Gasp!

I have just realized that all my photos from my trip to Texas were transfered to my parent's computer and removed from my memory card! Gasp! What a dirty rotten trick for a computer to play! At home my computer nicely COPIES the photos but never never actually removes them from my memory card until I tell it to (or rather, Richard tells it to).

So you'll have to settle for my word that our trip was fabulous. My parents did not take any time off work while we were there, so the kids and I were on our own during the day. That made things nice and calm. Then in the evenings I got to make dinner for my parents, which was a nice sort of switch-er-oo from the norm of Mom slaving all day in the kitchen on the holidays. We went and had lunch with Mom several times at or near her work. We went to a "spray park" that was NOT a hit with my kids who are not big fans of water spraying in their faces. My Dad and I saw Harry Potter. Naomi and "Grandma" had tea parties. Asher found every possible breakable item in the house and made sure it was moved up 5 feet - but, thankfully, never actually broke anything (other than a small amount of mostly repairable damage to a small tea table which he flipped over and attempted to use as a skateboard). Isaiah performed his "cute" duties very well for all who wanted a gander. Overall, it was a great trip that actually did not leave us with that exhausted, I-want-my-own-stuff-and-routine-back type of feeling that a long vacation usually brings (until the 2 days in the car on the way home). The trip home was, thankfully, far less eventful than the trip there. Nothing major to speak of.
So, now we are home and life is carrying on. The kids were so glad to see their own toys that we haven't even left the house for the past 3 days.
Oh - and I never thought I would say this - but bless the inventor of Disney Princess figurines. I gave Naomi a set of 4 or 5 inch high molded-plastic Princesses for car entertainment. She didn't use them much in the car, but at home she will actually go to her room BY HERSELF and play BY HERSELF for an hour or so. Bless those Princesses and Walt Disney.