Things to remember about the kids

The past month or so has been slow. Hillary Erdmann takes Brooke to school every morning, and Nicole Faucette and Megan Haslam have, very often, brought her home after school. Their boys are in the other Kinder class, and Elliot is in Brooke's class. It's taking some getting used to, having a kid in school. We get papers galore from school, phone calls and emails. I volunteered in Brooke's class this last week, and it was so fun to get a sense of what she's experiencing at school. And I got to meet a lot of her friends and play with them. Volunteering in Brooke's class is going to be a monthly thing, I think. Brooke's school also has a fun run fundraiser coming this week. All these school things. Good grief. I wasn't prepared for how much of my time it would take. It's fine. I just have to get used to it.

We celebrated Daniel's birthday on the 10th. We had paninis for dinner and chocolate ice cream instead of cake. I bought him an Argentina Soccer jersey and Chromecast. His birthday was a little boring, like Brooke's, because he was working all day. I made him waffles with berries and whipped cream for breakfast before he went off to work. And then we did his dinner and presents and fhe when he got home.

Today was our Primary program at church. We've spent the last few weeks rehearsing for it, and we had a special practice on Friday for it. It went so well! Most of the kids knew all their parts by heart, and they sang so strongly and so well. Camille and Brooke both had their parts memorized, but when they actually got up there to say them, only Brooke actually did it without help. But Camille, with help, spoke strongly and normally and did well. Brooke and Camille probably got the most ''Awes" from the congregation. Camille is just so cute and little, and Brooke is cute and wonderful. It was so fun; I love being on the piano for primary. One of the songs we sang that everyone loved was "I Will Be What I Believe", and it was so beautiful to hear all the kids singing about how to be strong and brave like our scripture heroes. It always made me cry to hear them singing it so well. 

My kids are so cute. I really like them, and there are certain things about them in this particular stage that I want to remember.

Jack:

•  Jack has started being a real little boy. For a few months now, he's started obsessing over cars and trucks and trains, and he loves playing with balls. His favorite things to play with are the balls and cars and this little train that Gramma Holbrook gave him when we were in Utah for his last birthday. It's perfect for him. He loves a truck book we have that has little windows with slide covers with pictures behind them. And Duck in a Truck, the Wheels on the Bus, and other truck books we have. 
• He's started really getting into books lately. He likes to look at the pictures and turn the pages on his own. He pulls down books from the shelf all on his own, and it's been fun watching him start loving to read. Of course, we still can't make it through an entire book yet... usually. 
• Jack is our little music lover and dancer. He starts dancing anytime he hears music. Even when I'm singing silly made up songs, he'll start moving his little body. He sings all the time, too. Usually just making noises in a sing-song voice, which is just about the cutest thing. But he's also started picking out favorite songs, like "Let it Go". He can sing "let it go" when the song comes on, and he'll indicate when he wants me to turn it on. He also loves the song "Try Everything" from the movie "Zootopia". He always sings, "Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh!" And we all just die from the cuteness.
• Jack Boy is a tiny little man. He's in like the 2nd percentage, and a bunch of the little babies in our ward that are younger than him are all bigger than he is. It's pretty funny and very cute.
• He is in my favorite stage. 18 months to 2 1/2 years is my favorite year. He's walking really well now and he is picking up more and more words: ball, doggie, book. 
• He loves dogs and gets excited whenever he sees a dog or hears one barking. He's not afraid of them as much as the girls were (and still are). He'll actually go up and start petting a dog.

Camille:

• Camille is in a very interesting phase right now. She is a mousie about 70% of the time. She squeaks and does this funny thing with her hands and face when she's a mousie. And a lot of the time, when I call her Camille, she says, "No, I'm Mousie!" All the stories I have to tell her and all the songs I sing to her at bedtime right now have to be about mice. I was a little nervous about her performance in the Primary Program because in a lot of our practices she said her part in a big squeak! She has everyone in stitches over her squeaking!
• She is also just recently came out of her Lion King phase. For months now, she's only wanted to listen to Lion King soundtrack and watch the movie on Fridays. She plays lion king, and has loved playing with the lion animal toys. She carries the lion and tiger animals around a lot. But now, since like a week ago, or so, she's been obsessing over Elsa and Frozen. We have an old Elsa dress that Mom bought for Brooke a few years ago, and Camille wears it every day. I almost have to force her into some real clothes whenever we have to go anywhere. She puts on her Elsa dress, and then comes downstairs and tells Alexa to play Elsa's song, and she dances in the living room while the music is playing. She now asks for the Frozen soundtrack more than she asks for Lion King, and we've been watching a lot more Frozen lately than we have in the past. 
• Her tastes in music are expanding a lot, out of Lion King (which is what she would ask for exclusively until recently). She has so many specific requests with her music, I've had to make a special playlist on Spotify just for her, which she loves. She says, "I have my own playlist!" and "Mom, play my playlist!" It's very cute and fun. 
• Camille is getting increasingly possessive about things. Especially since Brooke now goes to school every day and Jack is left here to play with her. She hoards toys a lot, even if she isn't playing with them or planning on playing with them. She has this really special attachment to her Sippie (this bright green sippy with a special lid). I don't even think I bought this sippy cup for her. I think it was a Christmas present for Brooke one year, but Camille adopted it many months ago and became really possessive of it and attached to it. Recently, I realized the lid got really moldy and gross underneath, so we had to throw sippy away. But I promised Camille that we would get her a new one.
• Camille has inexplicably started sleeping at night again, and not waking up in the middle of the night anymore. Back at the end of June, beginning of July, we started just locking the girls' door at night, because, quite frankly, we were at our wits end with the sleeplessness of Camille's habits. And it turned out that we didn't hear her at all during the night. I was half (or more than half) expecting her to wake up as always and kick on the door and scream until one of us came. But, she was quiet all night. We weren't quite sure if she was just suddenly sleeping through the night, getting up and playing quietly in her room, or getting up, noticing the door was locked, and just getting back into bed and going to sleep. We suspect the latter, because after about a week and a half of locking the door, she stopped waking up in the middle of the night. She just slept right through. It was a relatively easy fix, and I felt a little silly that we hadn't tried it sooner, and that we'd just suffered through for almost a year. Of course, maybe it was just the right timing, too. Maybe she was just outgrowing that waking up phase. On the flip side, Brooke has been struggling more with sleep. Right at the beginning of school, she was coming out of her room half a dozen times after we put her to bed, saying that she was "struggling to fall asleep", even if she'd only been there for a few minutes. It was driving her mother crazy. The last couple of weeks, she's been better, going to bed right away, almost. I think she's getting more tired because of having school every day and having to get up early.
• Camille's been drawing pictures a lot over the last few months, and I LOVE little toddler pictures, when they first start drawing. The problem is, she draws on any old thing, not necessarily something I want to file away and keep forever. But her drawings are SO cute.

 Brooke:

•  Brooke's Dinosaur phase is still going pretty strong. She's been bringing home books every Friday from her school library, and some of them have been dinosaur books. She also represented dinos on her "Star of the Week" poster, saying her favorite dinosaur was Brachiosaurus.
• She was "Star of the Week" the week of Daniel's birthday, and we made up a poster together the weekend before, all about her and what she liked. We had a lot of fun together making her poster. She colored some little pictures representing what she liked, we glued pictures on it, and typed up some blurbs about her. It was fun!
• Brooke was so excited to start up homework. The teachers didn't start sending homework home until the 3rd full week of school. Now she gets a packet of homework at the beginning of the week that she has to have completed by Friday. She asked me every single day those first few weeks of school if she was starting homework yet. And the first packet she got, she was so excited! Of course, the work is far below her level, so she finishes in 5 minutes or less. And she doesn't require any help from me, which is nice. 
• She's made this little friend at school that she talks about constantly. His name is Nolan, and every day, she comes home saying she played with Nolan and did all this stuff with Nolan. When I volunteered in her class last week, I finally got to meet Nolan, and the other teachers in the class said that he's a really sweet good boy. I'm glad she's making good friends that are good little people.

School Starts

We got back from Hawaii on Monday night, the 13th, really late, and took an Uber home. And mom left really early the next morning. So I only got a few hours of sleep. Which was fine, because I just spent the rest of that week spending time with my babies, recovering from our trip and getting Brooke ready for school.

Mom seems to have struggled taking care of the kids all week. Not that they were overly terrible for her, it sounds like. But she's getting old. She hasn't taken especially good care of her body, and so it's hard for her to move around, and taking care of little kids takes a lot out of a person physically, not to mention emotionally. She said she was just exhausted from having them for a week. We were super grateful to her for taking them for the week, but it was hard for her, and it's not something we'll ask her to do again, most likely.

She said she had a good time with them, and she really took a liking to Jack (obviously, because he's the cutest, sweetest, happiest baby on the planet), and she said Brooke was a little hard. Brooke likes to be in charge, and she's just full of good ideas that aren't quite possible all the time. I'm sure that was difficult for someone who isn't used to it. Even I have to remind her who is really in charge around here. :)

Mom's Texts to us while we were in Hawaii:

What I've learned about Jack:
1. Second cutest baby ever born.  (Leslie is number one! )
2. He doesn't like to have his face washed.  At all!
3. Sweet and happy all the time.  What a joy.

Things I've learned about Camille:
1. Can entertain herself.  Awesome.
2. She is delightful except when someone offends her.
3. Content to go along for the ride.
4. Not a problem to take shopping.
5. Had not has any sleeping problems.

Things I learned about Brooke:
1. Great imagination!  Always had a plan. (Reminds me of Julie. Must be a first born thing).
2. Wants me to buy everything at the store. (When I say, " No. " she asks, "Why"? A lot.
3. Is very helpful and obedient.

Things I have learned about  Me!
1. My arthritic thumbs don't like Camille's carseat!  Ouch!
2. I'm old!  Went to bed at nine last night.  I was pooped out.
3. I LOVE my Holbrooks! (Well, I knew that but it grabs me every time i am here.

This morning Camille came into your bathroom while i was curling my hair & putting on my make-up.  When I was all finished she said in her excited voice,  " Grandma, you're so petty! "
"Thank you Millie!" "I think you need lipstick." So cute.  I'm really hooked on her cute adorableness.

The diagnosis is complete.  Jack is washclothphobic. ( Yes, that's a real thing cuz he's got it!). You'd think I was killing him...3 times a day.

"This kids is slaying me. Such a sweet boy. Can I take him home with me?"

"This kid has also won me over. What a sweet kid. Love her style. Why do all the clothes end up on the floor? Reminds me of Diane when she was little. 😄😏😫"

"Breakfast of Champions!"

"Am I driving you nuts? Jack loves pigs in a blanket. Ate a whole one plus a crescent roll. Blueberries coming up. He started screaming at me so I gave him another 1/2 dog. Plus 1 cup of blueberries. At least he'll be alive when you get home. 😂"

"This kid is counting the days until mom and dad come home."

"Millie was very specific about what she wanted for lunch."

Right when we got back from Hawaii we were in the midst of all the school stuff. Tuesday night, I took Brooke to do some shopping for school. We bought her a first day outfit and a backpack, plus a bunch of supplies that we ended up not needing at all. The school doesn't require us to provide any supplies for the classroom.

That Wednesday, August 15th, there was an ice cream social for the Kindergarten so that we could meet Brooke's teacher and see the Kindergarten classrooms and see sections of the school. Brooke is going to Old Orchard Elementary School, which is super close, like a 5 minute drive, on the route to church. Her teacher for Kindergarten is Ms. Johnson. She was so cute with the kids at that ice cream social and she seemed just perfect for Brooke. We sat in the classroom and got to know Ms. Johnson and walked out to see the media room and library and cafeteria. The Kindergarteners are sequestered off in a section of the school by themselves. They don't mix with the other grades much, which I think is probably good.

The next day, we were off to school for our first day. Brooke wore her new outfit she picked out, she had her new backpack and a little lunch packed. When she was getting ready for school that first morning, Camille woke up and Brooke told her what she was doing, and Camille started crying. She was so sad that Brooke was starting school. It broke my heart a little bit. The whole family came to drop Brooke off for her first day. Camille and I got out of the car to walk Brooke into her classroom, and we watched her walk through the gate to the lineup area. It was fun and cute. Neither Brooke nor I shed any tears. I think Brooke was a little nervous, but more excited than anything, so she was fine. And I was surprisingly fine, too. I was expecting to be a wreck, dropping off my first kid to school. But I felt like Brooke was ready, and I felt ready too. I think holding her back for this last year from school was really helpful in preparing both of us for this. We were both ready. It was getting to the point, at the beginning of this year, that I wasn't able to keep Brooke occupied and entertained enough. She was always wanting to get together with friends and wanting to do projects and any number of things. And I could do some of that, but not as much as she wanted and requested. She just wasn't getting enough at home anymore.

Anyway, I digress. We dropped her off, and we were all fine. Camille cried in the morning before drop-off, but then she was fine for the rest of the day. She's been the one I've worried about most with this whole school transition, because Brooke is her best friend and she does everything with Brooke. Even when Brooke goes over to play at someone's house, they usually invite Camille to go too. So it's the 2 of them together all the time. She's cried a couple of times in the morning when Brooke leaves to go to school, and she'll ask me repeatedly when Brooke is coming home. But other than that, she's really been fine. I've really enjoyed spending time with just her! She's a delightful human being! It's almost like I'd forgotten how fun she was because she and Brooke are always doing things. Plus, Brooke is quite the squeaky wheel. She's loud and talkative and when she's around she's always talking and playing and asking me to do stuff; it feels like because she's so in-your-face, Camille just sort of fades into the scenery. But now that Brooke is in school, we have more time to talk and play. We've been reading books a lot and playing with toys and playing games. Sometimes we'll go outside in the morning and Camille will ride bikes and play while I workout. It's been so nice. And I've loved it, actually.

I don't know why, but I thought I'd be able to get a lot done when Brooke was in school. Did I just forget that I have 2 other kids at home? Or what? Because, I actually think it's harder to get things done. Since Brooke is gone, Camille doesn't have any other playmates here, so she requires a lot more from me, as does Jack. Camille is pretty good about playing by herself if she has to, but she doesn't usually want to. If we're both upstairs, and I have to go downstairs for a minute, she often follows me, saying, "I don't like to be by myself!" I don't mind at all. Because that means she wants to be with me. Same goes with Jack. I like that they need me and want me, and I recognize that in a few short years, it won't be that way anymore. They'll be a lot more independent and self-sufficient. So I'm soaking it up. But at the same time, it's hard to do anything. I have to remind myself sometimes that it's just a season and that seasons change.

Those first 2 days of school, Thursday the 16th and Friday the 17th, were both early out days. Brooke was out at noon. And for the first 2 full weeks of school Brooke got out of school at noon. It was their way of easing the Kindergarteners into school. After those first 2 weeks, though, it switched to full day Kindergarten and Brooke gets out at 1:40 every afternoon. I'm glad she had those first couple of weeks when they got out early. I think it was helpful for her to get used to going to school every day, without having to go all day long.

Brooke LOVES school! She loves her teacher, she loves her new friends, she loves making new friends, she loves learning, she loves doing art projects and crafts, she loves playing on the playground. It's just right up her alley, really, she loves everything about it. And I think it's finally fulfilling her need to be doing projects and learning new things. She comes home and tells us all about what she's learning; although, when we actually ask her right out about what she's learning, she hems and hahs. It all tends to come out at dinner or when we're playing or just randomly.

So, she loves it. But ... the rest of us are having a hard time getting used to this whole school thing. Having to get up early; waking Brooke up and rushing her out the door (Hillary Erdmann takes her to school for us every morning with Elliot. Brooke and Elliot are in the same Kindergarten class. So fun, huh?); going about our day with only 2 kids in the house; dealing with naptimes, etc.; shopping with 2 kids; finding things to do with these 2 kids; having Brooke get back in the afternoon and finishing out our day as normal. Our schedule is still a little weird to me. It's not a completely unpleasant change; there are some things I like about it (having to wake up early, shopping with 2 kids, hanging out with just the 2 youngers). But it's taking some getting used to.

The other thing that's hard to get used to is all the school stuff that comes with it: papers, phone calls and emails from the school, homework, art projects coming home, form and forms and forms to sign. Etc. It just comes with the territory, and the territory is new to me.

Hawaii Recap

Our trip to Hawaii was awesome! We had a couple of bumps, misunderstandings, miscommunications, and the like, which made for a few tense times. Most of those were probably my fault, but we got over it and really enjoyed ourselves.

When we first got to the island, we were like, "Huh? What's the big hype about?" Because Honolulu is just another city, and Waikiki is just another night-life district (shopping, restaurants, bars, hotels, etc.). But once you get out of the city, it is so beautiful and incredible. The beaches were so nice, the water so warm and clear and blue, and sand so soft. The mountains were green and the cliffs looked so cool. We loved snorkeling (that one day we got good snorkeling), we loved swimming in the waves, and we loved the historical and cultural things that we experienced.

If we were to do Oahu again, we would do some things differently. Because there were some things that we wanted to do that we didn't get to do. I wanted to do more hikes in the lush, green parts of the island. Daniel wanted to do more really GOOD snorkeling. And we wanted to do Waimea Valley, which was on the north side of the island, and too far to take public transportation.

So, if we do it again: A) we'd probably not stay on Waikiki. Too many people, too many naked bums. The women were really, REALLY skimping on Waikiki, and it was a little much. For both of us. And there were just a lot of people. We also weren't all that into the shopping and restaurants that you get on Waikiki, so we wouldn't miss that. The beaches were nice, but there are nice beaches all over the island. We would probably see if we can rent a room or house on the North Shore next time. That's where we wanted to spend most of our time anyway. B) if we do stay in a hotel on Waikiki, we'd probably get a car for more than one day, so that we could enjoy greater freedom and ability to go do some of the things we wanted to do that weren't as accessible with public transportation. If we had a car for 3 or 4 days, we would've been able to do more of that stuff that we missed. C) Next time we do Hawaii, we'll probably go to another island. Oahu is awesome, and it has a lot of the things we wanted to see that aren't anywhere else (PCC and Pearl Harbor, etc.). But we both think it'd be cool to go to another island -- Maui or Kauai.

It was an incredible trip and I'm so grateful we were able to take that time together without the kids. I think next time, if we do Hawaii again, it'd be fun to take the kids, maybe when they're all a bit older. But it was nice to be just us for a little while. It was crazy that I only had to be responsible for myself and no one else! It was a nice break. And I loved hanging out with Daniel so much. We have fun together. Sometimes I forget that, when we're doing all the mundane every day stuff. Hawaii was so good!!

Summer Catch-Up: Hawaii Part 2

On Friday, we got up and took a bus to the Polynesian Cultural Center. The PCC was SO COOL! It's kind of a theme park of Polynesian Culture. There's a river running through the center of the park, and villages representing different islands: Samoa, New Zealand, Fiji, Hawaii, and others. They had huts set up like they would in those countries, and they had demonstrations and shows in each village throughout the day. We walked around, trying to get as many of the demonstrations as we could. We saw how they harvest coconuts and use all the parts for different things, we saw how they make coconut oil, we watched a Tahitian wedding ceremony, we took a canoe ride down the river, and we heard lots of singing and chanting. It was so cool!

They had a cool fun show on the river, where all the players and dancers were on boats and canoes rowing down the little river, and in the early evening, there was a luau we went to, where they served a buffet dinner and had another show. When our dinner was over, basically all the villages shut down and the shows were done, but we walked around and looked at things, and we went back to the gift shops to find presents for our babies.

At the very end of the day, they had a big show, called Ha, the Breath of Life. We all gathered into a big auditorium and watched this show, the story of a family and the growing up of a boy, where different scenes were represented by the different island nations. It was incredible! Definitely a highlight of our trip!

Saturday, we went on a hike up to Diamond Head, which is a big crater on the south edge of the island. We took a bus to get there, and it dropped us off right next to a community college. It being Saturday, there was a huge farmer's market going that morning, so we decided to walk around and look at things before going on our hike. It was really neat! There were so many booths, selling all kinds of prepared food, produce and flowers, honey, hygiene products, smoothies and coffees and so many other things. There were a ton of people. And so much of the food looked so good and was so tempting. We decided to try a lemonade and a garlic shrimp bake (which was an oblong roll with garlic shrimp baked on the inside. It was pretty good.

After that, we walked up to the beginning of the hike. The hike was only a few miles round trip, and kind of dry and dead on the way up to the cliff edge. But when we got to the top, the view was incredible! It was right on the edge of the island, so we could see the beautiful beaches and the ocean, we saw all of Waikiki and Honolulu, the amazing mountains, and we could even see the hazy outline of some of the other Hawaiian islands. It was a fun little hike (though really crowded, there were so many people hiking Diamond Head that day), and so beautiful.

After our hike, we took a bus back to our hotel to eat lunch and get ready for snorkeling. We took a bus out to Hanauma Bay. Daniel had read that it was one of the good spots for snorkeling. And it was pretty cool. Our previous attempts at snorkeling in Hawaii left much to be desired, and Daniel was pretty disappointed. I was too. It didn't compare with snorkeling in Mexico. But Hanauma Bay was pretty good. The beach was amazing, so beautiful, and the water was so blue and clear. We went out with our gear and saw some pretty amazing fish! It was awesome!

We went swimming that evening before dinner, when we finally got back to Waikiki (it took us an hour and a half, the bus was so crowded we had to stand most of the ride back, and it was raining, yikes) down at the beach. The waves were so good, we had a lot of fun swimming in them. The water in Hawaii was wonderful, so warm and clear. It was amazing, so long as you didn't get any in your mouth. Ugh. We went out to dinner when we finally got back to Waikiki, and just walked around and hung out.

We went to church in Honolulu on Sunday. We took the bus to the closest chapel, which was only a few miles away. The ward there meets in this huge elaborate chapel; it almost looks like a temple. They call it the Hawaiian Tabernacle, and it was beautiful. Funnily enough, Brother Lafferty was sitting right there, in the chapel, by himself. We sat in the row behind him and chatted with him. He builds movie sets, so he travels all over the place for months at a time, and he just happened to be there right when we were. He sat with us for the rest of the meetings, and showed us around the building a bit. And then, we took a bus to the Snow Factory to get some snow, and he came along with us. I think he was probably happy for the company and we had fun seeing him too. The 'snow' was very interesting, but good!

For the rest of our Sunday, we mainly just walked along the beach in Waikiki, took a whole bunch of pictures (including our sunset picture), got one last dinner of garlic shrimp, and headed back to our hotel. On our way back to our hotel, we stopped and got a coconut banana smoothie from one of the food trucks right next to our hotel for a dessert, and it was SO GOOD! We both were shocked and dismayed that we hadn't discovered it before and been having one every single day for our whole trip! It was amazing. I should try to recreated it. It was just banana, coconut milk, and some kind of sweetener, I think. But, man! It was good.

We were due to fly home the next day, Monday, so we got up and packed a little bit, and then went to the beach for a swim in the ocean one more time before heading back, finishing packing, eating and making it down to the lobby to catch our shuttle. We also got another Coconut Banana Smoothie before leaving. We had to.

Our trip home was uneventful. We got to the airport with plenty of time to spare, waited for our plane, boarded and flew. We watched a couple of Marvel movies together while we flew, which made the flight kind of fun.

Brooke's Birthday

The week after school started we celebrated Brooke's 6th birthday. She spent the first 5 days of school as a 5 year old, and then she turned 6. I think she felt a little weird with this birthday, because she suddenly realized that she's older than everyone in her class.

It was kind of a low-key birthday because she had school that day until noon. While she was at school, Camille and I finished our preparations, wrapping presents and getting ready for her dinner. When she came home from school, she helped me to finish up her cake. She wanted a chocolate cake with white frosting, decorated with roses and toy animals. So, that is what we did. She put the animals  on after it was all done. We also had some friends come over to play after school, and in a small way it helped celebrate her birthday. They stayed all afternoon and played outside for a lot of it. She loved having her friends come play on her birthday, and they even brought presents for her, even though it wasn't a party in any way.

She requested homemade pizza and cucumbers and tomatoes for her dinner. I added a little more for dinner to fill it out a little. We sent her friends home for dinner and cake and singing. But they came back to watch her open presents and play a little more. We got her a set of princess figurines and the Princess in Black book series and a new card game, Sleeping Queens (which we've been playing almost non-stop since her birthday). Gramma Holbrook sent us home from Utah with a set of horse figurines. And Elliot gave her an art project and Violet and August gave her a princess beach towel and paint by number project.

A few weeks after her birthday, I took her outside in the yard around our house to do a photoshoot. I'm no photographer, but I've been watching Youtube videos this year and learning the basics of our camera. I want to be able to take good pictures of my family, and not always require a photographer to take our pictures. I'd like to do pictures with my kids around their birthdays so that we can always have good-ish and current pictures of them. Brooke and I had fun at our little photoshoot. She was really cooperative and seemed to really enjoy getting her picture taken. She even had some fun ideas of her own, and she kept asking if we could try different places. I got lucky with a handful of pictures and got some pretty good ones. I still have a lot to learn, but it was fun to practice a little with Brooke. She was a good model.