Temple Day (11.19.11)

Jake decided he wanted to go through the Draper Temple. That morning, he had his missionary photos taken.

Look closely at his tag - it says Elder Lloyd. No, that's not one of John's old tags. It belongs to a kid in our ward, Elder Floyd. Madelyn, our photographer, fixed that for us. Love technology.

We decided to get in on the action as well. Go Lloyd missionaries!

After that, we headed up to the temple. It was a great experience.

Looks like a beautiful day, but it was frigid!

Proud of you Jake!

Family Pictures

I can't believe we've been married for 7 years and never had professional family pictures taken. That's weird for someone like me who LOVES pictures! I feel bad that McKelle couldn't be in them, but with Jake leaving on his mission I couldn't wait any longer. Our photographer was Madelyn Wayment, one of my former 5th grade students, which made it even better. Get ready for photo overload. I LOVE them!

 

We found an area with these beautiful red leaves. It was my favorite spot.

I asked Madelyn if we could do some jumping pictures. If you've followed my blog you've seen the boys jumping on Catalina Island and at Jake's graduation. These are the original shots. I saw them on her camera. No editing. These boys can jump!

And our personal favorite:

 

Thanks Madelyn for a fantastic job!

John does Ragnar in style (10.20.11)

John's final event of the season was the Las Vegas Ragnar Relay with his fellow police officers. This time he went in style, sporting his personalized bucket. He ran his guts out and did an awesome job. Way to go babe!

Jake's going to Japan! (10.12.11)

A few weeks after Jake turned in his mission papers, he came up one morning and said he had had a dream about his call. In his dream he was called to the Japan Tokyo mission and would be leaving December 21st. He looked at a calendar and saw that was a Wednesday (the day missionaries enter the MTC). He was sure this was going to be his call.

We bought a map and started making guesses.

Here's Jake with THE CALL.

He opened his call... Japan Tokyo, leaving December 28. He couldn't be happier!

In the end, everyone changed their guesses to Japan.  :)

We're very proud of Jake and his decision to serve a mission. We know he'll be an excellent missionary!

7 years & counting (9.2.11)

In July, John & I celebrated our 7th anniversary. It was such a hectic month that we never really had a chance to be alone and celebrate until 2 months later. We spent the night at the Little America Hotel in Salt Lake, the same place we stayed on our honeymoon night. We enjoyed a quiet dinner and movie. In the morning, we enjoyed the yummy brunch.

7 years. I've loved all of them. What I love most about being married to John is just hanging out with him. Yes, I love his kids. Yes, I love our travels. Yes, I love our house. Yes, I love not being alone. But more than anything, I LOVE John. He is really funny and makes me laugh...often. He's kind-hearted. He's genuinely interested in life and how things work. I never get tired of being with him.

Here's to an eternity together!

Bear Lake Brawl (8.27.11)

Our final event of the summer was the Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon. About 2 weeks before the event, Jake decided to join us. We loaded up our bikes and hit the road.

We rented a huge cabin in Bear Lake and most of the Lloyd family came. The night before, my sweet sisters-in-law gave us these posters and the pinwheels to mark our spots at the transition areas.

Jake wore this pinwheel during his bike ride!

The next morning we got up early and headed to the lake.

Here are the family members competing: Aaron, John, Me, Ryan, Jake, & Travis.

Here is the rest of the family cheering us on. It was awesome to come out of the water and have such a huge group screaming for me!

Ready to ride.

My great friend Natalie & I did the whole thing together. It's so much better with a buddy!

 John was pretty intense about the whole thing. He was not very happy when he got out of the water 15 minute behind the rest of the group...

 but then he biked and ran his guts out and took 2nd place in his age group. Way to go Johnny!

 The after pics:

 Yay for us!

Tough girls.

It was a great Lloyd family reunion!

 And what do we have to show for it...matching t-shirts. :)

 I was officially evented out after that, but not John. He had still another Ragnar to run...

Back to blogging

I'm back.

I've actually quite missed blogging. I find it very cathartic.

Here are 3 random, end-of-summer photos.

John in the Lindon Days Parade.

Youth Conference - we stopped at the Salt Lake City Cemetery. This was my last YW event before being released as YW president after 3 years. Two weeks later I was called as 1st counselor in the Primary Presidency.

 Jyson earned some Webelos pins. Way to go buddy!