Sam (in absentia) Josh and Rose Robertson; and Cameron and Seth Lloyd
I hope you all had a great year. As you may know, Sam joined the army just in time for his twentieth birthday. He is now in Oklahoma and expects to stay there through the balance of his enlistment unless he can get a transfer to Fort Lewis. He’s going to try to do that later in 1998. I talk to him about once a week and he is doing well.
For spring break Cameron and Seth went to visit their mother and I took Josh and Rose to the beach for a day of horseback riding. For many years now Rose has wanted to experience horseback riding on the beach. She was quite a picture galloping in the surf with her long hair flowing behind.
On June 1st, Joshua’s eighteenth birthday present was an accelerated freefall sky-diving jump from 14,000 feet. He wasn’t nervous at all, rather, he said every moment was a thrill. I wasn’t nervous for him because he had two jump-masters with him until his chute was deployed. Rose decided this is what she wants to do in 1998 for her 18th birthday, and not to be left out, I plan to go with her. We’ll see.
Sam was home for a couple of weeks at the end of June. It was so good to have him back for awhile. While he was home he went white-water rafting with Josh and Rose, sailing on Folsom Lake with me and Cameron, and simply enjoyed not being ordered about.
Rose had her tonsils out in July and so far it seems to have made a difference. She hasn’t been sick with a cold or lost her voice yet this fall, and that’s unusual for her. In August, Josh, Rose and I went kayaking in Monterey Bay; Cameron and Seth were once again with their mother. I enjoyed the kayaking so much I went back in October.
Cameron was in a school play both in the spring and in the fall. He has great fun and we love watching him on stage. This fall I started college part-time in the evenings. I may be ninety-seven when I graduate, but my goal is a degree in biological science. Josh and Rose are both seniors and expect to be going to college locally next fall.
In October, the company that bought Lloyd Internetworking, our company, announced that it was being acquired by Lucent Technologies. I feel like the little fish that’s eaten by the bigger fish that’s eaten by the giant fish. Brian and I have been guaranteed our jobs and this should be good for us financially, so we’re happy about it.
Josh didn’t get signed up in time for his high school ski-team so he’ll just be driving himself up to the slopes this winter. Guess we’ll have to put snow tires on his VW baja. Rose prefers snow-boarding to skiing, but she’ll no doubt be tagging along with Josh. Or he will with her, depending on whether his baja or her Corolla handles snow best.
Cameron will be sixteen on December 12th and he’s been taking flying lessons in our 1949 Piper Clipper. He hopes to solo on his birthday.
Seth, our little space cadet, will be ten on December 26th; we had an early birthday party for him on the 8th. Brian helps coach his basketball team.
Brian spent most of his spare time this year working on rebuilding his RV4. The RV4 is a two-place aerobatic airplane. He had hoped to go the the fly-in at Osh Kosh, but the RV4 wasn’t ready.
The year was a pretty safe and healthy one with a few small exceptions. Josh had a car accident in May that resulted in a cut to his head. This bled like a son of a gun and he got an ambulance ride to the hospital for a few stitches. This was the same night that I bought a Ford Thunderbird. So for weeks I was going around telling people that the kids were wrecking cars as fast as I could buy them. Another small injury occurred when Brian got creative on my birthday and on the dark rainy night at the airport he ran an antenna on our airplane into his eye. Thank goodness there was no permanent damage, but I’ll tell ya, nobody could look him in the eye for days, it was a gruesome sight.
Cameron and Seth will be with their mother for Christmas and the rest of us aren’t sure where we’ll be. If the roads are clear we will drive up to Vancouver where my parents, brothers and sisters will be gathering. If not we’ll stay home, or we may fly over to see Sam who was disappointed at being unable to work things out to be home.
Again, We hope you had a great year, and that 1998 is all you hope it will be.
Connie and Brian Lloyd & Family
Would love to hear from you. Drop us a line at:
connie@lloyd.com
brian@lloyd.com
Some of you have asked for Sam’s address, here it is.
PV2 Sam Robertson SVC 3/18 FA H-13 Fort Sill, OK 73503
