when I started this blog five years ago, I was a pet sitter and the name animal-crackers made sense. now I'm a stay-at-home-dad and freelance writer, but rather than confuse everyone by getting a different blog, it's just easier to keep posting things here.

Mom and Dad left last week. The boys and I went with them on the first leg of their trip. That was a bit of an adventure.

We started at 1:45 p.m., later than we had planned, and headed west on 290. We changed to highway 105 in Brenham, and all was going well. Then in Cleveland, the road turned -- and we didn't.

Somehow we were stuck heading north on highway 59 for 20 miles before we realized our mistake. So we turned around and eventually found the right turn.

What we thought would be a 6 hour trip stretched to 8 hours. That's how it goes on back-country roads. We reached Sam Houston Jones State Park in Louisiana at 9:30 p.m.

And the gates were closed and locked.

About this time, a woman was trying to exit the park. Judging from what she said, this was the first time she had ever seen the gates locked. She called the park ranger to let her out, but we had had enough.

We went to the closest hotel and stayed the night. The boys finally got to bed around 10:45 p.m.

Friday morning, we said good-bye to Mom and Dad and headed home. This time we took Interstate 10 and highway 71. Much quicker. (Although Houston sucks.)

The weekend was filled with chores.

On Monday we saw Despicable Me. Josh loved it. Dylan doesn't like the ultra-loud theater sound, but still enjoyed it.

Tuesday involved a trip to the duck pond and library. Wednesday was a playdate with Adam et. al. to paint their mini-volcanoes. And yesterday, the volcanoes erupted.



Busy busy summer.