Vacation, an update and an excuse

Howdy!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. We had a good time! It was great to be out of the city and to see family that we only get to see once a year. We had 9 adults and 4 dogs in our little 750 sq. ft shack so it was close quarters at times but we managed. I don't know what we would have done without Dan. He spent the entire time keeping Ben (the 3 yr. old) happy. They played in the dirt out front.


They watched the parade together.


They did the slip and slide together. Ben didn't quite get how to do it. He would do the army crawl down the length of the slide.

Dan finally took to throwing him down it. Gently and with love of course!


They made roads in a dirt pile at the end of our street.


They swung on the tire swing that belongs to the nice lady a couple houses down from us. I think she must have felt bad for Ben playing in the dirt pile all the time so she walked over one day and said she'd be happy if he would use the swing as her grandkids are all too old to use it anymore.



They launched a giant water rocket together....




They even made ice cream together.....


In fact, poor Dan had to read Ben his bedtime stories too. The only time Dan was without his shadow was at night while Ben was sleeping, when using the bathroom, and when he went to the stock car races with Adam, Abby and Sydney! Don't know what we would have done without him!

Meanwhile, the rest of us kept busy with Katie and various other activities, like playing dominoes and going to the swimming pool. Getting a soda from the old fashioned soda fountain. Shopping at the neatest gift shop and also the scrapbook store. Reading was on the agenda also. Stitching however, was not. At least not until the last day I was there. I'll explain why in a minute, first let me post my progress. Before I left:


After:


close up:


And here comes the excuse part of the post. The first day we arrived at the shack I was trying to open a window in the bedroom. The windows are big and heavy and you have to prop them up with a stick to keep them up. I got that part done just fine but I was in an awkward position and I was trying to get the storm window up and then I saw a spider in the window, panicked and bumped the stick keeping the heavy window up. It came down and smashed my hand. HARD. My holding the needle hand. For a while we wondered if it might be broken, lots of swelling and black and blue, very painful to move. But most of the swelling is gone as is the bruising and I can use it again so I think it was just badly bruised. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

I could go on and on about vacation, but I'm sure you must be tired of reading about it by now. I'll take pity on you and go do something constructive with what is left of my day. I'm going to leave you though with a few things heard during our vacation.

I don't know what it is, but I don't like it! ~Sydney
There's a big ass spider in my purse, BIG ASS! ~ Amy
Lets not panic! ~Ben
I'm ruined! ~ Ben
It won't eat me, I'm an expert!~Ben
The girls need to be pumped!~Mel
I'm gonna do something loud and ugly to your nightmare! ~ Ben

Have a nice night everyone! And thanks for the comments on my last post. I love comments.