The Loyds: 2011

Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011 Trips

2011

San Francisco – December 2011 – Visiting my Mom
Laughlin, NV – August 2011 – Family Trip
Chicago, IL – July 2011 – Work Trip
- The adventures of a girl in the windy city
San Francisco – June 2011 – Trip with the nieces
Redondo Beach – May 2011 – Anniversary
Laguna Niguel – February 2011 – Ritz Carlton

Our last run of 2011

We logged our last run of 2011 this morning. 5 miles in 59:18, done and done. After everyone run, I log my time into dailymile.com and then start thinking about how I felt during the run.

Breathing was good, no problems with the asthma. I even sang a song from Sound of Music during our run (whatever gets me through it). Legs felt tired at first, strong for the majority and then completely weak at the end. Probably from the inconsistent running this whole week and the last longer run we completed was 2 weeks ago.

Basically I start to nit pick and ever so often a sense of doubt starts to creep its way in and I begin to question my successes.

I should have pushed myself more during mile 2 and mile 3. Both came in at 12:14 and 12:13 min/mile paces…what the heck? Could I have hung on for another 1/2 mile? How the heck am I going to run 6.2 miles in 3 weeks?

So to give myself a mental pat on the back I started looking back on our runs from the beginning of 2011.

The first run of the year was on 1/1/2011 and I did it solo…1 mile at a sub 12:00 min/mile pace. 1 mile…and today I did 5.
Our 2 mile runs were ranging anywhere from a 12:00 min/mile pace to a 13:00 min/mile pace…now this distance is always run at a sub 12/min pace.
The longest we ran at the beginning of the year was 3.1 miles in 40:01 and it was a mixture of running/walking…today’s run, although rough, was ran the whole way.

I started to feel better about my progress, because that’s exactly what it is…PROGRESS.

I’m not a natural runner so things are going to take longer for me to achieve, but I have made improvements and become stronger. And there is always this… Winking smile

Looking back at 2011

I can’t believe it is the last day of 2011! It seems likes every year comes and goes quicker than the last. That must have something to do about getting older. Winking smile . Here are some of our favorite moments.

January

We celebrated the New Year with our traditional seafood linner

Played in the snow without crashing in the mountains

February

Had a Magical Valentine’s Day at the Happiest Place on Earth

Received a surprise Valentine’s delivery

March

Visited a tiny Pretend City

April

Watched the nieces wrestle on Easter…kidding

May

Celebrated our 2 year wedding anniversary

Chloe guest posted for the first time

Had a furry Mother’s Day

Barbequed with the family for Memorial Weekend

June

Attended Jeff’s youngest brother’s high school graduation

Saw our eldest niece graduate Kindergarten

Another high school graduation…this time my cousin Ashley’s

Vacationed with the nieces for the first time

July

Watched Hailey enjoy chocolate for the first time…on 4th of July

August

Spent my first time in Laughlin with the family…ended up being an epic trip

September

Ran our First 5k at the Disneyland

Another family barbeque saying good-bye to summer

LA County Fair trip for food, animals and rides

Finsihed our 2nd 5k, the one that was a DNS in 2010

October

Jeff did Halloween his way

November

Celebrated with the family at Vanessa’s baby shower…girl or boy???

Gave thanks with the family

Made room for more pie at the San Dimas Turkey Trot 5k

Turkey Day #2 at our house

December

Our annual December San Fran trip

Spent Christmas Eve at my Nana’s and Tata’s

Enjoyed my SIL’s pozole on Christmas Day

Here’s to an awesome 2011 and an EPIC 2012!!

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

2 little forks, 1 little spoon

That’s what’s missing.

The husband was doing dishes earlier and began to count our silverware. We received our entire set from my Aunt and Uncle and had 12 of each. We love our silverware and they unfortunately don’t make it anymore at Crate & Barrel.

The husband counted 12 of everything except for the little forks and the little spoons. We are missing 2 little forks and 1 little spoon.

Now a certain family member has outfitted their home with hotel towels and restaurant silverware. That is who I’m blaming. You know who you are and we want our utensils back!

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Day

Merry Christmas!!

Someone was really excited to get this morning started! This year we were celebrating Christmas Day at C&C’s house so we had some time to kill before we headed over.

One of Jeff’s family traditions is to make Scrapple on Christmas Day. Jeff began to make the cornmeal based dish before we headed out.

As it was setting up, we decided to let Chloe open up her stocking to see what Santa brought.

She received a bully stick and 3 squirrel squeaky toys. She has already accomplished getting all 3 in her mouth at once. #soproud

By now it was time to head on over. We packed up our presents for the 2 minute trip…

And made it to C&C’s house before Hailey and Noelle had even been downstairs!!

We were there for the big reveal. For a long time, Hailey had been asking for a scooter. So they bought her the scooter and Noelle the car.

After everyone arrived and the presents tripled in quantity, it was time to eat.

You could tell Noelle was ready to eat!

Crystal made homemade pozole for the main course and it was DELICIOUS! Shannon made an egg dish and we made…nothing…how did that happen?

After our bellies were full, it was time to open gifts.

I’ve been going on how my poor 6 year old camera was finally beginning to die out. Well Jeff listened, waited for a good deal and then snatched up a new one for me!!

The Canon PowerShot S95. The pictures below are all using my new camera. It’s way more technical than my old PowerShot and I’m a bit intimated. I need to take a look through the user’s guide ASAP.

The girls opened their stockings first.