week and am talking to a friend on IM. I think I will have to edit this tomorrow morning...

OK it's Sunday morning now. I slept in until about 10 am. Jared and Drew woke up around six. Wow. Eric took them on a walk and then Drew took a nap around 9. He is still asleep.

So yesterday we got to the school around 10. My kids were all there. There was another group that was going to go so we thought we could just share the same bus. We had to drive slowly up to the waterfalls. Most of it wasn't due to the winding roads but to the super slow speed limits in some of the places we drove through. No big deal, we drove up into the mountains and it was really pretty. Drew slept a little on Eric on the drive up there. Once we got closer to the waterfalls we were on some really tight curves. Of course there were houses and little stores right on the edge of the road so it was pretty wild driving there. There is a really nice hotel up there and I wouldn't mind staying there! We walked over to the entrance and we saw we had options of how we got up the mountain. We wanted to ride horses but all of the horses had been taken by students so we were just going to ride up in a little cart. As it turns out, there was one horse left and one pony so Jared and I rode those. I rode the horse and he rode the pony- just for clarification.

The waterfalls are magnificent. No other word to describe them. Just beautiful. The water was so clear too. Nice breeze too. There was a little food stand up there and I found my Precious POFFETS! My favorite cheese popcorn that is nearly impossible to find. I have looked in every store, tienda etc. trying to find that stuff and when I saw it at that stand in the mountains, I about passed out. I seriously bought 14 bags and left two. Nice of me huh?

So we rode the little horses down the hill and then walked over to where my kids were thinking about bungee jumping. I would NEVER do that of course but my kids well, they are a little different. Claudia decided she was going to jump. Sooooo... we watched. Of course we are in the sun most of the time and since we are in the mountains we are even closer to the blasted sun than we were just in Monterrey. So yeah it's hot. She jumps and it was great and I was relieved it all went well. Then it was time to head for the bus. Well an hour and 15 minutes later we finally get everyone on the bus. I was beyond irritated because the other group just decided to dilly-dally and well, that wasn't ok. We hadn't eaten lunch and the heat was taking its toll on me and on Drew. GRR. My kids weren't perfect either and I let them know it. They KNEW better than to even say anything when they got on the bus.

On our way down the mountain Drew decided to puke up everything all over Eric. No, really ALL OVER. So we got Drew cleaned up and Eric couldn't get that clean and so he wore puke covered clothes the rest of the way. That is a real badge of fatherhood right there.

We went to a market called Los Cavazos and we ate there and shopped. Eric, Jared, Drew and I went to a different buffet place than most of the others. Man was it good. My dad would have LOVED it there and would have made food fool of himself there. It was that good though. Even Jared had a lot to eat there. Drew was "ok" but didn't really eat anything. We went shopping but it was sooooo hot it was miserable. Eric tried to find some clothes he could change into but for some reason there weren't any extra tall shirts. HMM We made it back to the bus and got cooled down and headed back to town. Drew fell asleep on me and slept most of the way back. Thankfully the bus driver dropped us off at the apartments.

After a little while the boys ate dinner and everything was good until Drew threw up again. YUCK. He had been in here sitting on me but then he got up to see Daddy. Whew! I think he was just overheated, too tired and all that good stuff. We all went to bed very early and passed out. It was a very good trip though. I highly recommend it.

Thank God it's Friday!

No pictures today. Sorry. I wanted to get one of Jared but he wouldn't let me take one of him. He lost a tooth you see, and I thought it would be cool to put a picture of him on here. But he said no and well that was that. OK. I lied. I just remembered we got pictures of Jared's field trip yesterday so I am posting them. We don't have a scanner so I took pictures of them with my iphone. Quality isn't that great- taking a picture of a picture... I propped it up on my purse on the bed. Yahoo! I think the pictures are really cute and the big one with him and the little bunny is absolutely precious. That daycare has been so amazing. I am so glad we found a good place like that for them. We got really lucky with that.

Boys got up bright and early- gotta love that- and Eric got them ready and on to daycare. I was still drained from yesterday's heat so I stayed in bed a while longer. Besides, I didn't need to go to class- they were taking a test and I don't do those!

I did a lot of homework after school. Seemed to not realize that Sunday is the day my first assignment is due for this new class I am in and I hadn't done anything for it yet. Oops. So I did a lot of it this afternoon. I just have to do the discussion board and that will be it for this week. Whew! Eric washed the clothes and then we folded them and put them away. Probably the last time we will do that here - we can take home our dirty stuff and wash it there!

We have to get our essays written, questions answered and study for our history test Monday. There was so much stuff going on this week in that class. It really makes you think. My kids ask really good questions though and I am very impressed. The professor is so good with them and they are really rising to his challenge in that class. I think it is really making them feel very confident in themselves.

We went to eat at a new taco place (no, I am not tired of them yet!) and it was quite tasty. After that we went to the grocery store to get a few things for our last week. I can't believe it's almost over- these last 3 weeks have flown by. We got ice cream at the store- they have a little kiosk. Man it was good. Just simple vanilla in a cup but wow. Jared had it all over but he enjoyed his cone. Drew enjoyed sharing mine. He was asking for bites before we even had ours ordered! Little pig.

We are trying to find a camera battery so I can take pictures tomorrow. We leave at 10am for the Cola de Caballo waterfalls. From what mom said, Grandpa and Norma have been there too so I think that is pretty darn cool. We will be gone until about 5 and that is why I wanted to get homework done for the Lamar class... I HAVE to turn in that stuff- the stuff here is optional for me. Anyway. I plan on taking a lot of pictures.

So that is pretty much our day in a nutshell. It was a nice relaxing evening. Since yesterday was nuts and tomorrow and Sunday could be quite busy it was good to chill tonight.

Beeeeeeeeeeeer

Well it's Thursday. It was hot and I sweated most of the afternoon which is not something I particularly enjoy. To start it off we got to our first class late because we started at 8:30 and not 9am like normal. I didn't know we were going to do that and Eric didn't understand that was the plan so we walked in late. No biggie but it was kind of weird. :) Classes went well though. History is flying by. The business class is very interesting and I have already figured out how I could teach that class at school if we were given the opportunity.

Eric and I ate lunch at Doñá Tota and it was quite yummy. We came back and rested for about 20 minutes and then it was time to go on our tour. Eric had talked to Giannina this morning and he got it arranged where the bus would come pick us up at our apartments instead of us walking over to where we usually catch it. That was great. We were supposed to leave at 2:30 but we didn't leave until after 3.... GRRR We left the kids at daycare because this was not a place for them to be. We had a dress code to follow too so we were all in pants and closed toed shoes. Man it wasn't hot or anything!! Anyway, the bus we were on was not air conditioned and there was not a lot of air on the bus. Outside was fine in the shade but our bus felt like an oven and of course we hit every red light and got a little lost.

We went on this field trip because this cerveceria is kind of what brought Monterrey into the place it is today. The relatives of the founders have invested their money into the city since 1890 and they have taken very good care of their employees. One of the family members is who founded the Tec de Monterrey. This factory makes and distributes Tecate, Dos Equis, Bohemia, Sol etc. We had a very informative presentation on how the beer is made, what goes into it etc. I feel like I learned a lot. We were not able to go on the coolest part of the tour because they were using the room we would have been in for some kind of fancy reception. sheesh... but what we saw was cool.

The Mexican Baseball Hall of Fame is adjacent to the cerveceria and we went in there as well. I think it is cool and I think Jared would like it. There are some interactive exhibits he could do and plus it just is pretty nifty.

Out in the garden area is where you could sample their beer for free if you were not a minor. I thought I would try some out even though I really don't like beer. I had a couple of drinks but not all of it. First and only time my students will see me drink. Erica and Zulema had the fruit juice they gave to the kids.

We left about 5:15 so we could pick up the boys. The ride back was just as hot and sweaty... We picked them up and then walked to eat some tacos. The place wasn't open yet so we went to Subway. I was so hot and so tired... I was able to recuperate at the Subway because the a/c was sooooo awesome. We went and tried out a new ice cream place too and boy was that tasty. Jared got it ALL over him and Drew did a good job of that as well. Jared had chocolate with marshmallows in it. I had cajeta and Eric had the same flavor as Jared. Drew had some of mine and Eric's and he is an ice cream freak.

Jared went on his field trip today and had a really good time. It sounds like they were able to get him to chill out about some of the animals he is kind of freaked out about. Bottom line was he had a good time even though he is much older than the rest of the kids. He is a good boy. :)

Boys are all clean and in bed. I am going to try and sleep tonight as well. I am tired of not sleeping!!!

BTW, in yesterday's post I forgot to explain Drew's shirt. It's my shirt but Drew insisted on wearing it. He would take it off and then try to put it back on again. He is a mess! Well that is all for today... Tomorrow is Friday! Our last weekend here in Monterrey. Wow!

HOT

OK. Today was just plain hot. It got up to 107 that I saw. That is not including the heat index. That made it 109. Whoopdeedoo. This morning was not too bad but wow this afternoon that sun just made you HOT.
We had to go in early today because our teacher had an obligation last week and we missed an hour of the first class. So we are making it up a half our at a time. On the way to class today Eric saw the buck. He was just chilling in the grass and he looked great. I had to take the picture with my iphone so I couldn't zoom in really well. We also saw the fawn and its mom but I didn't take a picture of them. So cool. One of my kids lost their pre-paid lunch card so I took care of that during the first class. Got a new one for her and it will be active tomorrow. History class is covering soooo much this week it is a tad overwhelming when you break it down. I really enjoy the classes we are taking.

We picked the boys up from daycare and we came back to our apartment and a lot of the kids came by. Eric is working with 3 of them in a group and David came by to pick up his money. Drew loooooves Diana and wanted to leave with her but I wanted to go out to eat! So everyone left and we went to El Pollo Loco which is like a block from here. We have them in Dallas but I haven't been there before. Well we chowed down and it was relatively cheap for us to all eat there. $14 for chicken, tortillas, 2 drinks and fries. As you can see from the picture, Jared really enjoyed it. He gets corn tortillas at lunch at daycare so he knew to put his food in there. He had fun putting chips, chicken, fries all together in his tortilla. We ate outside... yes it was warm, but it was covered and there was a nice breeze. The bonus was we were right on the road so Drew could see his buses go by.

We walked to the Oxxo and Eric got an ice cream and Jared got a Twix. I got some weird breath mint that I thought was candy and just bit through it. It's cool but weird. Drew didn't get anything even though he did try to pull off everything from the shelves.

Boys are in bed now. Eric and Jared went to play catch again. That is a nice routine that they have. We watched some Mexican baseball game on tv too. Eric is going to go and study with his group and work on tomorrow's presentation.

Tomorrow after class we will get everyone packed up. Jared has his field trip and I am sure we will leave early afternoon. We don't know where we are going but hey- we got here just fine!!

Week one is done!

Well today was a good day. It was Friday of course! We had our classes and then we met up at school at 3 so we could go on our first excursion. It was just our group so that was kind of nice. We had picked up the boys at 2:30 so we could be at school in time. Drew had only about an hour to nap. Oh well- it's better than nothing!

Our excursion today was to the planetarium. We had a decent drive and got to see more of Monterrey and that was nice too. We were in the ritzier part of town. The planetarium was in a really pretty part of town and there were a lot of trees. It was set up like the Science Place in Dallas and we had a guide go through the areas with us. It was much better than the Science Place and the kids really enjoyed the exhibits. I could only think of Mr. Flint and how much fun he would have with all of this crazy science stuff! The kids all played (including the big kids) with everything and then they watched an IMAX movie. Drew was not having any of that so we went outside. There are fish tanks in the entryway and we looked at fish first, then went outside. There were some outdoor science exhibits too (pictures above) and we had fun playing with those. His favorite area was the botanical gardens. It was so pretty and the breeze was blowing and the weather was just great. So we chilled for awhile and he played and played. The other kids got out of the movie and joined us outside. Jared tweaked his arm on one of the exhibits. He told me he tore his arm. He is fine and it only lasted 2 seconds but that is when I took that picture. Boy did he have fun with the kids. They hadn't seen the big kids for a few days so it was a good reunion. They had a blast as you can see from the pictures. We didn't leave there until 6:30. Bunch of traffic on the way home so we didn't get home until late. We walked back through the school and that is when we saw the baby ducks. Jared thought those were awesome. They were soooo cute walking through the grass. We also saw the peacocks again and Jared was very surprised to see one just walking next to him like no big deal. He did not get to see the deer though. He did get some money for PawPaw though and he had a death grip on it. Jared talked to Kyle tonight and he talked the whole phone card so that was awesome. I talked to Mom after the boys went to bed.

Tomorrow morning we will meet back at school at 10am for our city tour. It will be 4 hours and we have lunch built into there. I am excited about this and 10am shouldn't be too bad. The buses are not school buses either but the nice buses with air conditioning. The Tec doesn't do anything 2nd class! So we will have the afternoon and evening free- and all of Sunday too. I have 3 journal articles to write and need to take my final. I think I will do that tomorrow so I will have a six day break before my next class starts.

We have homework for history too. We have a 3-4 page essay (typed) that is due Monday, 3 "debate" questions and to study for our test on Monday. Should be interesting. Today's business class was awesome. We did skits and they were all very good. The teacher was very impressed with how easily the kids spoke in front of the class. I told her yesterday that they were used to doing that since they had to do that for me all the time (part of the AP Lang test requires them to speak formally for 2 minutes over a topic they find out about 5 minutes beforehand). So she was very pleased. Kids incorporated a lot of the new vocabulary they had learned as well.

The kids are very excited about the trip. Some went out last night to that school sponsored Salsa class and had a good time meeting new people. I am very proud of how they handle themselves. They are very pleased with how much they have learned this week even though it has been a long and tiring week.

I know this is long but there was a lot going on today! When we went to pick up the boys we spoke with the owner. She told us how friendly the boys are and how quickly they have fit in with everyone else. Drew made a little thing for Eric for Father's Day. It has his huge handprint (Drew's, not Eric's) and it says, "Papá a bordo" which means "Dad on board". It even has the suction cup to put it on the window. I was touched.

Well I guess this is long enough. I better get to bed. Drew went to bed early without much dinner so I bet he will be up early!

:) I don't like how the pictures ended up on this post but I can't do anything to fix it!!!

First evening with everyone

Well this evening a few of us ventured out to find some vittles. Eric had taken the boys around earlier so they knew a bunch of places not far from here. Some of the kids stayed here because they had already eaten and were tired from their trip. We decided to eat at a taco stand and it was next to an ice cream place- that is La Michoacana you see in the background. Drew, Eric and I sat at another table. Jared had to sit with his "girls". He loves them and they love him. It is really funny. Daisy, Janet and Mary decided they wanted to explore while we ate so it was just Erica, Zulema, Claudia and Amparo with us. Rita and Yanira were sleepy and David was with his family. Anyway, Jared ate his tacos really well. It helped that he had so much coaching from his fan club! They were steak tacos and he isn't used to eating stuff like that. Drew wouldn't try it so we kept him on an easy diet. We ate the tacos and of course they were delicious. Had ice cream afterwards and walked home. There are a ton of things right around us so it will be easy to exchange money, eat, etc.

Tomorrow we will meet at the school at 8:30. Someone is meeting us there and then taking us to where we will need to go for class. After that I will head back here and meet Eric. There is a daycare a block from here and we are going to try to get the boys in there. If all goes well then Eric will just walk back with me. If there is a language barrier then I will go to the daycare and see what we need to do and then Eric will come back with us. At 3pm tomorrow we will have the orientation at school and get our ID's made and all the important stuff that we need.

Everyone is very excited and happy to be here. We are watching out for the kids and that is quite a task as they are all on different floors. I know we will get a routine going here real soon.

Alrighty then! That is all for now... I need to get to sleep! :) Feel free to comment on our blog!