And...we're back!

I owe Mateo his three-month letter pretty soon here (okay, I'm way behind, but it will happen!) but wanted to report first that we're back from Cancun and had a wonderful time. It was sunny and warm and we had fun with my parents and it was really everything a vacation should be. It had its ups and downs, including Sacha having horrible ear trouble on our first flight and me getting the stomach flu on our third (I learned that airlines do indeed still carry those motion sickness bags), but there were many more ups than downs.

I'm not sure if I talked about this before, but the reason for our trip was that we were all going on the Carter Center Winter Weekend, which is an annual trip sponsored by former President Jimmy Carter's humanitarian non-profit. My parents took us to the Winter Weekend two years ago when it was in Utah and we had a great time playing in the snow. This year, they decided to go to a warmer locale. The way it works is that you have the days free to do activities or just relax and then they have events in the evening, like a town hall meeting with the Carters and a live auction and a bunch of other stuff. The Carter Center really does some amazing stuff. Check them out here.

Mateo had the good luck to be held twice by Jimmy Carter. We got some great photos, but one is stuck on my dad's phone and the other was with real film, so none for the blog as yet. In addition to winning over a former President, Mateo was a very popular boy among the other guests! Here are some photos of our trip, in semi-chronological order:

Here's Mateo perfecting his airplane sleeping position with Grammy:


Still snoozing much later upon arrival at Club Med in Cancun, while Sacha enjoys a refreshing drink:


The amazing view from our room:


Here are me and Mateo at Tulum, a site of ancient Mayan ruins. We took a half-day tour there and had a great tour guide who was born Belgian, raised in Morocco and a recently naturalized Mexican citizen! Mateo enjoyed the ruins, although he got pretty hot. He must have been thirsty, because he consumed an incredible amount of milk during our short visit to Tulum.


I love this photo of our little guy in the bath. My parents had a huge bathtub in their room, which filled only very slowly through a spray nozzle, and Mateo took several dips in it. He seemed to enjoy bathing much more than in our freezing Portland bathroom!


Here we are at the beach:

Checking things out outside the sling:

Family portrait!:

Sacha helping Mateo with his first ocean dip:


Hanging out with Grandpa and Grammy inside a restaurant:


And my favorite - Mateo reclining in the lap of luxury on my parents' deck: