The kiddos & I are back from our week with the grandparents. I'm feeling refreshed, Penelope is feeling pooped and Felix is feeling rather accomplished. My brother-in-law just got back from a two year stint in Honduras, so most of us Esplins were in Phoenix to celebrate his safe return home. Chris couldn't get time off work, so he held down the fort & let me galavant off to Phoenix on my own. Chris's sister, Shelley, flew with the kiddos & me out to Phoenix, which was HUGE. It was the first time I've flown with two kiddos & everything went surprisingly well. I didn't have a companion on the flight home, but we fared remarkably well considering our flight came in at 11pm. While we were in Phoenix, we went swimming, killed a scorpion, went shopping, watched movies, ate lunch with friends, watched bob's burgers and helped organize my youngest sister-in-law's bedroom. Felix spent most of his time in the arms of an aunt, uncle or grandparent and Penelope spent most of her time bossing around Molly the dog. It was perfect. We got back to a clean house (which we have now destroyed, sorry Chris!) and my new camera! I've spent most of the morning playing around & reading the instruction manual. Seriously, I suggest EVERYONE should read their camera's instruction manual. It doesn't matter what kind of camera you have, just learn all of its ins & outs. You'll take much better photos once you do. Promise. I'm about 90 pages into the manual & have about 210 to go, but I feel like I've improved immensely since I started reading. I'll definitely be reading it through a few times. With all of my enthusiasm, I took this opportunity to shoot some pictures of the nearly 5 month old Felix. He's getting so big & animated now, I just love it. During our vacation, he discovered his hands & started rolling over! It's so exciting! Now I need to teach him to hold up that behemoth head of his.