Back in the Saddle Again...

Well, I feel like I've been gone a LONG time. We were actually gone for 12 days, but it's taken me two days to catch up (partially) at work and at home with the laundry, grocery shopping, etc. It has also been hard for me to have to make my own meals, my own bed, etc. The trip was wonderful! The Caribbean was perfect - perfect beaches, perfect temperatures, etc. We got to Puerto Rico after traveling for 24 hours (But it was FREE). We got in early Friday morning and our check in time was at 3 p.m. We had a rental car, but we were basically homeless. Here are Shane and Becca, sleeping on the beach: (Okay, we were all dozing there in the shade for a couple of hours)

We had a couple of days in Puerto Rico where I got to practice my (very) rusty Spanish. It was beautiful - we went to the beach, a rainforest and slept a lot to recover from our travels.

Becca loved any biological creature she could spy: Did I mention we had a LOT of luggage?We were nice and rested when the ship took off on Sunday night. On St. Thomas, we took an open air taxi (a truck retrofitted with bench seats and a cover in the bed) across the island to a beautiful beach - the water was perfect for wading and floating around in. The trip over in the taxi was great too - beautiful views and a nice breeze. On Antigua we swam with the stingrays! This excursion was not my pick, but everyone else wanted to do it, and Heaven forbid I get left out! We took a nice little boat ride out to a sand bar and saw lots of sting rays, people were feeding them squid, holding them, etc. (NOT ME). One brushed up against me and it was pretty slimy. One swam towards Shane and he screamed like a girl. Becca was brave enough to hold one. We also snorkeled with sea turtles and near a sunken ship with lots of fish swimming around. Stacy and Shane bought a "drink card", which was $75 and included all the soda, milkshakes and 'mocktails' you could drink. They definitely got their money's worth. This is what all of the tables looked like after we left:

Did I mention the food was AMAZING? Well, it was. I gained 2.5 pounds and it would have been more if I hadn't taken the stairs everywhere and done a lot of walking and visited the gym a couple of times too.Shane put away 4 lobster tails:We met nice people from all over the world - lots of Canadians, escaping the cold weather. One thing I really enjoyed was with all of the other cultures, people were way less hung up on their bodies than we seem to be here in the US. There were lots of people of all different sizes, just enjoying life and the beauty around us.

Chocolates on the pillows every night. A great way to spend an anniversary,

now we just need to start saving our pennies for another trip...

Anniversary, etc.

Hi All, just a note - yesterday, Mr. Handsome and myself celebrated 30 years of marriage! What did we do you ask? Well, we went and got some real estate papers signed and went to a dive of a Mexican restaurant that Mr. Handsome LOVES, then browsed at Barnes & Noble, then home. Before you start the pity party for me, we ARE leaving this week for a week in the Caribbean!!! So excited!! So I'll be MIA for awhile, since there is no way I would be able to figure out how to blog/upload pics from somewhere else - even if Shane & Becca ARE coming too and they could show me. (Old dog/New tricks - you know). Anyhoo - got lots of new books downloaded on my kindle and I'm off - toodles!
P.S. Did I mention that I LOVE that man?

This is the other project I worked on at the retreat last week:

It's called "Beckham's Stars" and is for the newest perfect grandchild.

You can't see it, but I quilted his name in it and now it's all ready to cuddle him up in. It matches his darling nursery too. It was pretty simple, but those darn stars gave me some trouble! First, I cut them wrong and had to go buy more fabric (it was a kit), then after I cut them (the right way) and sewed them together, 2 of the 6 star blocks were too small and I had to add a smidgen to one side to make them 6 inches - urgh!

Finished a Little Something...

Yippee! I finished my fun lanyard! I love the tiny paper-pieced flying geese and the embroidery designs that my friend, Crystal, made for me. The "knott" is for our quilt group (Knott-heads, Knott-y ladies, you choose). I can't believe I made a log cabin block that small - wow, sometimes I amaze myself - he he.

Retreat!!!

Today was the first day of our Quilt Bee's 3 day (all day) Quilt Retreat! When I woke up this morning and realized what day today was, I couldn't stop smiling!

This is one of the things I worked on today:

Tiny paper-piecing for a fabulous lanyard!

More to report later...