Welcome to Mexico, Nina!

As I mentioned in my Ixtapa post, we met "Nina" and "Grandpa" (James' parents) in Ixtapa. Sharon drove back with us to Queretaro while Len went on to Mexico City for work and then met us at our house to spend a couple of nights. We had an interesting start to our trip home when, about 20 minutes in, Lydia threw up 3 times all over. We could not believe how much came out of that little girl! Sharon was "lucky" enough to be in the back seat with her and cleaned up most of the mess. Sharon stripped Lydia down and handed her to me in the front seat where she fell asleep. She sat on my lap for over an hour until we could get a towel to put in her soaked seat. Sharon said she had to close her eyes a lot on the drive home because of the crazy passing situation, but all in all it ended up being a smooth trip home.

When we got home, the kids had one more day off from school for Cinco de Mayo. We layed low for Nina's first day in Queretaro and took the boys bowling. Yes, there's bowling in Mexico. Ethan was especially excited to be bowling again (he LOVES it!).

Ethan

Nolan

Thursday it was back to school for the kiddos. Sharon and I took the opportunity while the kids were at school to go to San Miguel. We decided to take a look at the glass factory. They had a "tour" at 10:30, so we decided to check it out. It was kind of funny because they basically just took us to a viewing area close to the workers and told us to come back to the front when we were done. It was very interesting to watch them blow the glass and it was amazing how many steps there were in the process and to watch the items form! The unfortunate thing was that the gallery was closed the day we went, so we didn't purchase anything.

After the glass factory, we walked around San Miguel's Centro and got something to eat:

We both wished we had more time in the city, but Sharon really enjoyed San Miguel! Unfortunately, I wrecked the side of my car pulling out of the crazy parking garage. It was bound to happen at some point. James still hasn't noticed (don't ask me how he's missed it!) and I'm not willing to offer up the information yet. So, don't mention it if you talk to him!

That evening we had an adult dinner out with James' parents for James' birthday. We went to an Argentinian steakhouse that James and I went to when we first came to visit Queretaro. We had a wonderful dinner until they lost Sharon's credit card. They never did find it, so she had to cancel it and it was the only one she brought.

Friday we had a little less time in between dropping off Lydia and picking up Nolan, so we went to breakfast and then I took Sharon into Centro in Queretaro. We stopped by the lookout to get a good look at the famous aqueduct. There was an 88 year old man there that gave us the history of the aqueduct (we've heard a few different stories). He told us that the man who built the aqueduct was in love with a nun. He was married and she had taken her vows as a nun, so she asked him to show his love by bringing clean drinking water to the city. Hence, the aqueduct construction began. It took 9 years to build and is about 3 miles long.

Saturday we went swimming at the club and then took Nina to our favorite, Tacos El Pata, for comida. The kids went to play in the play structure as soon as we got there. As we were ordering drinks, I caught a glimpse of something dripping in the play structure. I looked up and realized that a kid was peeing towards the top of the play structure and it was trickling down. I then realized that the kid was Nolan. We were mortified. This is a kid that has been pottytrained for over 9 months and can hold his pee forever! I climbed up there with my wipes, and dragged him down. Luckily, they came in with a mop to clean it all up (my wipes weren't doing the job), but Nolan had to sit at the table the rest of the time we were there. At the end of our visit, we did let the boys get their face painted as spiderman:

All in all, I think Sharon enjoyed her visit. Unfortunately, there was a heatwave the week she was here and it did get up to 100 degrees in the city. None of the houses have airconditioning because you need it so infrequently, but it did get pretty hot with just fans running in the house. The good thing is that it's a dry heat, so, even in the 90s, it feels great in the shade! I know they will never come back in May or June though!