Home again, home again, jiggity jig!

I know I've been gone from my computer for way too long... I actually had to log into Blogger! We've been gone on a family vacation. It was great in scale and in adventure. There were three parts:
1. Visiting Anthony's parents to do some landscape work and have some fun
2. Visiting our friends David and DeeDra and their cute new baby
3. Borrowing the in-laws RV for a camping trip to Oklahoma.

First, Anthony volunteered to help in his parents' yard. He was mightily frustrated at the lack of compost in the very large city of Dallas. He went to one place to get what they called "compost" but was really just mulch - ground up trees, not processed at all! Then he started calling places, asking what was in their compost (ground up trees was the usual answer). "I can get compost at three different places within a few miles of our house!" Anthony said. "How can this entire city not use compost?" He did finally locate a source, but by then an entire day was wasted.

Eventually, compost was spread on the nutrient-deprived yard, filling the low spots and covered with new sod, and some ancient shrubs with gnarly, tenacious roots were removed. My MIL and I took the kids on the train to the Dallas Zoo on the hottest day of the year. You know it's sweltering when despite plying the kids with lots of water, the only bathroom break needed ALL DAY was when we walked through the zoo entrance! We also managed to drag our Daddy away from his labors to spend a day at a local water park, with lots of fast slides and splashy fun.

This trip was big enough to be written about in installments. That's enough for tonight! I enjoyed being away from the internet at first, then I really started to miss you all. I've got to get reading the archives of all my favorite blogs... More later. And pictures.