'Jon & Kate Plus Eight' recap: Home (and away) on the range

Welcome back, Jon and Kate watchers! While we had a week off from the show (though we were inundated with Larry King interviewsand Las Vegas spectacles, because do we ever really have a break from Jon and Kate?) it was time to jump back into the swing of things with last night's ''Dude Ranch and Dress Up.''

Things stayed par for the course with the kids splitting up time and activities between parents. The boys, like in the last episode, were with Kate, while the girls stayed home with Jon. Ma Gosselin took Collin, Aaden, and Joel to a dude ranch in Wyoming where they rode horses, chased goats, and made some really questionable fashion choices (well, Kate did, anyway.)

From the very beginning, the boys were utterly fascinated by the ranch, musing that the horses looked like cows, which Collin quickly affirmed that it was because they were, in fact, ''horse-cows.'' The mysterious and majestic horse-cows held the lads' attention until grasshoppers stole the spotlight. The boys' playful nature and funny running commentary salvaged what could have just been an interchangeable themed episode. Kate showed up to the ranch in yet another inappropriate outfit (as rancher Bob so delicately put it, she was ''not in high heel country.'') In addition to Kate's daring new wardrobe is her ''need for speed'' attitude as she rode, rather speedily indeed, on an ATV.

Admittedly, the boys looked painfully cute in their cowboy outfits and hats that were much too large for their little heads. Wish we could say the same for Kate's pink cowgirl hat (c'mon Kate, just about everyone is on your side now, please stop making it so hard for us!) She and the boys rode horses, much to their delight, although Collin was concerned that ''the horse is going to eat me!''

Back in Pennsylvania, Jon tended to the girls (including Leah, Alexis, and Hannah, who, sadly, were all but missing from the last episode). It's hard to tell how much of this was actually done while Kate and the boys were in Wyoming (TLC has become masters at editing over the past few months) as we're occasionally transported back to PA to check in on the rest of the Gosselin kids having a scavenger hunt in the backyard, going to the dentist, making tin-can telephones and playing dress-up with their very unenthusiastic dad.

NEXT: Katie's got a gun