Weekend Getaway

Summertime usually means fun in the sun, no school, and time to relax.  However, when you do year round school and are in the thick of language learning, the months seems to blend together.  Before we knew it, it was July as we were preparing for our month long stay in the village.  After a gentle nudge from our supervisor, we decided we should take a few days to get away and relax as a family.  Kris found an amazing deal on hotels.com (I'm convinced it was there just for us) and so we headed off for a long weekend in the beautiful city of Querétaro.  It was a five hour drive from our village but it was a beautiful drive through pine forest mountains with waterfalls on the sides of the road and then through semi-dessert with tall cactus.

We arrived Friday evening and let the kids enjoy the pool at the hotel.  As I mentioned before, we found a great deal on the hotel, and it was wonderful. It was one of the biggest rooms I've seen at a hotel.  Elyse was quite impressed with the toilet (it was a far cry from our outhouse), and both kids wanted to take multiple showers a day.  Okay, maybe the grown-ups did, too! 

First night's dinner was from Church's Fried Chicken

Checking out the hotel pool

First swim of the summer!

 The next day we headed off to a neat little theme park just north of the city.  Some friends told us about this park.  It was clean and had lots of shade.  The rides were mostly for kids (perfect for our family), but they also had one decent roller coaster.  The best part was that it cost about $3.25 a person to get in (and all the rides were free).  You can't even go to the fair in the U.S. for that price!  We all had a great day.

Elyse wanted to style our hair with the "fancy" hairdryer at the hotel

Waffles with bacon cooked inside!  Great way to start the day.

Loving on daddy

Ready to head to the park

Elyse's first ride

Waiting for the bumper cars

Kris and I decided we were too old for the bumper cars!

Up, up and away!

Kieran loved the roller coaster (in back ground)

Well worth the price!

For dinner we enjoyed another special treat.  We found out that there is a P.F. Chang's at a new mall in the city.  This was one of our family favorites when we lived in the States.  It has been at least two years since we've eaten at one, and it was delicious.  I'm pretty sure the kids licked their plates (literally).

The next day we went back to the park so the kids could enjoy the water park side which was also less than $4 a person!  Kieran is our little fish so this was quite a treat for him. To end the day, we rode a few more rides.  

Perfect day for the water park

Summer fun!

One last loopty-loop (Kris and Kieran are in the 3rd car up)

The next morning, we let the kids take one more dip in the hotel pool before heading back to the village.  The trip back was hard (and not just because it was the end of vacation) because both kids got very car sick. 

We really enjoyed all the space in our hotel room!

We're still not quite sure what about the purpose of this little door. 

We are thankful for this time to get away and look forward to exploring more of this beautiful country where we live.