Back.

My laundry room floor is gritty with sand. It almost still feels like we are at the beach, except we aren't. Because here it is a blazing & humid 105 degrees outside & when we left there, it was a crisp 65 and raining.

yeesh.

Every July I come home wondering why I live where I live. It is hard to leave that weather & return to this. I hate Julys here. But then I get home & I walk through the door & I remember. It always feels so good to be home. Last night we spent the evening taming the jungle that had become our backyard in 2 short weeks. We edged, we mowed, we weeded. We did it together & it was fun. The weather yesterday didn't even get over 100, so it felt oddly nice out. Scoobs helped dad push the mower while the lady wondered around in her diaper with dinner crumbs still on her.

We topped it off with baths, but not before scoobs & I played games on the trampoline with the hose. I jump, he tries to spray me, then we trade. And while I was jumping, the sun was setting on the mountains & farmlands to the east, casting an orange glow on everything & I couldn't help but think there isn't anywhere I'd rather be...heat or no heat.

All the while the grit reminds me of all the fun we had together in cooler & greener pastures.

Among other things, we hit up the zoo & lucky us...all the animals were out to play.

On the way there I asked Scoobs what animal he wanted to see the most. His response? a puma. i wondered first, how he even knew what a puma was & then how I was ever going to deliver on that one.

Come to find out, he learned about pumas from his buddy Diego. gotta love it.

and even luckier, we saw one up close & personal!

This one is a lynx

and is taken with zero zooming on my camera. all the big cats were out to play. we saw the lion, the tiger, the puma {of course} & my personal favorite, a huge black jaguar that was downright scary looking. pretty, but huge & imposing all at the same time. Scoobs is still talking about it.

While there, we tried to master the jump picture, with little success

these are the sorts of things I have to do in order to even get a picture of scoobs, as he is not the least bit accommodating of a camera toting mom, which I didn't think happened until they were 13, but whatevs. Until then, we will keep working on our jumps...and facial expressions for that matter.

and after all the fun, we were just tuckered out.

we've been home 2 days & we are still recovering...hence the sand still stands in my laundry room.