Ricky is ignoring his chores to spend time with his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Ranny has started looking for his biological mom, and Bethany feels rejected at school because of her race.
When Noah tries to get Ricky on the high school basketball team, he is asked to coach it instead. Meanwhile, Jesse faces her own mortality, as she deals with the death of one of the zoo's beloved chimps; and she reaches out to Ricky's girlfriend, Darby, who has run away from her grandparents and is staying with the Becketts.
Ranny hurts Jesse's feelings by trying to locate his ""real"" mom; Darby's big break, an offer to join a band, threatens to break up her relationship with Ricky; Luis learns a lesson in honesty when Noah bends the rules and builds him a soap-box racer.
A hurricane strikes while their parents are away, leaving Ricky and Roxanna scrambling to protect the younger kids as the storm pounds the house and the alligators escape from their damaged pen. Meanwhile, Noah and Jesse race to get home, out of their minds with fear.
Jesse's trust in human nature is shaken when she saves a woman's life and is rewarded with a malpractice suit; Roxanna's doubts are confirmed when her prom date can't seem to forget his ex-girlfriend and threatens to turn the evening into a humiliating experience.
At school, peer pressure leads fatherless Luis to boast that Julio Iglesias is his dad, and Hannah risks ridicule when she makes friends with a lonely, over-weight classmate. Meanwhile, Ricky reacts to Darby's neglect by moving closer to Roxanna.
When objects start disappearing from the Beckett home, could the culprit be a ghost, as the kids believe. Or could it be Bethany's new friend, a strange, yet charming vagrant who lives in the woods and tinkers with his ""time machine?""
A flirtatious cheerleader causes Ricky to ponder a little extracurricular activity behind Darby's back. Meanwhile, Danny's secret crush on Shirley
Noah's intimidating father-in-law is a retired judge, who heightens the usual tension between them, first by blurting out the reason he's never had respect for Noah, then by introducing Ricky to hunting-against his parents' wishes.
Bethany and Hannah arrange a blind date for Shirley with their black teacher-without mentioning his color-and discover how race can divide good people. Meanwhile, a pregnant girl falsely accuses Ricky of being the father.
Ricky confronts the owner of a mistreated dog, spurred by memories of childhood beatings. Meanwhile, Bethany wears a hangdog look when Hannah wins the title role in a school play, and Ranny dupes Luis into enduring a broccoli-laden ""fast growth"" diet.
Ricky is upset when he finds sketches and letters that he thinks are signs of an affair between his mom and his dad's brother Travis, a free-spirited artist.
Ricky pulls away from Darby when she pushes for marriage until a crisis draws them closer together. Meanwhile, shy Danny has a hopeless crush on the most popular girl in school, and struggles to find the courage to approach her.
Jesse and Noah are over-joyed to learn that she's finally pregnant at age 41, but not all of their eight adopted children share their enthusiasm.
When Shirley's black-sheep son pays an unwelcome visit, the Becketts take a liking to the handsome young man-while Shirley waits for the time bomb to go off.
JoJo locks horns with Ricky in a subtle competition for a too young Roxanna, enraging JoJo's sornful mom; Hannah triggers a panic in the neighborhood by freeing a sad-looking, caged bear that, it turns out, is also hungry.
Basking in the glow of their first date, Roxanna feels herself falling in love with JoJo, who seems to have other plans; the kids try to play cupid to a couple of aging rhinos whose attempts at mating have been unsuccessful, but their misguided efforts land them in trouble.
JoJo is compelled to come to terms with his past when his relationship with Roxanne deepens; a sibling rivalry on the baseball diamond pits Bethany against Danny and Ranny; Hannah doggedly trains her pig.
Ricky performs @ Busch Gardens. He runs into his first girlfriend who's Ben's real mother. Noah helps out Harold Hamilton, a furniture store owner, getting business going. But his store got robbed. Harold later confesses that he had all his merchandise stored @ a warehouse. Noah tells Harold that with a good financial crew, he could get back on his feet again. Ben celebrates his 4th birthday.
Unbeknownst to Jesse and Noah, Ricky and Kaylie take Ben to Disney World so Kaylie can get to know the son she gave up for adoption; Bethany thinks she's found her biological father; and Noah gets an offer to promote his book on ""Live: With Regis & Kathie Lee.""
As Ricky and Kaylie continue to ""play house"" at Disney World, Jesse and Noah come to Orlando to tape a segment on ""Live: With Regis & Kathie Lee"" promoting Noah's new book; Pat Boone gives Jesse the shirt off his back; Darby joins forces with Ricky's boyhood idol, Cirrus Rose; and Shirley is courted by the ""Chicken Man"", who teaches Luis how to dive.