Back to the real world

Well, I'm back from vacation and about caught up from it. It was wonderfully relaxing. The first week we were at family camp. We had a lot of non programmed time that I got some reading done. I didn't want to stitch because it was still camping and I didn't want to get the piece dirty. Although I'm afraid of hieghts, I did the high ropes course. I was shaking like a leaf (especially after I fell), but I made it all of the way through. I did scoot across the one line on my rear for a while. I was determined that if I got up there that I'd make it to the end so I could ride the zip line down, LOL! We had time at the water front each day, but I found it too cold to want to get in. Well, we went from family camp down to Tampa to see my sister, brother, and mother. That was hot, but so much fun. The first day we were out in the gulf a manatee came into the cove. We were able to pet it!!! What an awesome experience. There seemed to be an abundance of sea grass out in the gulf which was constantly getting in the impeller of the jet skis. This meant jumping into the water and going underneath and pulling it out. It's more fun when you don't have to do that. My sis and I were taking a little ride out in a real small boat to look for dolphins. We found them and got a bit carried away looking at them and ran out of gas in the channel. This was not a good thing because all boats need to use this channel to make sure they get through during low tide and we were in a tiny, tiny boat. We had one group of fellas fly by us trying to swamp us. Needless to say, we weren't impressed by their release of testosterone! Fortunately, we had a cell phone on us so we could call for help. Since we were in the channel, we could give an exact channel marker for pickup. My BIL came out on the jet ski to pick us up. As we were tying up to his ski, another boat came flying up the channel. My sister stood up with a bright orange kayak paddle and was trying to wave them off. In the meantime, my BIL starts to take off so we won't capsize. Well, a jet ski works by sucking in a bunch of water. Since my BIL wasn't holding on to the rope (since he was trying to take off quick) it got sucked up into the engine. We now had a jet ski and a very small john boat stuck in the channel. My BIL decides to jump in and see if he can get the rope unstuck. Unfortunately, he had his cell phone on his belt, LOL! We still had ours so we called my nephew to pick us up with the other jet ski. This was the jet ski that was behaving erratically due to a bad alternator (we think). It made it and ended up pulling us all home. In spite of all of the adventures, it was a good time! My youngest son got to fish a lot and was thrilled with the stuff he was catching.

Once home, I finished off this box for my DSIL. This was a belated birthday gift. I ended up using the Dragon Dreams Ruby dragon pattern. I didn't think there was enough contrast with the ruby, so I changed the dragon to blue. My SIL loves blues any way! I was able to give it to her this weekend when I met up with her to see Wicked. Now that was an awesome play! I have just finished up Be Scary and will post a picture in the next few days. Happy stitching!