After more than two years, I finally had a real vacation.  It wasn't a cruise, but it was nice - I didn't take my work laptop!  Avery and I joined up with my sister S and we went to Texas to visit our sister J for a week and two days.  We did a wee bit of shopping, way too much eating, and did a bit of touristy stuff.

In no order whatsoever, we went to the Fort Worth Zoo, and yes we saw the baby elephant and baby giraffe.  We went to the stockyards and watched the cattle drive, and poked into Billy Bob's for a drink.  We hit a playground... and more.  My sister snagged a bike off of the marketplace, so Avery was ripping it up and down the driveway.  If we had another week we prb could have taken off the training wheels.  It was pretty darn (unseasonably) warm (high 90s) while we were there, up until the last day when it dropped to the 60s.

When I got back this afternoon I found that my lawn was not tended to as I had anticipated... so I launched into emergency mode.  I mowed what I could before the mower batteries died (that at least covered the front) and then ran the weed eater over most of the back yard to get the bulk of it cut back.  I raked and filled a large garbage can.  I will mow to even things out and address the high spots in a day or two, but I did buy myself some time.

From there I had to hurry to cook some frozen chicken and french fries, per Avery's request, and dive through the shower before running to dance class.  They FINALLY got her dress for the recital, so we had to be in make up and ready to get the outfit on for pics.

Church is super happy to see us.  I had someone coming to see and play with him each day as they tended to him.  The dogs come back from camp in the morning.  I am whooped.  It's been a very long day.  But I do want to cuddle with the kittie while the dogs (read:  Zero) aren't here to make this harder to do.