Today we received an e-mail from the co-founder of SideStix, the manufacturer of Nico’s favorite crutches. She attached this photo of a poster being used by the Mountainfilm organization to promote their Moving Mountain’s Symposium. One of her customers noticed the crutches and thought she would be interested in seeing the photo. I love the tag line: Celebrating the Indomitable Spirit. Because of Nico my photography has been featured on the cover of two magazines, numerous newspapers and blogs, and now on a poster. Nico had to perform this one arm hand stand several times for me to capture him in a perfectly vertical posture. I am really glad we both put in the effort to get this very special image.

This evening Jeanine prepared a grand Sunday dinner for a number of guests including her sister, Susan, who drove down from Vermont earlier this morning, Hannah, and Maya’s friend Annabel. Afterwards we had a family debate over the relative virtues of the Apple versus PC (basically, kids versus adults). Little do they know that I was one of the earliest adopters of the Macintosh and owned several generations before switching to the PC. I captured this cute sequence of Kyle and Hannah as he reacts to comments on Nico’s Facebook page in response to something that he has nefariously posted under his brothers name.

Maya and her friend Annabelle worked together to create a lemon poppyseed pound cake. Their work of art was devoured in minutes during Sunday dinner.

Meet AVA (on the right), a concept robot created by our Advanced Development group. This mobility platform for a pad based head has a full suite of sensors and can autonomously navigate between arbitrary locations at speeds of 2m per second. The holonomic drive used allows it to move in any direction without having to turn its body and it is able to extend its torso to match the height of a short adult. A major departure from our usual floor care products this is a very exciting project for the team.

My attempts to photograph Maya this morning were met with the Hand. Although her beauty is increasing with each passing day her desire to be photographed is moving in the opposite direction.

My visit to the dentist early this morning took me past some serene waterscapes. My sense of calm and well being was quickly erased when I learned I would need to return to have work done on 4 teeth. Apparently I grind my teeth together while sleeping with such force that I am literally breaking them apart. I have a night guard but hate to use it and now it is clear that the alternative is far worse. On a positive note, I produced three goals and an assist during my indoor soccer game this evening.

I caught these two trucks mating in the parking lot at work today.

One of the activities Maya enjoyed while on vacation was painting this ceramic fish which now adorns our kitchen bay window. Jeanine purchased a plate which she will add to her collection on the sun porch and Nico came back with a t-shirt.

Our return to Boston begins at 5:45am this morning and ends at 9pm. As if to punctuate the end of our vacation we arrived home to discover 6 inches of snow covering our driveway. I opted to put off the removal task until the morning to extend the week of vacation just a little further.

At the request of the children and Jeanine, this vacation was designed to favor relaxation over adventure (a key component of most Calabria travel). Even so, with minor arm twisting, I was able to convince everyone to try cenote snorkling. The Gran Cenote features crystal clear water, underground extensions, and an abyss. It is regarded as the premiere snorkling cenote in the world and because of its great distance from Cancun we had it almost to ourselves. The cool water and Eden like setting was the perfect antidote for the mornings sun drenched excursion.

After the tour we took a break to enjoy cool drinks and performances by modern Mayans recreating the ceremonies of their ancestors.

Despite grumblings from the children, we got an early start this morning for the two hour trip to the ruins of Tulum. Unique as the only Mayan city to be built overlooking the ocean, it is protected by a coral reef and cliffs. We were fortunate to get another very knowledgeable and charismatic private guide who helped us understand the history and context of the Mayan civilization. Today iguanas rule the temples that were once occupied by a people who developed a more accurate calendar than the Europeans and developed a hurricane warning siren that still operates today.

Jeanine was thrilled to have all her babies together again and we celebrated with a fancy dinner which was out of this world.