Monterrey

On Sunday my mom, sister, Gabriel and I went down to Monterrey CA for a few days. I was so excited to take my little one to the aquarium and just to have some time off for a few days and relax by the pool and such. Well, as I had stated in earlier posts, Gabriel had an ear infection so he really couldn't be submerged in water and the pediatrician said to use ear plugs whenever he was in the water while it cleared up. Ok, so thats that. I had already prepared myself for that but was still super excited. Sunday morning we loaded up the car and prepared ourselves for the two and a half hour drive. We seriously brought everything but the kitchen sink! I swear, once you have kids that whole "traveling light" is a bunch of bull! All the time I was dreading Gabriel having a massive diaper explosion, throwing up, crying his brains out while we were stuck in traffic but we got there all in one piece. He slept pretty much the whole way and when he woke up he was content, playing with his toys and looking out the window. We did, however, have a really hard time finding the damn hotel! Seriously it took us about 45 minutes to finally get there. Then we couldn't find the entrance or the parking lot. Stupid Monterrey has so many one way streets! I HATE one way streets with a passion. After finally checking in and everything we went up to our room and ate the lunches that we had packed and unpacked all of our stuff while Gabriel inspected every inch of the hotel room. We relaxed for a little while before heading down to the pool. Man! The weather sucked though! It was so freakin cold and looked like it was going to rain! And most of what we packed were hot weather clothes so we were scared that we would be freezing for the rest of our stay. Still, we put on our swimsuits and headed down to the pool and the water was nice and warm so it wasn't all bad. Gabriel got really frustrated because he wanted to swim and stick his head under water but me, being so paranoid, didn't want him to get any water in his ears so he was only in the pool for a little bit. He did have fun though and it was so relaxing to just swim around for a bit then go in the hot tub. We went back up to the room, showered and went for a walk around the hotel area. Gabriel started to get hungry so we went back to the hotel for his food (I make his baby food and had brought some with me, still frozen in little cubes) only to realize I had no way to defrost his food! My super mommy brain (ha!) decided to use the coffee pot to warm up water and put the cubes in a hot water bath! I was very proud of myself for coming up with that one! And I realize that is something that maybe didn't need to be blogged but still, I felt like sharing. By the time we had to go to sleep we were all so tired we just passed out.

Monday we had planned to go to the aquarium so we got ready and went out for breakfast first then went on our way. We decided to walk, since it was like a mile away and didnt want to pay for parking. The walk was nice, despite the crummy weather, because we got to see things that we wouldn't have seen if we had driven. Finally we got the the aquarium, and I woke up Gabriel from his nap so he could see the fishes. He was so excited he kept screaming "agua" and laughing and reaching for the glass. He would look at the fish then look at me, then look back like he was saying "did you see that Mom? Didya?" It was adorable! The exhibits were really cool too! I loved the jellyfish exhibit and so did Gabriel. I got a ton of great pictures of the fish but all the pictures with Gabriel and I came out bad because when you'd use the flash the fish didn't show or they would look really bad and if I didnt use it you couldnt see Gabriel's facial expressions. I caught this one while he was gnawing on Sophie's face and watching the jellyfish "dance" around. Another cool exhibit was the sea horse one. I never knew that the males were the ones to get pregnant and give birth to baby seahorses! Now, there's somthing you don't see everyday!

After the aquarium we walked around for awhile then went to dinner and I had the best lobster ever! Just thinking about my dinner makes my mouth water! The restaurant had a great view of the bay and I'd love to take Chuy back there one day, I'm sure he'd love the restaurant and the food!

We headed back the the hotel and went for a swim and then hit the sack.

We drove back home on Tuesday after breakfast. The drive back was so horrible. We missed the exit to get on the highway we wanted to take and had to take some random one that was full of all these horrible curves and at such a high altitude. The good thing was Gabriel slept the whole way so the pressure of the altitude didnt bother his ears. Thankfully we got home safe and sound and while I did have a good time, my, it's good to be home!