Was that a vacation?

Well, we mostly had a family vacation but not without a LOT of drama. This was our vacation craft project and provides a hint as to what happened. I'll let you think about it and will give you the story at the end. But as to this project, I am committed to the absolute fact that I need a Cricut machine. After doing my brother's screen printed shirts and this project, I have so many ideas of how I could use it.
​

I don't have any beach photos as I only got out to the beach one day and I had one afternoon to do some crochet. This is how far I am on the baby blanket. I'm almost done with the first skein.
​

Since I got home I've mostly done unpacking and laundry but I got the next set of veterans quilts loaded. We came home to a broken downstairs air conditioner so it was nice to be in the cooler basement for a couple of hours. The upstairs works so we aren't in any distress and can wait on the repair shop to open this week. No need to pay emergency prices.
​

I'm doing a swirly pattern on this quilt.

Now, onto the vacation. We stay in Hatteras Village, NC. It's at the very tip end of the Outer Banks by the ferry to Ocracoke. It's far away from everything, including emergency services. This story, surprisingly, does not have an alcohol consumption element. 

Chris rarely, but occasionally, faints and he seems to do it more during the night. Well, the first night we were there it happened and he couldn't have fallen in a worse place. We aren't sure how he fell but we know his nose hit the end of the bed and he was knocked out. We were off to the ER at 5 am on Sunday. The ER is over an hour away and it was raining buckets. He had a broken nose, sore neck and damaged right kidney. We were back at the ouse around 3 pm but he was in too much pain and it was back to the ER at midnight. By 6am, he was being transported to the Norfolk General Trauma Center. Final talley: broken nose, pinched nerve in his neck, bruised rib, bruised lung and lacerated kidney. He has several follow up appointments with specialists and, I expect that there will be a nose surgery in his future. He's doing a lot better but is still moving a little stiffly and I won't let him drive yet. But every day he is getting better and better.

I didn't let him go to the beach but he got to relax by the pool a couple of days. I made it to the beach for one hour with my friend. I was so grateful for my brother and two friends for helping me out. Two of them drove me to Norfolk. One of our friends lives in Norfolk and spent 8 years in and out of that hospital with her Mom. She dropped everything to come over and sit with him Monday evening and Tuesday morning while I wasn't there. She kept him entertained and she knows all the things that the hospital was supposed to be doing for him but wasn't! She was a Godsend. I had not had much sleep so I couldn't drive myself. Our friend, Win, took us to the second ER visit and to Norfolk. My brother took me on the day he got out.

When we were kids it seemed that my Dad got sick on every vacation. He would spend most of vacation in bed with some sort of cold or something and Mom had no choice but to let us run feral on the beach. One year he had a major dental emergency. My brothers accused Chris of trying to take over the family tradition. Everyone,including Chris, kept their senses of humor. He even approved the design of our memento craft project!

Surprisingly, everyone is looking forward to next year! I'm going to pick a less remote place.