Last day of freedom!

School starts tomorrow. I can't believe how fast the past 4 weeks have gone since we left France. Our poor kids only had 1 month of holidays.

Ivy came home after dinner from a week in Disneyworld with grandparents. She's had 2 straight weeks of fun and sleep deprivation and now reality will hit.

Eric's parents and one more grandchild are staying overnight before they begin the long drive home to Alberta. Eric's friends also leave tomorrow for Alberta (via airplane). Then we'll have a quiet empty house. I like having it filled up with guests and family.

I finished processing the last of the peaches this morning. I'll probably pick another big box tomorrow--we can never have too many!

It was raining most of the day, but we went out for a hike anyway after lunch. The rain was mostly spitting, not even enough to be called a drizzle. We went to a local state park and did a few of the short hikes. Nothing very rigorous, and it was slow going due to the rain making the paths muddy and slippery.

Dinner started as "what do we have in our fridge" and ended up better than expected. We pulled out some of the leftover meat from the family reunion Mexican street tacos. I made a quick run to the Mexican grocery store for a few perishables. We had carne asada and spiced chicken for the meats, fire-toasted corn tortillas, and the usual spread of toppings: lime wedges, cilantro, queso fresco, sour cream, onions, avocados, and 8 different salsas and hot sauces.

We also had corn on the cob (done with an America's Test Kitchen recipe, 10/10) and homemade peach ice creame with the peaches we picked a few days ago.

Then to make it even more fun, we had a bonfire and Smores. The rain had stopped by mid-afternoon and I was able to get a fire going with some coaxing with the blowtorch.