Nick and Jen Lloyd

Jen, I, and our good friend Mia decided to test out Jens new wedding

Today, for the first time, we got to see the little peanut we’re calling a baby! We’re officially PREGNANT! Ten weeks and three days. So only another 208 days to go! Haha. Nick was so funny at the ultrasound…I think he cried, it was cute. I’m pretty sure some of the symptoms of pregnancy might be contagious though because I cry really easily…and lately so has he. The other day he hit a squirrel and he felt so bad he cried, which of course made me cry. I’m telling you all this because Nick laughs at me every time I cry!
So…if you look at the ultrasound the baby is surrounded by the blackness in the middle. This is a side view of it lying on it’s back and it’s head is on the left. You can see it’s little feet sticking up on the right. If you look really close you can even see little arms coming out right below the head.
It’s a baby alright!!!

This weekend Jen and I went to Colonial Williamsburg! We got there on Saturday and got tickets and checked into a hotel, then we started our vacation by going on a Tavern Ghost Walk. We heard stories about all the various hauntings that have happened over the years in the city. It wasn’t particularly scary, but it was fun and interesting. We got a good nights sleep after that, and in the morning we woke up bright and early ready to go see everything Williamsburg had to offer.

As you can see above, we got put in the stocks (very degrading). We took tours of the Governers Palace, the original Virginia Capitol, and a lot of other cool places. We saw carriage wheels being made by hand, nails being made in the blacksmiths shop, soldiers marching around town, map makers extraordinaire, wigmaking, the local jail, and of course I took pictures of everything. Here are a few of my favorites (I’ll show the ones of me and Jen shortly).

And here are the photos of me and Jen!

Anyway, we ended our beautiful day by eating at the local tavern where had wings and snippets (kind of like long croutons you dip in cheese). It was communal seating so we got put at a table with another couple (much older than us who had kids our age) and we had a really good conversation with them so we were kind of happy about the seating arrangement.

On the way home we got stuck on the freeway for more than an hour and a half because of an accident that closed two of three lanes. We found out the next day that the accident was a semi crashing through the side railing and plummeting a few hundred feet. They finally got the trucker out alive luckily.

All in all, it was a spectacular trip! Food, fun, and a healthy dose of history.

Thank you Columbus for the long weekend! We decided to head down to Virginia to check out the historic living museum of Colonial Williamsburg.

In all the rush to get ready to go to Oregon I forgot to post about the weekend before I left. Nick and I met up with an old friend of mine…the wonderful Betsy Brown…in D.C. at the national book fest. I love seeing friends I haven’t seen in awhile, it’s always fun to catch up! Betsy and I met at BYU and went study abroad to NEW ZEALAND together. So of course we reminisced about New Zealand, which made me miss it and everyone who went with us. One of these days I’m going to have to get out of the country again!
(Check out our frizzy hair in this pic, well, mostly mine. The humidity was KILLER that day!)

I spent this last week in Oregon staying at a cute little cabin on the beach in Lincoln City with my family (minus my hubby). Seeing as how I still have not replaced the job I lost over a month ago, I figured I had the time. Actually, my wonderful husband convinced me that I needed to get out of the house, which was true. Oregon was cold and rainy but still fun.
It was my first time seeing my new niece, Mersadie, who is now 5 months old. She’s a cutie!

My Mom, Dad, little brother Taylor, Sister Nicole, Her husband Dustin and two kids and my grandparents were all there. We went to the aquarium, the Tillamook cheese factory and walked around on the beach. Thanks for a fun weekend everybody! And thank you Nick for making me go and the wonderful welcome home!

Jen is very perturbed. Want to know why?

One of the many benefits of living on a military base is access to the commissary and post exchange which provide tax free shopping. But, there is a catch. After a few visits to the commissary to pick up my weekly groceries, I realized that at the bottom of the receipt where it normally says “tax” and an amount, it says “surcharge” and an amount. I asked the cashier what this “surcharge” meant and her response was “it’s like a tax”. HA! I couldn’t help but laugh out loud right there. Tax free my eye! Sure…the money probably doesn’t go to the same place as normal grocery store tax, and it is definitely a smaller amount, but still!

AND THEN….there are the “baggers”. You know the person that bags your groceries for you at the checkout? Here on post, they work for tips. I’m not sure who came up with this idea, but it really bothers me. The thing is, they have a different kind of cart than the normal shopping cart so if you want them to bring your groceries out then they put it on their little cart and walk out with you, at which point you are supposed to tip them a few dollars. So, in order to avoid this, you have to tell them as they start bagging your stuff that you want it back in YOUR cart. At which point they realize that you don’t want to tip them, but they still have to bag your stuff. So they turn on you, instead of being overly friendly to get the best tip, they bag your stuff however it suits them. That’s right, canned goods on top of your chips. It always makes me feel kind of bad, but truthfully I don’t carry cash on me anyhow, so I wouldn’t be able to tip really. I just wish that their boss would pay them enough that I wouldn’t have to tip them to do their job! I hate even tipping waiters…that’s why I love Australia/New Zealand. They consider it rude if you tip a waiter because it’s like saying that you don’t think the restaraunt pays enough. Just pay your employees what they’re worth here people!