Lucy’s Graduation Trip to Newport

I quite often look at Lucy quite amazed at how she maneuvers life.

We went to Newport Beach to celebrate her graduation and she brought a few friends.

Dave and I were a little nervous about this for multiple reasons. Lucy can be a little bit of a wildcard sometimes. We just weren’t sure how it would go with different interests and so much going on in the graduation category. We weren’t positive who was coming until we were all packed tight in the car pulling out in the early morning.

(Dave had to meet us there, and would never have fit in that car anyway!)

Lucy as a Hostess to Good Friends in Newport

But I’m here to say, Lucy sure stepped up as a hostess.

She took good care of those girls and I think they all really had such a good time. It was so fun to have Elle and Claire along too…and then Max and Abby too when we arrived (they got there a few days earlier).

And those friends? They are just good to the core. Most of them have been friends with Lucy since they were all little and they are just goodness and light.

Oh wait, this one is missing from that above photo, she must have been taking the picture:

She has driven Lucy to school every day for the last couple years, looked out for her at church, just been practically like a sister to her. So grateful!

I love this picture:

I know it doesn’t seem like much, but I love that Lucy, who doesn’t love the beach, was coaxed out of her comfort zone on so many occasions. And that those girls just had their hearts wrapped around her the whole time.

It’s incredible what friends can do. I’ll just say, Lucy doesn’t do this kind of stuff with us!

They just had so much fun together.

Hanging with our big kids

Grateful we had a separate spot to hang out together with these big kids (minus Claire who met up with some other friends this night, and Carson and Grace who we sure missed!)…

…and let Lucy and her friends have their own space.

Time with our Grandbabies

Our family got to hang with Ada and Murphy:

And of course, we can never get enough of that.

Elle’s friend and her darling daughter joined us for the beach one day. Such a cute little friend for Murph.

Stuff we Did All Together

We did lots of our Newport favorites together:

Duffy to Mama D’s:

We played the “Penny Game” while waiting for a table which was a fun distraction.

Lucy had to sing a song for all the people there waiting for a table as a consequence for losing and she was a great sport about it.

Church on Dover Lane, a Temple Walk:

Murphy fell in love with Lucy’s friends:)

Dinners

Sunsets:

Biking

The girls wanted to bike and I couldn’t believe one of them was able to maneuver the tandem with Lucy. (That is HARD work, and it was so crowded on Memorial Day weekend).

The rest of us had our own biking adventures, and got to run into these cousins we love:

Games

One night a game night with another big group of girls joining in, Lucy in the middle with the biggest smile.

Dave taught them “One and Done” and that was fun to watch for a little.

Kids are just so good.

I loved having time with Dave and the big kids. We did hot yoga, biked, and talked pretty deep late at night.

There is so much going on with these adult kids as their worlds are expanding exponentially bigger and wider and so uniquely as they spread their wings in so many different ways.

Motherhood is crazy business I tell you.

We got Elle one evening longer than the other kids and had a fun sunset walk plus friend visit together.

It was all a good way to wrap up the finale of high school graduations for our whole family.