Home Again

We are back, rested, tanned and 5 pound heavier, from our cruise. We had a lovely time doing not too much of anything at all for 4 days. The kids all got along great at home with Nana and did not seem disturbed at all by our departure. We were scheduled for two stops, one on the Royal Caribbean private island which is called Cocoa Cay, and one at Nassau in the Bahamas. We've been to Nassau a couple of times already and didn't really have any plans there, but were very much looking forward to the private island, which was one of our favorite parts of an earlier cruise. The seas were too rough for tender service on the first scheduled stop, but we were able to rearrange our schedule and make it through on the way home. Most of the Royal Caribbean boats have rock climbing walls, so we made sure to try that out. I've actually been quite a bit recently, but Kurt hasn't been in ages and was a little rusty. Other than that, I read a couple of books, enjoyed the movie matinee and watched the evening shows. We even managed to stay up for the midnight comedian on the second night! It was way past our usual bedtime, but lots of fun.
Dinner each evening was our favorite part of the trip. I know everyone eats way too much on cruises, but it is such a luxury for parents to sit through a nice long meal with no spilt milk, without having to fetch anything from the kitchen, and then have someone clear away all the dishes and whisk them out of site. Pure bliss!!

No cruise would be complete without towel animals, we had a monkey, and elephant and a stingray. The kids all got such a kick out of the towels on our last cruise that they even went to the class and practiced folding them when we got home. I gave them a lesson on the stingray when we got back and they were all very impressed.

We got back home yesterday morning and Kurt rushed off to work, trying to get everything ready for customers who are in town next week. His mother had saved a flier from the paper advertising a local quilt show, which she thought we could go to together. What a sweet idea! She's not even a quilter, but thought I might like it. I took lots of pictures, which I'll share tomorrow, and bought just a couple of things. One was called a "Moda Bake Shop". Has anyone seen those yet? They are highly adorable -- just like little mini jelly rolls. Instead of being 2.5 inch strips, they are 1.5 inches, and just so completely adorable. I thought I'd make up more tiny little 9 patches for some doll quilts. They also had scrap bags for $1 each, so I picked up a few of those. It is so much fun to play with other peoples scraps! I ironed them last night while dinner was cooking and started cutting dishing them out into the square drawers. Several of the fabrics were from quilts I had seen at the show. I'm focusing on 2 inch squares right now for my Irish Chain. It's coming along nicely, I'd better do the math so I know when to stop.
Today brought a return to the usual weekend fare. Kurt drove his Mom back to the airport while I took Anna to Ice Skating. I paired my little two inch squares peacefully while she practiced. When we got home she wanted to sew a pair of guards for the blades of her ice skates. We whipped up a pair of those and finished up just as the rest of the gang got back from their trip. Kurt is off puttering in the yard now, and Anna has volunteered to wash my car. Sydney wants to go see Coraline this afternoon and Ryan is finding a friend to play with. The cruise was a beautiful departure from reality, but being back to reality it pretty good too. I hope everyone had a great time this week. I'll check in on everyone after our movie.