School's Back!

Today was the first day back to school for everyone around here. 4 days earlier than last year. Remember when it was always the week after Labor Day when you were a kid? I almost felt sorry for Ashlynne this morning as I sent her off to the bus-- then I went back to bed for an hour. :-) Still waiting for her to get home so we'll see how middle school fares.

I may have mentioned to some of you that upon returning from our big summer adventure, I found death and carnage in my backyard. Namely all my plants, flowers and lawn had died a tragic death. It looked like someone had set a match to the whole thing. Not a funny thing in California to joke about, but there it is. So all weekend I worked to set it to rights. This time I shopped in the "drought tolerant" sections and bought bouganvillea, verbena, hibiscus, french lavender and a couple of other pretty ones I can't remember the names of. Bought the pretty red cedar mulch too so it makes a nice impact. Now I just have to try and save the grass on 7 minutes of watering allowed three times a week. Cross your fingers. I'll snap a picture when things settle in.

To close out today, here are still more pictures from our trip. This time these are from the Blue Bayou water park in Baton Rouge, La. Trey had a blast with cousin Ryan-- so much fun you can see how they passed out before the day was even done! And Ashlynne loved being able to go on all the water slides with Pop-Pop, Nathan, Jordan, Kathleen and Chris. In fact, Ashlynne was on slides the entire time and I never got a picture of her!