Brentwood Christmas

The second half of our California visit was spent in Brentwood visiting Stephen's family.

A trip to the park.

Jane's static slide hair.

These 3 guys (Stephen and his dad and step-dad) were like this pretty much the whole trip, just talking politics and shootin' the breeze.

Books with Nana.

Introducing Grandma to their favorite movie, My Neighbor Totoro (Jane is especially obsessed with it right now).

Then the cousins arrived! (also book lovers)

Nana's coffee table works great as a performance stage.

Presents!

Then a trip to see Stephen's Grandma.

 Brother and sister and all their little minions :)

As always, Alice and Avila were pretty inseparable.

Presents!

Next big adventure was a girls trip (minus Jane) to San Fransisco, starting at the BART station.

To see:

It was really great and the kids all loved it.  The scene when Mufasa falls to his death there is a moment of silence right after and Alice said, very loudly, "He died!"  Everyone around laughed.

Then it was Christmas at Grandma and Papa's which always includes a visit from Santa.

These lovely ladies and their new shirts :)

"Ice-cream!"

"Hurry up Nana!"

One night was a serious dance party on the coffee table.

We were staying at Stephen's dad's and Michelle and them at Stephen's mom's, which are just down the road from each other.  Alice had her first sleepover and stayed with her cousins.  I figured she would do fine but I couldn't help but feel a little sadness when she did totally fine and even stayed over again the next night!  

Can you tell which one is the real dancer?

Miscellaneous moments:

 I brought my "big" camera with a tripod and a remote so we could take some family photos.

Papa and Alice waiting for the rest of the group.

The Wolfe-Edwards-Lewis clan!

Papa and Grandma with the kids.

Nana and Papa-Grande with the kids.

The Edwards.

We had some issues with the remote being finicky but we still got some good shots.

Cousins.  The hardest shot to get.  6 kids looking and smiling and standing still at once...not easy.

My photography with kids tip?  Bribery.  I find jelly beans are best because they aren't messy and can be eaten quickly so you don't have to wait to take the next picture.

A silly shot!

Then back to Louisiana to get everything ready for Rutherford, who is still not here!