I still feel in awe of the fact that my sister visited me here in Mexico. It was an unexpected and wonderful surprise! My sister has five kids, so the thought of traveling with the whole family was daunting; however, they had the great idea of bringing two kids this year, and two kids next year (their littlest won't travel), making the whole traveling thing (and cost) much more manageable. So, for this trip, Katie came with her oldest, Miriam (11 years old), and her fourth, Edmund (5, just a few months older than Josh). The three of them arrived the evening of my birthday and I cried the moment I saw them at the airport. It was just so special to me to be able to share my Mexico life with my sister and best friend. They stayed for five nights and it truly was the best time!
It's not easy to get a selfie with that many people!
The first evening, Katie and the kids had had a long travel day, so we ate dinner at home and then headed out to ice cream for my birthday. We have discovered the BEST ice cream place that has not only dairy free, but sugar free chocolate-covered ice cream bars. What a treat for me!
The kids ran and played at the park and then sang a song ("We Wish You a Merry Christmas") at the amphitheater. I cannot even tell you how excited Josh was to have his buddy, Edmund there to visit for the week.
Ben read to the little boys most evenings, while I finished up reading The Hobbit to the twins and Miriam.
This was our first time having visitors during the HOT Monterrey weather; the temperature definitely made us think through and plan our days differently, because no one wants to be anywhere except the pool midday. On our first full day together our kids were in the pool by 11 am.
Yes, Katie and I have matching swimsuits.
It was fun to watch Edmund grow in confidence in the pool throughout their days here!
The two of them in their goggles looked so cute to me!
They literally spent hours jumping in together. Their expertise: the pencil jump. "We're pretty awesome swimmers," they told me on the last day.
After swimming, we took them out to our favorite restaurant for a 2 pm Mexican lunch.
Josh totally cracks me up in this picture.
A more normal picture.
Many an afternoon was spent playing our new favorite game: Seven Wonders. The magical part about this was that we could play uninterrupted by little ones, because Josh and Edmund had each other to play with!
They had a blast doing all things boys.
Traveling Mexico with their cars.
Saturday evening we traveled to old town Monterrey to try to attend a mass in the beautiful cathedral down in the square.
When we arrived outside the cathedral, it was clear that there was going to be, or had been, a wedding. Not wanting to burst in on a wedding, I asked someone outside if there was a mass this evening. They told me "yes," so we headed inside and plopped ourselves down about four rows from the front.
We arrived about 10 minutes early and the cathedral was pretty empty; however, people who were dressed up quite fancy starting filing in. And then a photographer started taking pictures of people as they came down the aisle. Perhaps you know where this is going? Yes, very quickly it became apparent that we were crashing a wedding. In fact, by the time we realized that a wedding indeed was going to happen and moved our very under-dressed family to the side pew, we realized that we had been sitting in the rows that the wedding parties' families usually sit in. I can only imagine what everyone was saying about "those gringos" that were sitting in the wrong place! (In our defense, someone could have politely let us know what was going on, but that it not the Mexican cultural way.)
By the time we decided to bail on the wedding of a complete stranger, the wedding march song had started and everyone in the church stood up for the bride walking down on the aisle. We couldn't very well walk out when the bride was coming down the aisle, could we? Nope, we stood with everyone else. By this time, my sister and I were literally laughing (silently) so hard that we were crying. It was the most awkward and hilarious moment to date in Mexico. Least to say, as the song ended and we quickly and quietly exited. Not exactly the mass we anticipated!
Since we were already in Marco Plaza, we decided to walk around a bit and show them the historic area. We stopped to watch a street artist.
Then we were surprised to discover that there was a show in the square with some traditional Mexican dancers. What a treat!
The little boys were entranced and watched their every move.
The guy dancing with machetes was so inspiring to Josh and Edmund that...
They decided they could no longer just watch, but just had to dance as well.
So we had moment #2 in which our gringo families totally stood out.
These little boys were hilarious to watch dance and had no clue that lots of people were watching them and laughing.
Getting hydrated for some more heavy dancing.
It was a beautiful night to be at the Marco Plaza.
Have I mentioned how happy Edmund and Josh were to be together?
The next day, we all went to our church together, spent a couple hours at the pool, and then headed to Fundidora park. It was hot, so we quickly walked through the park to Horno3, the cool foundry museum there.
Buddies.
Edmund really bonded with his Uncle Ben, and Ben did such a great job helping out with the two little boys. It was so sweet.
After Fundidora, we headed to the Barrio Antiguo to grab some of our favorite al pastor tacos. Katie LOVED all the food and it was fun to share it with her!
Enjoying the beauty of old town.
Miriam is almost as tall as Katie!
The restaurant we visited, Me Muere de Hambre, is this funky place with the theme of pregnant mermaids (weird, I know). Earlier on in the trip, Edmund had out of the blue told all of us, "I hate mermaids!" so we couldn't resist taking him here!
We ended the night by taking them to another of our favorite ice cream shops, La Creme. Does it seem like all we did was eat?
Those two!
We let Edmund have a sleepover in the boys' room on Sunday night, as we weren't going to have Seth and Sam attend school on Monday. This is how Josh and Edmund fell asleep. So cute!
Ben took Monday off of work, so it was our last day with him driving us around to explore. We decided to take everyone up to Chipinque National Park.
It's always fun to play on the giant cement slides!
Even the mommies got in on the action!
Josh had super slick clothes on, so he was usually the first down the slide.
The little boys looked so cute in their ball caps.
Playing on the swings.
The viewpoint over Monterrey.
The city was cloudy (smoggy), but the view was still quite pretty.
The Saddleback mountain in the distance.
By this time in the trip, Edmund was super exhausted and totally hit a wall. We had packed a lot into a few short days!
On the way down the mountain we stopped at the butterfly garden. It was full of tons of different types of butterflies!
That afternoon, I just had to take Katie to the fruteria that I try to visit weekly; it's one of my favorite things about Mexico. Katie LOVED the fruit of Mexico and it was so fun to have her try lots of tropical treats. She especially loved the mangoes.
Tuesday was our last full day together. The big boys had to go to school in the morning to get ready for their science fair, but we picked them up midday and headed to Santiago for lunch and to explore a bit.
The kids thought that this statue was pretty cool.
We stopped at some ceramic shops to let them buy some souvenirs.
On Wednesday, Katie, Miriam and Edmund flew home after lunch time, so we still had a little bit of time in the morning to hang out. First, we went to the boys' school to watch Seth and Sam at their science fair. It was special that they got to see the boys at school!
Edmund and Josh watching Sammy's group.
That morning we also visited our gluten free bakery so that Katie could bring back some treats for her family members with allergies. Then we squeezed in one last swim. When it was time for Katie to leave, I cried again. I really miss my sister and it was so fun to have her at our home here in Mexico. Not only was it special to share my foreign life with her, it was also just great to have that amount of concentrated time with her...since having kids it seems that we rarely get time together that's not making a meal, or cleaning up after one. I will always treasure these five days that we got together!
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