Moses Lake Washington

Our vacation started in Moses Lake. My niece, Lexus graduated high school, turned 18, and my brother in law turned 40. With these three big milestones to celebrate, my sister Heather through a big luau at her house.

This is my beautiful niece Lexus.
Congratulations and Happy Birthday!!

Lexus and DarrinThe one day of the year it rains in Moses Lake, happened to be on the day of the party. The Luau was moved inside...

Italian sodas were served outside. They were delicious...

The rain didn't bother Lucy at all...

My Dad and Carla... Just Married!

More vacation pics to come....

A much needed vacation

So, here we are at the Sun River Resort in Oregon for a long time coming vacation. Brent's family has a vacation house here that we've been coming to since we were first married. So far the kids are having a blast swimming riding bikes, and being kids. I'm happy not to be doing house work and regular work. Brent and I have a few lofty goals for this week. We plan to run 30 miles, bike 50 miles, and play tennis every day. And, if we can squeeze it in, Yoga and weights in the mornings.There are miles and miles of trails around here and not much else to do besides be outside so I think we should be able to reach our goals. Did I mention that it is gorgeous here?

Prior to being here, we spent 2 1/2 days in Moses Lake Washington visiting my sister and family. My super fabulous niece Lexus graduated high school on Friday. It was a great weekend and I wish we could have stayed longer but the pine trees of Oregon were calling!

I will post pictures when I get home. I have a bunch already. Oh and by the way... please don't rob us while we are away. Our ferocious dog Walter is guarding the place and our neighbors are watching out for burglars and they have guns!!!

Cinco de Mayo

Why Cinco de Mayo? Well, Brent has a huge love for Mexican food and I found sombreros at the dollar store. Put the two together and you have an excuse for a fiesta! Plus Brent is an amazing Mexican cook and promised to cook dinner and he never cooks dinner (insert sarcasm). The kids ate one of their favorite meals. They call it a beanie-in-betweeny. It's pretty much a bean burrito that they get to build themselves. All it is is a tortilla, cheese, black beans, and rice. Emma is a very picky eater so for her to actually mix food together is amazing. Brent cooked up an amazing taco salad/burrito for us. He calls his creations "Brentos".

Happy Cinco de Mayo.

Swine Flue

This is how you get swine flue tee hee!

I saw it!

I've waited my whole life to see the weinermobile and it finally happened! As we were leaving Walmart Emma said "look a giant weiner car!" I almost peed. I couldn't believe it. The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile drove right past us and then came to a stop in front of the store.
What great luck don't you think??? A few minutes off and I would have missed it. I grabbed the camera and took off running. Pretty cool hu!

One of my dream jobs is to be hotdogger. Pretty much it's like being the ice cream man but with hotdogs. You get to drive a giat hotdog around the country and show up at grand openings and everybody is glad you're there. I think that sounds like a pretty cool job. If you think you have what it takes to be a hotdogger, I think Oscar mayer is taking applications here.

"things"

I really want to be a person who doesn't get caught up in the "things" of life. That is to say, I don't want myself and family to base our identity, self worth, and who we want to be, on what possessions we have or hope to have. However, letting go of "things" can be much harder than one would expect. For example, here are some pictures of the little ones broken hearted as we sold our jeep yesterday.

I think it's hard for children to understand why grownups do the things they do. Both Brent and I felt very good about our decision to sell the jeep. As much as it broke the hearts of the girls, I'm confident that by doing so brings us closer to our long term goals. In perspective, it was a small sacrifice for a better future.

We've had a hard couple of weeks but the blessings we've received have by far outweighed the challenges. I'm grateful for life and all of its experiences. We are still happy, healthy, and very much enjoying all that life gives us. After all, it's how we choose to think about life that determines what kind of happiness we create. I choose to focus on what we have and not what we lack. We are truly blessed even if we drive a Buick and not a fun jeep!

For Sale!

I know that I tried to sell this last year but I chickened out because I love it so much. I'm really serious this time. It's a great jeep. It runs great and has never had any problems. It's a '99 and has 97k miles I'm asking

$5,500

Email brent at Brent.lloyd@gmail.com or give me a call

Easter

We spent the Easter weekend in the teeny tiny town of Paragonah at my Grandma's house. It was a great weekend and very relaxing. Just what we needed. I would love to still be there and probably would be but, my grandma has since left for New Zealand. We all love it there and I wonder why we don't go more often. Here are some pics of our Easter fun...

Saturday was the hunt

Lucy was cranky that day

I think this was the worst Easter Bunny I've ever seen. It looks more like an Easter Goat. As you can see, Lucy was terrified. Coloring eggs... While we were at church the Easter Goat hid baskets and candy outside.

Happy Easter

Still here

Yes I'm still around but busy. Blogging has taken a back seat to my other projects and activities. And honestly, I just haven't felt much like doing it. But since Mr. Lloyd has been away for the last 5 days, I thought I would post some pictures of the last couple of days without him here.

Thursday was Crazy Hair day at school for Emma.

Saturday afternoon we went to Kangaroo Zoo for our niece Emma's 5th birthday.Here are the kids. Emma, Trinity, Isabelle, Emma, and BridgerIsabelle I really thought Lucy would love this place. She is after all, half monkey. But she pretty much had me hold her the whole time with her hands over her ears. Silly girl.Last night the girls helped me set up their tent for a sleep out in the family room. We watched Enchanted and ate popcorn. Lucy was very excited about this. It was her first sleep out and she kept saying "This is MY castle!" I LOVE this picture!Isabelle had the great idea for the ol' ride the sleeping bad down the stairs game... which was quickly taken over by Emma and then no one else got a turn.The girls had a fun night. I however, didn't get much sleep. I spent the night playing "musical beds" with the girls. At one point each kid was asleep in my bed with me, after which I would move them back to their rightful sleeping spot, until one of them (I won't say who) peed in my bed! F.Y.I. Cough syrup and a cup of juice before bed isn't the best idea. At least it was on Mr. Lloyd's side of the bed. Ha Ha!

Lucky for me, Lucy Jane slept in until 10:00!

I miss you husband and your daughters miss you. I can't wait until tomorrow when you'll be home!

p.s. don't forget to bring home gummy bears and little bottles of hotel shampoo and soap for the small ones.

Love you

Not By The Hair of My Chinny Chin Chin

I've never put much thought into getting older. I'd like to think I'm very "Oprah" about aging. But after the week I've had I would very much like to be 29 again...

Nine days ago I turned 30. The actual turning didn't hurt at all. In fact it was a very good day. The night before the turning, 3 of my favorite friends, Erin, Carrie, and Kayelynne took me out to dinner for my birthday. We stayed out late and took our time getting home because we couldn't stop laughing. I woke up Wednesday feeling happy and rested. Brent came home early to give me my birthday present which was a real surprise. He got me a new violin. I was very excited and even cried a bit. Later that night Brent took me out to dinner to a not so surprise party that I found out about two weeks earlier. I spent the evening with a bunch of my favorite people eating Korean food. It was a good day.

Two days after the big 3-0 I hopped on my bathroom scale. I was sad to see it 3 lbs higher. I wasn't to worried cuz I thought it was probably water. Well Sunday comes around and I hop on again. Up another 2lbs. So is this what turning 30 means? 5 lbs in one week? Well, I felt optimistic because I knew just what to do. A couple weeks of water, egg whites, oatmeal, fish, and exercise usually does the trick.

I woke up at 6:30 am on Monday morning. I had a great work out planned of weights and running. I felt determined to enter my 30's on a good start regardless of the scale. I grabbed my shoes and sat down to put them on. I bent over to lace them up and never got back up. You see, turning 30 means that my back goes out while doing simple every day things. I've never had a sore back in my life. But now that I'm 30...
I spent the rest of the day laying in bed and cursing my luck. Every time I took a deep breath I felt like my back was going to snap.

I knew that at some point I would have to feed my kids lunch so I decided to get in the car and go for take out. Instead of the low cal meal I had intended on, I ordered a Happy Meal and ate it alone in my room hunched over in my bed while crumbs fell all over. Gross! This is me depressed.

Later that day I hobbled into my bathroom to wash my face and clean up from my slothful lunch. As my hands washed my face I felt a little poke on my finger from something. I looked in the mirror closer and found that I had a hair on my chin!!! A big black one that was clearly visible. I looked closer and saw a second one on its way out. What the @#&*&%$%&*!!!
I'm 30, gaining weight, broken, and growing ugly old lady whiskers on my chin. I'm depressed. That night I took a Tylenol PM and went to bed at 7:00 pm.

I stayed in bed for about 2 1/2 days feeling awful. But by Wednesday evening I managed to pull myself up by my bootstraps. I've since pulled the hair out of my chinny chin chin, lost 3 of the 5lbs, and am back to running my daily 4 miles in record time. Take that 30!