New Years with the Sumans and the rest of Vacation

This should be my final installment of Christmas/New Years updates. So get ready for a lot of pictures!

It was great having Casey home for a few weeks over the holidays. We took Lucy to the park, which she loves and spent most of the time on the swings. These big red swings are soooo luxurious.
Casey tried to teach Lucy to kick her soccer ball. She's was into for a few seconds, then wanted to go on the swings again.
The Sunday before Christmas, my parents and sister Meredith came up to our apartment to celebrate Christmas with us. What fun! They brought gifts, tons of goodies, and yummy cherry cobbler. From Gram and Papa, Lucy got a cute little bike with a trailer in the back. She loves it and tows her toys around the house:
Owen spent the evening chilling in his swing (and being held):For New Year's Eve most of the siblings and cousins were back in town so we went down to my parent's house to hang out with everyone. That night we went next door to Aunt/Uncle's house to play games and eat food. Amazingly enough, we all stayed up till midnight! We were impressed with ourselves (and were very tired the next day). Happy New Year little Willard family:
Casey left early New Years Day to come back to Pasadena. He's in the Young Men's program at church and every year they do a scouting fundraiser by selling parking spots in the church parking lot for the Rose Parade. We were sad to see him go. Especially since we ended up going to the park for a couple hours and doing what he loves best...hitting baseballs! (well, they were more like wiffle balls and the bat was plastic). Jeremy got a cool ball-pitching machine for Christmas, so we set it up on the grass and everyone took a turn. Brennan and Carter:
I even tried it with Owen in the Baby Bjorn. Everyone was freaking out though as they saw him getting whiplash each time I swung the bat. Sorry little guy! I toned it down after that.
All the girls: cousin Rachael, me, cousin Karis, sister-in-law Laura, sister Camille, sister Meredith:
Jeremy and Braedon tried to fly the kite, but there wasn't much wind.
Lucy spent most of the time sitting on the grass watching the pitching machine and holding on to stray balls.
And Owen got some quality time in grandpa's arms. He loves holding his grandkids.Later in the week, some of my family came up here to LA and we went to the Getty. I hadn't been there in years and it's still as beautiful, clean, and enchanting as I remember. I actually love the grounds of the museum, the gardens, and architecture better than the actual artwork. Too bad it wasn't sunny because with all those ivory colored stones, the place feels like it's glowing.
Meredith and her twin sister:
There are some cool views of the greater LA area:
Mere, Jeremy, and Lucy:
I realized that day that museums are the best place for a photo shoot. So many cool back drops.
This photo looks like she's pondering the meaning of rocks in water. But she's actually seeing how close to the edge she can get before I'll tell her to stop (it's hard to tell, but the water starts right where her feet are. It's very shallow, about 2 inches of water). She did this repeatedly for a good 1/2 hour:
Lucy looks so old to me in this picture. She's a kid, no longer a baby. And she's started posing again for pictures when she sees my camera.
There was a very cool kids area. This room had a traveling/Route 66 backdrop with big magnets the kids could pull on and off. The other side was full of rear view mirrors. See if you can spot Laura, Lucy, Ava, and uh...my pants:Fish-eye shot from the outside of the room.
And I love this picture. The colors, the funny tubes, and the lighting look so great on them. Camille and Jeremy:
After the Getty we had lunch at Wahoos, stopped at Diddy Riese for ice cream sandwiches, and then headed home. It was a fun outing with fun people!

And that's the end of our adventures. Life is pretty much back to normal. We are all feeling healthy, the laundry is in the washer, and I'm all caught up with my blogging!