Runaways and Box Jellyfish on vacation

We have two beach houses in our family, they are side by side. My grandparents stay in one and the rest of our chaotic clan make good use of the other. The kids run back and forth between the two all day. Well. One fine Tuesday morning I was in the bedroom ironing my husbands clothes because he was going to a job interview. He had been eating breakfast with the kids and the little imps had already made one trip over to the grand-house. When he went outside he thought princess was in with me, and I thought all of the kids were with him.
Apparently, she thought it was time for a morning stroll down Alligator Lane and slipped out undetected by the 7 people around her. She got about 5 houses down by sticking to the MIDDLE OF THE ROAD.
*shudder*
I mean, that's the stuff nightmares are made of. Even now I find myself getting up in the middle of the night to go make sure she is still in her bed.
Thank God she was picked up by the AT&T guy and a local who stopped as well who thought she belonged to another house where 2 little girls lived. Everyone was reasonably worried and called the sheriff about 5 minutes before they saw me running down the road looking for her. After the cop saw that we had 5 kids and the layout of the houses he stopped acting like we were horrible neglecting the two year old and more like we had a herd of kids and she just got away from us. I get ill just typing it out and thinking about it. But praise the Lord she is okay and safe. Now I'm just going to keep bricks tied to her somehow to slow her down.

Then there was the battle her 9 year old brother faced(who used to escape the house back in his 2 year old days too *sheesh).

Last Friday we were out on the Bay in my uncles boat getting pulled around on the inner-tube. L(12 year old) had jumped off to give G(9 year old) his turn and now he has a war story to tell everyone about an epic battle he got into with a huge box jellyfish. He is fine, but there may be a scar on his arm. Normally we don't get jellyfish until late August, but there has been a drought going on and the normally fresh water flow that keeps them out is just not there at all.. The water is super salty and we knew the jellies had made it in, but regular jellies are a totally different story than what he got into, I mean we have never seen the blistering like he has going on before. He must have jumped directly on top of this creature. He is such an amazing kid though. While he thought this brainless jelly was attacking him, all he was doing was yelling for L to get out of the water. What a trooper. He made it back up to the bay house to get vinegar poured on his wound (it neutralizes jelly venom) and got loads of sympathy. Then the fellah went back out on the boat and got back IN the water to get his turn on the tube. Yus, I am proud
That was just the highlights.
heh.