Military Life

Every once in awhile I have to stop and remember that some of the things that I live with on a day to day basis are not normal. For example: there is a fence around my town. There are guards that decide who gets to come in and who doesn’t. There are lot’s of people out running at 6 AM and often I can hear their shouted cadences. Men and women in uniform all over. Every day at 6:30 AM, 5 PM and 9 PM, from inside my house even, I can hear a trumpet sounding over the loud speakers. Usually this trumpet is a far off noise that doesn’t bother me much. But it seems that the new commander has decided to play it from the parking lot of the PX/Commisary (directly across the street from us). And it is LOUD!!!

Oh Shenandoah…

Harpers Ferry, WV was our destination this past weekend. We figured we would take advantage of the sunny weather while it lasts and go float down the river. And since we already own some tubes, we thought it would be good, cheap fun.

It’s about an 1 hr 20 mins to get there. Not too bad at all. Once we got there we stopped in at the visitors info (those places are my favorite!) They directed us to the three “tubing” companies in town that could give us a shuttle ride. The first place only did package deals, same with the second but the lady decided to be nice and sold us a shuttle ride for $5. When we got to the put in spot, we had forgotten to blow up our tubes. The lady there saw that we had the cheapy black inner tubes and felt bad for us. She was sitting there with a huge pile of tubes and no customers, so she said to go ahead and take some. Awesome!

Before tubing we stopped at a local fruit stand. Then we ate our fruit while we floated leisurely down the river with dragonflies all around. Lovely. (And yes we all had lifejackets, but the lovely Shenandoah is about a foot deep this time of year. So we were working on our tans.) (oh and also, those things they say about WV being super hick, they are true.)


First Haircut!

We cut off the mullet. Jonah and I both keep reaching for it to twirl that soft baby hair in our fingers and it’s not there. Sad day. But he does look much more refined now. Pictures coming soon.

Chomping on screws

So few days ago Jonah walked into the kitchen and was chewing very contentedly on something. I asked Nick if he had given him something and he said no. So I proceeded to extract the source of the chewing. It was a screw. Yum.

Yesterday he woke up saying “what’s that?” and pointing at everything he could think of. So I have spent the past few days telling him what everything is, sometimes 50 times in a row.

He has started to sign “more please” when he wants things. He has been signing more for a long time but the added please delights me. So he pretty much gets what he wants when he does it. (He has also started signing Mom & Dad…signing seems to come easier to him than words)

We live right near the airport and every time a plane flies over us he stops whatever he’s doing to look up and point at it.

What else?…Just trying to write these things all down before I forget them!

Tooth count is up to 12 now. According to Nick you have 24 teeth on top and 24 on bottom. I knew that wasn’t correct but I had to stop and count my teeth to know just how many you do have…do you know?

We went to the zoo today…I’ll have to get the pictures from our friends who were smart enough to bring cameras. We saw a Gorilla eat his poo…nasty. I think Jonah liked seeing all the animals but it’s really hard to go out and about with him because he still naps twice a day. So to go anywhere he has to miss a nap and ends up pretty tired. But he did get excited for the tigers and the elephants. (Oh and also the Metro train, he liked that part) And thanks to the DC zoo being free (Smithsonian!), we can go back anytime.

Grand opening!

Lloyd photo studio is now open! We have set up a photo studio in our big unfinished basement and are having our grand opening this weekend! Wish us luck, and if you know anyone in Maryland send them our way!

Nick did a wonderful job with the website, (he better since I haven’t even seen him the last five days!) check it out at www.lloydphotostudio.com

From the vaults…



Cleaning out old stuff and found these photos on an old camera. I’ve thought about these pictures once or twice…wondering where they had gone. These are some of the only photos of Nick and I when we were dating. We never really took pictures, which I regret. I think this must have been taken around October…we had just started dating in September.
We had just gone to see the Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D and were grabbing a midnight breakfast burrito at Betos. Couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take a picture of how goofy we looked in the 3D glasses. So happy I found these! It’s like a stroll down memory lane…man I love this guy. I remember when we first met…I said something really rude to him the first night we met, on accident, and he just brushed it off. I felt so bad, but he was really nice about it. He was just so easy to like. He’s so sweet and caring, and such a good loyal friend. He would do anything for me. That is definitely the biggest reason I fell for him. (Not to mention that he’s smokin hot! I like his hair in the photo…)

Superman!

Apparently Jonah thinks he is superman. He was standing at the top of our wooden stairs today and Daddy was at the bottom. Daddy was coming up the stairs to get him but Jonah decided flying to him would be faster. He put his little arms up above his head and with all the trust in the world fell straight forward. That’s right, trust fall down the stairs. End over end he flew. I screamed as I watched helplessly from the top. Nick ran up and caught him as he began his second round off. The craziest part? He’s fine. Steep old wooden stairs are no match for my son, he’s as tough as they come. Seriously.
Idea for a Halloween costume maybe? Then again, I’m not sure I want to encourage this. (I hope he can still trust his Daddy…)

My crazy month

Over the past month we have been traveling, a lot. So I am going to slowly catch up on everything that we did. I will be back dating the posts. I am not sure how that will effect those of you that receive my posts via email…you may or may not get them. But you can always get onto the actual blog to see my posts.

Here is a preview of my month:
Aug 2nd: Drove from Moscow to Boise
Aug 3rd: Drove from Boise to Provo
Aug 4th-5th: Hanging out with the Lloyd family preparing for Natalie & David’s wedding
Aug 6th-7th: Natalie & David get married, reception in Provo and one in Richfield, UT
Aug 8th-9th: Patiently waiting for Nick (found out he would be able to come on Tuesday rather than Saturday so we did some plane ticket swapping.)
Aug 10th: REUNION WITH NICK!
Aug 11th-13th: Johnson family reunion
Aug 16th-24th: Nick and I drive across the country and get moved in to our house in Maryland while Jonah hangs out with the Lloyds.
Aug 24th: I fly back to SLC and Lloyds drive Jonah and I to Rexburg
Aug 25th: My family arrives in Rexburg for Olivia’s temple going
Aug 26th: Tyson and Olivia get married, lunch in Idaho Falls, drive to Helena MT arrive at hotel at 1 am
Aug 27th: Reception in a HUGE old barn in Helena (where Olivia is from) Drive to Moscow afterwards…arrive there at 4 AM, go dad
Aug 28th: Reception at my parents in Moscow, beautiful but very cold
Aug 31st: Jonah and I fly home to Maryland

TODAY: HOME AT LAST!!!