The Jacket Incident

Micah went to Target the other day with a friend to do some Christmas shopping. In the early evening, she called us, distraught because she was back at her friend's house and she'd just realized she took her new North Face coat off in Target and somehow lost it. Micah's parents were significantly unhappy and frustrated, because this wasn't the first time she'd lost nice jackets. There was even talk of returning some pending Christmas gifts...

We called Target and the lady all but laughed at us, assuring us the jacket wouldn't be returned. When Micah got home a little while later, she went in her room and said a prayer. She then asked if we could go back to Target and look, even though it had been quite a while since she was there. I agreed to take her to try and be a good dad, not because I had any hope whatsoever of finding it. I was also a little taken aback by her cheerful attitude after her prayer, and I didn't want to disappoint her, so we got in the car and headed to Target.

We retraced Micah's shopping steps, taking us past the jewelry, the wallets, the school supplies, the intimates (just kidding), the movies, etc., which took us on a big loop of the store. When we were coming back toward the front doors, after not finding the jacket anywhere, I looked over at the jewelry counter and right out in the middle of the walkway was an empty shopping cart with her jacket sitting on it. Here's the thing - we had been right by there when we first got to the store, it had not been crowded, and we both agree we definitely would have seen it if it was there when we first looked. You can imagine how happy she was to find it!

So here's the thing. It was a couple of hours after she'd been there, and the coat was there for us to find. The usual clientele of that Target would not suggest that this was a likely outcome. Even more remarkable is the fact that it most likely was not there when we first got there, meaning that someone actually had to have put it back, or moved it there, or whatever, during the exact time when we were at the store. And you know what, the neat thing to me is that I wasn't all that surprised. I guess when I saw Micah's faith, and her history of faith, I realized there was a legitimate chance that Heavenly Father would reward Micah for that faith and trust. Maybe that's why I went with her, I don't know. But I'm sure glad I did!

Awesomeness

I just got the awesomest new phone ever. It's red, with a cool twisty cord that runs from the curvy handset to the sleek base, and it's got this fun dial thingy where you go around in circles to select a number. Very cutting edge.

So I actually did get an awesome new phone, and it really is the coolest phone ever. I can't tell you where I got it, what kind it is, who makes it, or why it's so cool, but it's slightly better than the phone pictured above. I can, however, show you in person, so if ye ask, ye shall receive...

And speaking of the phone pictured above, it reminds me of my mission. When I was in Australia in 1991 we actually had these kinds of phones. I served with a missionary who was 1) hilarious (whether intended or not), and 2) from a small town. He would unplug our rotary phone, take it in the car with us, and he'd pretend to talk on it so other drivers thought he had a "mobile" phone. Thing is, I'm pretty sure he was serious... Funny memory!

Wii-ing

The kids are loving the Wii I just set up today. So far no major fights, and they're having a great time. The rain outside all of a sudden isn't such a bad thing...

I got a sweet new phone yesterday - it hasn't even launched yet - so I'll post a picture in January after the launch announcement. Suffice it to say that the iPhone has some stiff competition coming!

Angela and I are both bummed right now because we've been working out pretty hard the last few weeks, and both of us are now fighting knee issues - different, unrelated, but still there nonetheless. It's frustrating to not be healthy when you want to do some hard work.

We're going out to dinner tonight for my official birthday date - going to The Melting Pot in San Mateo, which we've heard is a killer fondue place. I'm very excited! I'm guessing I'll eat more than I should, but I'll worry about that after the fact.

Lovin' the weekend.

the big 3 - 8

I think I wrote last year on my birthday about how birthdays are kind of ho-hum when you're nearing 40 and not that psyched to be getting older. I'm pretty sure I said something about bdays being mostly for the kids to enjoy celebrating with us. But you know what? I had a super great day today on my 38th birthday.

The family was awesome! Everyone did nice things, and said nice things not only to me but to each other - all day long (seriously, it's true...). Angela made my favorite dinner (beef and broccoli ... holy cow!) that was ready on time and with nobody getting frustrated in the build-up. We went to Kennan's opening night of a fun school play, and then when we came home the gingerbread cake with bananas and whipped cream on top were spectacular - perfectly moist yet satisfyingly dense - I think I'll go have another piece...

The gifts were awesome. Micah had been asking for weeks what to get me and I kept telling her nothing, or a great handmade card or something. So she made me an amazing slide show where she put pictures and videos of she and I on there, with fun sayings and why she likes me. Man, I seriously had stuff in my eyes and it sorta looked like I was crying or somethin'. Kennan made me a fun music CD that she had carefully planned out and chosen some of our favorite songs, and she made a sweet card. Morgan gave me a new book that I'm looking forward to reading, in addition to a nice note. Brig and Ang gave me a new thicker workout mat (my knees are already happier tonight), a sweater and some pants, and of course a homemade pirate ship birthday card.

The coup de grace though was the family gift I got - a Wii. Yep, it's about time we took that step, and you should have seen the kids' faces when I whipped the wrapping paper off and they realized what it was. There was pandemonium. I foresee good times in the video game wing of the house for the foreseeable future.

And of course, the birthday wishes I received from everyone really rounded out a perfect day. Family and friends really showed kindness with their expressions - some funny, some serious, some short, some long - and all VERY appreciated. Thanks so much for eveything!

TrolleyCards

Hey all, some friends of ours have started up an online greeting card site, and I thought I'd share it with you ... along with a discount code :-)

Let me explain why this is a pretty cool site. It's the complete opposite of the drugstore cards we all have seen. These cards are high-end, hand picked boutique style cards that are either letter pressed (Angela loves these!) or silk screened. For one reasonable price ($7), you choose from any of the available cards, personalize the message, select a delivery date, include a gift card if desired (at least 3 different dollar amounts you can choose from), and then Trolley will mail the card to whomever you designate. It comes in a very stylish brown envelope with a wax seal imprinted with the trolley logo. Angela and I were very impressed when we got our card!

If you're interested in checking it out, the website is: trolleycards.com

Use this coupon code for 25% off your first order: LETTERPRESS

(and don't be surprised if you receive your own brown envelope in the mail in the future...)

A couple of Brig-isms

Brig and I had a good conversation the other evening as I was getting him ready for bed. I told him that no matter how big he gets, he'll always be my son and I'll always be his dad. He thought about that for a moment, and then said, "No, I'll always be your brother!" I tried to explain the difference, sticking with the "no matter how big you are..." theme. He then said, "well, I'm going to be bigger than you when I'm 26." Which is probably about right... :)

We were eating dinner a couple nights ago and Brig, sitting next to me, started scratching himself where little boys sometimes do. He looked over at me and said "I'm scratching my pee-thing because it itches." Makes sense to me.

the *NEW* me

Every once in a while I have an epiphany related to myself. Sometimes they're instantaneous, sudden, and unexpected. Other times, they roll around in the back of my mind for weeks, lurking in the corners before I even know they're there, slowly taking shape, baking, and then evolving as I start to put conscious thoughts to whatever they are. That's where I am today.

I have realized there are a couple areas of my life where I want to be better. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that I hope many of you see the effects in the coming months...

I've mentioned before that I'm taking on a new role at work. It's exciting and stressful and interesting and overwhelming all at the same time. My own team will be in flux a little as there are still moving pieces, but there is more definition now around my role and responsibilities and that is a very good thing. A by-product of this change, though, is that I've been so consumed at work that I haven't had much time to update this blog, which makes me sad because I don't want people to get out of the habit of checking it frequently. I'll try to be better.

P90X is going well - tough, tough, tough to keep up day after day, but I've been doing pretty well at it. The first three weeks of each phase are intense, and then the 4th week is supposed to be a "rest" week. I'm in the 4th week, and was surprised at how UN-restful it is...

I had a funny dream last night related to my workouts. A lot of P90X is based on strengthening your core, with a likely result of gnarly abs. So I dreamed I was with the family in a shopping center parking lot (don't know why), and I had my shirt off (that makes more sense...). A lady came up to me and made some admiring comments about my muscular physique, and my abs in particular (remember, this is a dream!). Then her husband, who was somehow behind me, and probably feeling jealous about his wife's comments, said something to the effect of: "yeah, but look at all that back hair!" and then they went off laughing........ Let me now take the opportunity to thank my forefathers for body hair.

Things I'm grateful for

There have been years in which my posts for this week were dedicated to the hopes that one football team completely destroys another. This year is different. I don't feel as closely connected to the BYU-Utah game as I have in the past, and frankly, it's kind of refreshing. I don't really know any Utah grads out here, I don't listen to any of the Utah talk radio blather, I try not to read many articles - and for sure no message boards, and I just have a lot going on that keeps my mind otherwise occupied.

In Thanksgiving week this year, I'm particularly grateful for a lot of seemingly normal things. Work's very busy but good right now - more so than normal because I'm still getting up to speed in my new role (same company, same team, different responsibilities). Micah's play went well and I'm glad it's over. The other kids have a lot of smaller important things that mean just as much to them as the big stuff - so that's good that we have opportunities to care for their needs too. I've been exercising like a mad man - so much so that I literally have to plan my days around when I get my workouts in and when I can get to sleep to try and get enough recovery rest. My church calling is busy with normal stuff. We're starting to think a lot about Christmas gifts and plans. We're all pretty healthy now but Micah, Brig, and I were all sick recently. And this is the time of year when there's just a lot going on.

So in short, I guess I'm just grateful for a wonderful life, an awesome family, very supportive relatives, cool friends, a sweet job, and the feeling that Heavenly Father is in charge of the important things in our life - and He's going to hook us up with stuff that's right for us at the right time.

Micah's Play: Video!

As promised, here are some underground videos of Micah's play. They are generally not complete songs, and the cameraman - whoever it was - was not great, but you get the idea:

Maybe #1

Maybe #2

Hard Knock Life

Tomorrow

Enjoy!

Brilliance

Micah's play this weekend was absolutely amazing. She was simply incredible as Annie - we were so proud of her. We were also overwhelmed with the outpouring of support from friends and family who came to the shows to see Micah perform. And all those who saw it seemed to agree: there is a star among us! I happen to have it on good authority that someone might have taken some bootleg video of Micah singing, so I may have something to post here for those who can't make it to the show. Stay tuned...

We are not quite in Thanksgiving mode yet, but it's getting close enough that we can start to feel it. It helps that we've got the "I'm Thankful For..." box out in the living room for people to drop their secret notes into, and we're trying to have extra gratitude. We're all looking forward to a few days off, time with friends (dinner at the Baughs again - what a great tradition!), and getting that much closer to December.

We're starting to make Christmas plans and it's fun to consider all the possibilities as we think about helping Santa find just the right gifts for the kids. There's always the question of doing just enough without going overboard, and avoiding not doing quite enough... I know that's a very materialistic view, but we enjoy the gift giving aspect of Christmas and hope to make our kids and each happy in that way.

Angela and I watched the movie Push the other night and found it very entertaining. We hadn't heard anything about it, so we enjoyed the excitement and new ideas. We love finding new movies to see - we're looking forward to a couple that are coming out soon: The Blind Side, and Invictus.

Annie weekend - we hope

My excuse for not writing more is that I've been very busy at work, and my 10-minute sanity breaks in which I usually write the blog posts have been fewer and farther between. I'm digging my new role thus far, but it's challenging getting up to speed.

This is the weekend we've been waiting for for months - Micah's opening weekend for Annie. Here's a link to the local community newspaper's blurb on the show: Los Altos Town Crier. There is one eensy weensy little problem though - Micah's been sick all week. Like cold, cough, sore throat, stay home from school sick. Coincidentally, Micah also happens to be the world's worst medicine taker. We've spent many an hour trying to get her to drink Robitussin or take the pills the Dr prescribed... not fun! But we think she'll be ok by tomorrow afternoon's show (fingers crossed). We're excited to have Grandma Richards coming in town for the play, as well as Christine and her girls. Micah's really thankful because we can't share it any other way.

There's a line I love in a relatively famous movie by a relatively famous - and very talented actor, that simply says: "Prediction? Pain!" (can you name the movie and actor?) Why is that relevant here? Simple. I started P90X this week - heard of it? It's sort of the fitness craze right now. Everyone knows somebody who's doing it, or who has done it. It's an extreme fitness workout that I believe has one implicit goal: hurt you as bad as possible, and then make you come back the next day, and the next day, and ..... you get the picture. 90 days of intensity (thankfully with a Sunday rest day) - and I'm 5 days into it, and having trouble functioning. I'll keep you posted periodically. (Rocky 3, Clubber Lang - aka Mr. T)

Have a great weekend.

random stuff

I'm looking out my office window at a very serene dusk sky as the sun is now down and the last light of the day is lingering over the Santa Cruz mountains. Problem is, it's 4:48pm. Since when does the sun go down before 4:48pm?! Man, glad I don't live in Alaska or someplace extreme North...

I've been downloading Apps like crazy lately on my Android phone. My personal favorites (some new, some I've had for a while), that I actually use quite often, are (and they're all free...):

1. Shazam: when I hear a song I like on the radio, or in the mall (wait, I'm never in the mall, but you get my drift...), I just hold up my phone running Shazam, and it tags the song, tells me who it is, and stores it for later when I want to go buy it.

2. DirecTV: I just set my DVR at home to record tonight's Jazz game, while I was in the bathroom at work - well, I guess you didn't need to know where I was, but it's cool nonetheless.

3. Pandora: this is a great Internet radio app, although I did have a problem with it the other day. I was at work, the app accidentally got opened on my phone, and next thing I know there's music coming from my pocket... good thing it was a cool song.

4. SportsTap: any sport, any time. Real time scoring, stats, and other cool stuff...

5. The Weather Channel: great for whenever I need to know what the weather is in Kona, HI (saved from our trip), or New York City, or anywhere for that matter

6. "Where": which is one of those cool apps that gives you local info for wherever you are - like movie times at the closest theater, gas prices at the closest gas stations, restaurant recommendations for - you guessed it - close by.

7. Some other handy ones on my phone: Flashlight, Compass, and Bubble Level (seriously, I use it)

So the next generation of phones are now hitting the stores and they even have more cool stuff built in. Like turn-by-turn navigation (including Google Street View images as you near your destination), to replace your Garmin or TomTom navigation systems. Another extremely cool one is the speech to text function, which I would find particularly useful when I'm driving - text, email, etc. by voice... nice!

As I was walking out the door today, Brig said, "Dad, have an AWESOME day without me!" :-)

Sad email this morning

I was sitting in a meeting this morning and I received an email from a good friend in Austin telling me that his wife passed away last night. She had been fighting cancer for about five years, and it had been very hard on her. The thing that made it sad for us is that they visited San Francisco a while back, met us for an amazing dinner there, and told us she had been declared cancer free. Literally days after that fun evening, they found out that it had returned, and was worse than ever. So after 25 surgeries, dozens of hospital stays, 30 radiation treatments, and several rounds of chemo, she finally passed late last night.

We are very grateful for the eternal Plan of Salvation, that helps us know we there is life after death, and that Caroline is in a much better place. But we also have very tender hearts for Fred and the kids as they've lost their wife and mother. We hope they will be ok. Caroline, we will miss you.

The Halloween Quandary

Everyone likes to have friends, and wants to be invited to the parties and fun events. The one possible exception might be at Halloween. I ... ahem ... know a guy ... who fits the aforementioned category quite well. He likes to get invited to parties and to hang out with a wide group of friends. But when it's a Halloween party, he (allegedly) has very mixed feelings about being invited to the party ... I've heard he doesn't like to dress up in a costume, plain and simple. But because he's a good husband, he still does, and will be out partying, fully costumed, tomorrow night.

When we first moved into this area we got invited to a Halloween party, and we dressed up in real live biker gear that we borrowed from family. It was pretty sweet - I colored in some sweet fake facial hair and looked somewhat imposing, I admit. Problem was, for a very long time afterwords, I ran into people from the party in normal situations, and I constantly got the "oh, I pictured you WAY differently because of the first time I met you..." I guess that means it was a good costume...

So along that vein, I tried to think of cool costumes I've heard about or seen. Not too many come to mind (which probably explains why I, uh, I mean the guy I was telling you about, rarely has any good ideas). OK, pretty much only one comes to mind - and it's pretty much the winner of all categories in my mind. My brother and his bro-in-law went to a friend party with a bunch of people in their Utah ward dressed as cowboys with bedrolls slung over their shoulders ... yep, you guessed it, dressed as Brokeback Mountain. That still makes me laugh...

New Digi Camera

Has anyone else noticed that digital cameras just keep getting better and cheaper all the time? Due to the unfortunate early termination of our previous camera while in Hawaii, we were in the market for a new one. We looked at the hotbed of camera and photographic excellence - Costco, of course, and were surprised how much camera you can get for the same or less than what we paid on previous, not as nice cameras. We decided on a Sony that gives us 12.1 megapixel resolution, with 5.0x zoom, and can record up to 1 hour of HD video - for about $229.

Ang made her famous cinnamon rolls the other night. I believe they are the number one diet busting item in our home - it is impossible to not eat them. They are amazing. Brig loves to help her make them, and loves to eat them. He calls the "Brigham Rolls". Unfortunately, the Brigham Rolls turn into Daddy Rolls...

Busy, Busy, Busy, and 2,000

Sorry for no posts last week. My work team had a multi-day offsite that required much of my attention and energy. And here we now sit, almost at the end of October --- seriously?

The kids are getting geared up for Halloween this week - Brig is going to be a pirate, Morgan is going to be Glinda, Kennan will be Hermione complete with British accent she's been practicing, Micah will be a pumpkin, and Angela's making me be the Grease guy as she is the Grease girl. We have parties and events galore around Halloween, so lots to look forward to this week.

I went over 2,000 miles for the year on my bike this weekend. It was a great ride - perfect fall weather, a little cool, early sunshine, changing leaves. I went by myself and decided to listen to my headphones, which is unusual for me, but that made the ride go fast. I'm also happy that I have a group of guys that I can ride with two early mornings a week. It's cold and dark, but as long as it's not raining, good times.

More changes coming at work for me, but as it's not for sure yet, I'll hold off boring you with the details until it's certain. Not leaving Google (I'm not an idiot...), just some new responsibilities.

First convertible

Brig probably spends at least an hour a day in the car with Angela, driving around delivering kids or whatever. As you can imagine in this temperate climate, there are plenty of convertibles around - you'd think Brig would have noticed them by now. We were outside on Saturday going to play tennis, and a convertible car drove by. Brig all of a sudden stopped, gasped, and said "AWESOME!!! - that car has none roof!" That's one smart kid...

Oh for a normal weekend... The last five weekends, either Angela or I or both of us has been out of town. We're lucky to have so many fun opportunities, but at some point you just start wishing for a boring weekend at home. So here it is, Monday morning, and I'm already excited for this weekend - not a great way to start the week :)

Mike Zimmer

When you're on vacation you miss stuff that you normally would have seen. I remember seeing in the airport a score for the Ravens-Bengals game in which the Bengals surprisingly beat the Ravens, but didn't hear anything more about it until doing some light lunchtime reading today.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/ravens/bal-mike-zimmer-bengals-1012,0,6045698.story

It turns out the Bengals defensive coordinator's wife died a few days before the game, and then he went and coached the team on Sunday to an improbable defensive-driven win. The players had dedicated the game to him and his late wife, and I'll be darned if I didn't get emotional just reading about it. Very sad story, but nice how the team rallied around him.

Ironman Pictures (see earlier post for details)

Two of the Navy Seals jumping in right before race start

The professionals at the beginning of a long day

All the age group athletes waiting to get into the water before the start

The cannon goes off (puff of white smoke) and the race begins for the age groupers

Some of the leaders on the bikes

Our vantage point at the "hot corner"

The hot corner

The Kona crew on race day

The leading marathoner at mile 3 - American Chris Lieto

Defending champ and eventual 2009 winner, Craig Alexander

Why are these prime athletes stopping their race to have a picture taken?!

Doctor... Doctor... before our volunteer shift begins

As we're finishing up our Med tent shift

The doctor and his trophy wife

Would've been cooler if we were standing under the finish line clock - for some reason they wouldn't let us...

And now, the Ironman!

It started on our flight into Kona a week before the race - you could start to see a bunch of people wearing Ironman shirts, sporting Ironman backpacks from around the world, wearing compression socks, and looking very fit. We marveled at all the well-used bike travel cases at the airport, and felt bad for the guy whose bike didn't arrive with the luggage.

And it continued all throughout the week, building momentum with each day. From the ride into town from the airport where you passed the "Athletes in Training" signs, and all the way to race day, I don't think there was ever a time when we didn't see someone riding or running along the course. I was amazed at how much work the athletes did in the heat all week in preparation - all day. I really have never seen such a dearth of body fat in one place as I did this week.

One of the highlights for us of the week was spending time walking laps through the Ironman village and expos. There were booths set up with every possible biking, running, and swimming company, as well as every conceivable sponsor (including the official Ironman bed). Spencer and I strongly favored the booths handing out free stickers - my Rocket Box is going to look killer when I get them all stuck on! Angela and Molly went for a swim in the Everlasting pool under the watchful eye of some well-known swimming champion, I demo'd some $175 running shoes (thanks, but no thanks), and we must have gone through the clothing and gear store about 7 times before deciding on what exactly we "needed" to buy.

For us it was really fun to run along Ali'i drive from our condo into town and to where the finish line would be, mimicking parts of the marathon route. I was always glad to be running just 4-6 miles in the heat, and wondering how I could possibly do a full marathon. It was also really cool to go down to the water and swim the actual course. We didn't swim the whole thing of course (2.4 miles is a LONG way), but I estimate we probably swam about half of it, and it was amazing. You can see the bottom the entire way, and that helps keep you oriented. The salt water seems to buoy you up, so it was slightly easier than swimming in a pool - but let me tell you, we were good and tired by the time we finished.

Another cool experience was attending a couple of short sessions of Spencer's Ironman medical conference. We listened to 6-time champion Mark Allen give a very entertaining speech, and were impressed with what it takes to finish, let alone win, such a grueling race.

OK, so Saturday morning finally arrived. We got up super early, thinking we'd beat the crowds to get a good spot to view the swim action. As we walked/ran down to the start, we quickly realized we weren't the only ones who had had the bright idea to "beat the crowds". We did end up finding a good place along a sea wall that seemed actually like one of the better places to be. It was a little wet, so we thought that maybe some waves had gone over it during the night,but we were willing to get a little wet for such great seats (and we weren't the only ones as it quickly filled up). That was a great idea, except for the two rogue waves that swept over us, and unfortunately for the first one I was sitting on the wall with our camera in my hand and wasn't able to cover it up in time - so no more camera... :(

The race was awesome! The professionals (around 150) started fifteen minutes before the rest of the field, and they were very impressive. After they started their swim, the age group amateurs (about 1700) all came out into the water, and when the cannon went off, it was just a mass of roiling white water as they all started swimming at the same time. We stayed on our seawall perch until the main groups of top pros - the real contenders - had finished the swim. Then it was time to hoof it up to the "hot corner" to see the bikes. The hot corner is cool because you get to see the bikers go by three different times within about a 1/2 hour span due to a unique configuration of the course. There were thousands of spectators there, but we got a really good vantage point and saw all the pros and many of the top amateurs go by. Really awesome!

It was then time for a big old pancake and egg breakfast at an outdoor bar (don't worry, I had my pancakes virgin...), and back to the condo for a peaceful, cool nap while the athletes slogged their way through the hot headwind out on the bike course. The marathon course went right past our condo, so we figured out about when to step outside to see the runners, and that was amazing. The first guy was an American named Chris Lieto (eventual 2nd place), and he had a short lead over a few different groups, including the previous year's champion, Craig "Crowie" Alexander from Australia, who was in a group fully 11 minutes down on Lieto. The course also looped back around by our condo a few miles later, and we saw Lieto's lead stretching out over everybody except Alexander, who had whittled the difference down to around 8 minutes.

We made our way down the course towards the finish line and the medical tent, where we were slated to be volunteers for the majority of the afternoon and into the evening. Spencer was a Dr there, I was security on the entrance closest to the finish line, and Angela & Molly were runners and logistics inside the tent. We heard and experienced the winners crossing the line (Craig Alexander repeated as champion for the men, and Chrissy Wellington set a new record for the women and won her 3rd consecutive title), and then even better, we got to see most of the top finishers in the medical tent as they came through for testing and recovery. We also saw quite a few athletes whose bodies didn't allow them to finish the race, and I felt bad for them, but it seemed to me that the prevailing tone was that of relief to be done - once they started to recover. There were plenty of volunteers, so it was fun to be able to take breaks and go watch people finish the race well into the evening. It was just as cool for me to see the late finishers as it was to see and hear the top pros - really, really inspiring!

So there you have it. Our first World Ironman Championships experience (and hopefully not our last!). I was so inspired throughout the week that I actually tried to go sign up for an Ironman myself - to no avail since they fill up extremely fast. Oh well, maybe I'll still get the chance some day...

(oh yeah, the next post will have a bunch of pictures!)

Hawaii Highlights

Angela and I had a fabulous time in Kona, Hawaii. It's funny when I'm not working, because the less time I spend in front of a computer, the less connection I have to days and time. As a result, all the days are pretty much jumbled together, so rather than giving you a chronological play by play, I'll resort to my ever-popular highlights list:

--hanging with Spencer & Molly, and no kids (sorry munchkins, it was nice for a week!)

--snorkeling: favorite sea life was the dolphins, but the sea turtles were cool as well, and I enjoyed the octopus and large varieties of colorful fish ... didn't enjoy the jellyfish sting on my ankle

--beaches: let's see, there was White Sands, Kahaluu, Hapuna, Waipi'o (soft black sand), Kealakekua, and a bunch of other "-ua" beaches - all nice in their own way

--Waipi'o valley: beautiful and intimidating all at the same time. We hiked the mile (is that all it was) down the 25% grade road into the deep valley, played on the beach, and then hiked back out

--good food (particularly enjoyed the good seafood and Kalua pig) - although it was very spendy - a local told me that prices for everything increase 3x for Ironman week on Kona

--running, swimming, walking tons

--great weather - hot, but that's what you want in a beach vaca, right?

--Air conditioning in the condo - ok, you want it hot when you're at the beach... (the night and day in which it went out really drove home the point of how much we enjoyed it when we had it!)

As you can tell, I purposely stayed away from any mention of the Ironman that was a big part of our trip. For me that was the ultimate highlight, but I wanted to split reporting on the trip up into that part (coming soon) and the other great Hawaii vacation things.

There you have it...

And, we're back...

You know when you take a major vacation and then it's really, really hard to go back to work the next Monday? That's me today, right now... I'm sitting here in a fog looking at the hundreds of emails, wishing I got more sleep last night, and knowing it's going to be a long day. But, it was all worth it.

I'll write more later giving you a detailed recap of the great Hawaii vacation, but for now, suffice it to say it's great to be home with the kids!

ALOHA!!

We're off to Hawaii in the morning, and if you haven't guessed by my last few posts, we're extremely excited. It's always a little stressful getting everything ready, especially since Angela's neurotic about leaving a spotless house - we're talking deep, deep clean - before we go. It's a nice thought since her parents are here to watch the kids, but I give it all of 1/2 a day before it's all back to normal...

Anyway, we got the parents from the airport today and the kids are glad to have them here. I was talking with Micah today and I was telling her how we'll miss the kids, but it's also good for parents to get away and take some time for ourselves. I said, "we'll probably come back better parents next week." to which she responded, "I just want you to bring me a souvenir..." Sheeesh...

Thanks in advance to the friends who are going to be helping out with the kids!

Is it time? ... I think so

Quite a while ago when the stock markets were close to the beginning of their recessionary free fall, I decided I wanted to protect my 401K assets and I pulled everything out of stocks and put it into very conservative bonds and money market instruments. Well, I've been watching the markets and it feels like things have turned since this summer and appear to generally be headed back up. So I decided it was time to shift the 401K allocations back into stock funds, while leaving some in bonds for some diversification.

Believe me, I'm no expert. BY NO MEANS AM I RECOMMENDING YOU DO THE SAME!!! I just felt like it was time, especially given the longterm view I have on that savings mechanism and am willing to ride out the "normal" short term market fluctuations. Again, I'm not an expert, and I don't want anyone to construe this as something you should do too. But if the market is indeed headed back up, then I wanted to take part in that growth.

That's all.

Anatomically Correct

Before I explain the title, I first have to say what a great time I had this weekend with my dad and brothers (including bros-in-law). We all convened in Utah for a couple days of great food, a lot of laughs, and some fun activities. You couldn't even begin (nor would you want to, frankly) to count the calories for what we ate this weekend ... chocolate donuts, Cafe Rio burritos, poor man cupcakes (the best cupcakes known to mankind), all-you-can-eat french toast with buttermilk syrup, huge home-grilled steaks, twice-baked potatoes, BBQ pork sandwiches, hotdogs, candy, sourcream-lemon pie, rhubarb pie, and more. Of course that wasn't all in the same meal, but it might as well have been - we went from being full from the previous meal to getting even more full again in the next feast. It was awesome!

The golf was great too although we missed Dave and MattMax, and then of course the main reason for the weekend - the BYU-CSU game - was really fun as well. Probably the best was just being together and talking, giving updates on our families, laughing, and joking.

So now to the unrelated title...

Brig was drawing a picture of himself yesterday and I watched him draw a big head, with two legs coming out. He then proceeded to draw an anatomically correct little, uh, man-part, and informed me that he was going to the bathroom (yep, he drew the stream too). I was surprised by that, and found it hard not to laugh. I'm pretty sure none of the girls' drawings ever looked remotely like that before...

Upcoming trips and stuff

I'm off tomorrow evening to Utah again for the second installment of "BYU Football Trips". Hopefully this one will turn out better for the Cougs. It will definitely be great for me either way as it's a weekend man-cation with my Dad and brothers - our Christmas present from last year finally coming to pass.

I have to admit to also thinking ahead a little bit to our upcoming Hawaii trip starting next weekend. I'm so excited to do all the fun things - beach, pool, snorkeling, eating, tennis, and just relaxing - as well as volunteering in the medical tent of the Ironman World Championships in Kona. Should be a great time, made even better by our traveling companions, Spencer & Molly!

Work is going well, as I seem to be getting the rhythm of my new boss, and I feel like his style is making my life a lot easier because he's of the mindset that less is more (presentations, reports, etc.). I haven't found myself mimicking his British accent yet - I think that will have to wait for a particularly brave day ... :)

Huge congratulations to Cameron and Christine who just announced the surprise of the year for all of us - they're expecting baby #5 and boy #2. They're very good at keeping secrets, they must get that from Grandma LeBras... oh wait....

The heatwave that had everyone dreading the near-100 degree temps this week never really materialized. I'm definitely not complaining. It doesn't exactly feel like Fall yet, but just an extension of late summer - very nice.

My bad

I take all the blame for BYU's frustrating loss to FSU on Saturday. Yes, I should realize that any time I make an effort to get to a game, BYU's chances of winning plummet to near zero, but I put that aside this week and went with some buddies to the game. It was never even close... so sorry, BYU fans, I'll take the blame for that one.

Kennan scored another goal in this weekend's soccer game - she's a freaking goal-scoring machine now! I really think something's clicked in her head that's making her a much better player. She's very happy with her decision to keep playing, and is having a blast.

Heat wave coming to NoCal this week, and I can't say I'm happy about it. we're looking at high 90s, low 100s for the next three days. Uggghh, welcome Autumn.

A couple of things happened this weekend in the neighborhood that just served to remind me what my priorities in life are, and always should be: 1) my family; 1a) obeying the commandments and teaching my family to do so as well; 7) work.

Problem solved

Thanks to everyone for your concern about our car. I was able to get it started after cleaning off the battery lead (quite a bit of corrosion that accumulated mostly while it sat in our garage while on vacation for two weeks). Then I charged the battery for a few hours with our handy dandy 3 in 1 charger, and it's been golden ever since.

I was really pleased that it seems to have just been a battery problem - usually it's something much more expensive like the alternator or starter. And the good thing is, now that the node is cleaned off, the battery seems to be holding a charge well. Problem solved (hopefully!).

So this has been a very busy week. At work we're in the process of setting sales quotas for the next quarter, and it's intense. It hasn't helped that I've been looking forward to the weekend since, oh, last weekend... I'm headed to Provo for the BYU-Florida State game on Saturday with a couple of buddies - should be awesome!!!!

Family's all good.

The worst feeling in the world

Is there anything worse than getting into your car, turning the key, and nothing happening? We get so reliant on our cars, and our entire schedule revolves around being able to get where we need to go, when we need to go there, and not have to worry about only having one car. Tonight, it happened to me. I was all set to go to bishopric meeting and the car was completely dead. Angela had just driven it (on a side note, all the bad things that happen to our cars seem to happen either when she's driving them, or just did...hmmm), so I'm not sure it's the battery, although I'm really, really, really hoping that's all it is.

The problem as I see it now is that I can't get the car out of park, even if I turn the key, and the car is nose first in the garage. We have an old portable jumper that's charging tonight, but I'm expecting in the morning to have that not work, and truthfully I'm not sure where that leaves us. Not sure how to get the car out of the garage even if it does need to be towed...

This is when I start to really wish for a new car! Grrrrrrr....

GOOOOOOOOAAAAALLLL(s)!!!

Kennan loves soccer. She has played now for I believe 3 years, this being her fourth. She has always enjoyed playing with her friends on the team, and over the years has evolved into something of a defender - happy to let the ball and opponents come to her, and then decent at kicking the ball out of there. She has at times showed an interest in playing forward, but never really showed the aggressiveness of going after the ball and following up on kicks.

This year I have noticed in seeing a couple of her soccer practices that she seems more aggressive and interested in going after the ball. I'm happy to see that because we've been encouraging her to get aggressive and go for the ball rather than wait for it.

So this Saturday Angela dropped her off at her game and then we were both running around doing different things for other kids, etc. We both got to the actual game a little late and received the amazing news that Kennan scored not one, but two goals within the first five minutes of the game. Of course we were sorry to miss them, as they were her first goals - not of the year, but EVER. We were very proud, and Ang took her out to the Sweet Shop to celebrate afterwards. It's very fun to see your kids succeed at something they love to do!

Also, our bishopric got reorganized this week and I have been asked to stay on 1st Counselor. The new bishop is awesome, and I'm very happy that he kept me on. In fact, nothing changed except for just the bishop, so there will be quite a bit of good continuity. So I am now serving under my third bishop, which is somewhat unique, but they've all been outstanding.

A good picture

On the heels of BYU's big win, and in honor of one of my favorite movies of all time, I thought you might get a kick out of this. Whoever did this is pretty good...

Lots to Report

We have had a very eventful long weekend. So sit back, grab yourself a cool beverage and your favorite snack, and settle in...

Our great friend who has been patiently waiting for a lung transplant (and who also faithfully reads this blog when she's able), received the call last week and underwent a double lung transplant. There's still a long way to go for her, but we're so happy that she's been able to have this blessing, and in following her husband's blog updates, it sounds like things are progressing pretty well. Our prayers are with you Cammi.

Micah recently auditioned for the play, Annie, at the local theater company. She has been in a few of their productions before - Peter Pan, The Sound of Music, Aladdin - and those who have seen the plays can attest to the quality and professionalism. She did well in her audition and received a few callbacks for different parts, which happened throughout the week. Saturday was the big day for the cast list to come out, and as you can imagine, there was constant checking of the website. When it finally happened, we were all super excited to see that Micah got the part of Annie! She's going to be amazing, and we're very happy to support her in this, although it's going to be very tough with nightly rehearsals until mid November.

And speaking of Saturday, I watched one of the greatest victories in BYU football history with three of my buddies. You should have seen us, a bunch of grown men, jumping around hysterically and screaming ourselves hoarse as BYU defeated 3rd ranked Oklahoma on national TV. It was an amazing game, and has vaulted the program back into the national spotlight. I could go on and on about this, so I'll actually cut it short to spare you ... (but can't wait for this Saturday's game to see them again!)

Micah had a few new Jr. High friends over for a movie night on Saturday. We set up the projector and screen in the back yard and they had a fun time watching the new Hannah Montana movie. It's nice for her to start branching out with new friends as she meets lots of people at her new school.

We had two swim parties and BBQs yesterday - both very fun. One of them included a huge inflatable slide (like you see in those jumpy places) pointed into the pool, which made for hours of uninterrupted fun (for adults and children alike). It was great to hang out with lots of friends. I also went on three good bike rides this weekend - one mountain climb on Friday afternoon as everyone left work early, one Saturday afternoon to just get a quick blast of exercise, and a long one Monday morning with some buddies.

I took Brig and his little friend over to the tennis court on Saturday and we hit some balls. I was pleased that Brig is actually pretty coordinated and can hit the ball fairly consistently. He loves to do stuff like that, so I need to make sure we find the time to go when we can.

Kennan and I have been reading the Charlie Bone series of books - we're still on the first but just about done and already looking forward to the second. They're good, and different, from other things we've read, which is nice. I'm also reading Harry Potter 2 to Morgan, which she loves, and Micah and I are reading Lord of the Rings when we get a chance (not too much free time...). Micah and I rode our bikes to her school this morning and then I went on to work. I'm hoping we can do that a lot because it's fun to ride together, and it's a good habit to get into.

No bishopric changes to report - I'm thinking two or three weeks, which could be interesting since since on the 27th I fly back from Utah Sunday morning and land about 9:40 - 20 minutes before church starts. If that's the week of the change, I'm almost for sure going to walk into the meeting late. Hopefully it will happen before then!

Midweek Update

Kennan and Morgan started piano yesterday with a new teacher, and believe it or not, they're actually excited about piano again. They couldn't wait to practice... strange. They're both enjoying school so far this year. A lot of the focus seems to have been on Micah because she started 7th grade and it's all new and exciting, but the other girls are really doing well. Kennan's playing soccer again with her friends, they're looking forward to the school plays, they like their teachers and classes, and it all seems good.

I had a great exercise week last week but I think maybe in the end I was either coming down with something or my body just got overly tired, because I've been not quite right this week. Hopefully I'll be able to snap out of it because with only four weeks left to Hawaii (!!!!!!!!!!!!) I need to get "beach ready". I'm trying a new experiment and starting to calorie count for the first time - I find it very hard for things like a big salad with lots of stuff in it - am I seriously supposed to look up the calories for each individual topping and estimate the ounces? ... not so sure this is going to last long ...

No news on the bishopric changes yet, but things at work are stabilizing nicely. My new British boss has finally moved over and we've had some excellent work sessions and discussions this week already. He's going to be good to work for I think, although there's a good chance he's going to look at a lot of things we've typically done with a high degree of "what?!" Should be a fun transition, and I think in the long run my job will be much better as we get settled. It's a bit humbling at times trying to answer questions as to why we do certain things...

Seasonal Sickness...

I'm shaky and sweating, getting chills frequently, prone to massive mood swings, and find it hard to focus on important things. It's an epidemic more pervasive than swine flu, bird flu, mad cow, or other animal related ailments, although this one is closely tied to Cougars, Longhorns, Eagles, Ravens, and other awe inspiring creatures. Nope, I'm not really sick (unless you consider my head...), it's FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!

This is the last weekend in which the DVR will not be fully loaded and cranked up to high gear, the last weekend of blissful anticipation before your team really has to show how good (or not) they are, the last Saturday night of aimlessly flipping through channels when everyone else has gone to bed. Yep, I'm all set. I got my DirecTV dish in, the channels cataloged and indexed for quickest large-scale viewing, the entire season schedule printed and highlighted for each week's must see games, my teams' games in the calendar and purring in idle until they get closer, my fantasy football team selected and researched, and of course I'm up to speed on all the latest news, chats, speculation, smack talk, and otherwise for my favorite teams. Come to think of it, maybe I am really sick...



Game ON!

Happy Monday ... oh, wait

OK, so it's already nearly the end of the Tuesday work day and my intentions of a Monday post are a day late. Oh well...

So what's going on? Well, let's call it uncertainty squared. Work and Church... So work we are still in the midst of a large reorganization, that has left me without much of an idea on what my role or team will be going forward. That sounds bad - no, I'm not in danger of losing my job; no, I haven't been underperforming and am being reshuffled; and no, Google isn't a horrible place to work. The fact is, that I'm super excited about the reorg, it's just that I don't really know how to channel that excitement yet because my new manager has been on vacation and unexpected personal emergency leave for about 5 weeks now - all in the critical time during which he and I would have been having strategy and tactics discussions about our group going forward. Not to fear though, it's still going to be great when he does get back ... whenever that is.

So uncertainty number two is with my church calling. As you probably know, I've been 1st counselor in our bishopric for a year and a half, and before that was 2nd counselor under the previous bishop. Two Sunday ago, we were stunned to hear our bishop's name called as a member of the newly reorganized Stake Presidency. So now, Bishop/President Wheatley (or Bishedent as I call him) is doing double duty until a new calling can be made, and as you can guess, I'm getting a lot of "hey Bishop" jokes. So my thinking is that the new bishop will hopefully retain me as a counselor, but if not, I'll also be fine with a little break. But bottom line, there's uncertainty...

I'll keep you posted.

Top 2%

This was Micah's weekend homework - see how many of you can do this:

A quiz written by Albert Einstein at the end of the last century. It has been translated and updated since he first presented it, but the logic is still the same. Einstein believed that 98% of the people in the world could not solve the quiz. There are no tricks involved in determining the correct answer. It's up to you to develop a scientific method for analyzing all the facts. Are you among the 2% who can answer the question, WHO PLAYS CHESS?

HERE ARE THE MAIN FACTS:

1. There are five houses in five different colors
2. In each house lives a person of different nationality
3. No two owners play the same game, listen to the same music, or drink the same beverage

HERE ARE THE ADDITIONAL DETAILS:

1. The Brit lives in a red house
2. The Swede plays Scrabble
3. The Dane drinks tea
4. The green house is immediately left of the white house
5. The owner of the green house drinks coffee
6. The person who listens to jazz plays Dominoes
7. The owner of the yellow house listens to rock
8. The man living in the center house drinks milk
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house to the left
10. The man who listens to country lives next to the man that plays Checkers
11. The man who plays Bridge lives next to the man who listens to rock
12. The owner who listens to show tunes drinks beer
13. The German listens to opera
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house
15. The man who listens to country has a neighbor who drinks water

Now tell us WHO PLAYS CHESS?

..........................................................

Just so you know, Micah figured this out in about 1/2 hour. Anyone up to the challenge?

First Day of School

The girls all bundled off to school just now with high energy, big smiles, and lots of expectations. They are all super excited to start off the new school year - Micah starting 7th grade, Kennan going into 4th, and Morgan a big 2nd grader. Brig starts preschool tomorrow and he's feeling the excitement too, even though he wishes he could start today with the girls. They've all been organizing big bags full of required school supplies, they met their teachers and saw their classrooms, and Micah walked the halls of her new school - finding her classes and checking out her locker. They're wearing new shoes and fun outfits, and it feels great to all of us that this is a fun and exciting day.

Out With The Old, In With The New

I would estimate Angela spends approximately two hours a day in front of the computer, sometimes less, sometimes more. She's been particularly busy lately with all the school stuff she does. That's why when our computer died on Monday evening, it was a serious calamity. We do have my old school laptop that is suitable for smallish tasks, but not having a good computer was just not going to fly. Problem is, you actually have to pay for these newfangled computer thingies, and thanks to this being very unexpected, it's not the ideal time to have to drop a big chunk of change.

So I started doing the research that night, including market research and polling of Mac users vs. PC users, and I was blown away at how many people A) use Macs now, and B) absolutely love them with nothing bad to say at all. Before long it was looking like the iMac was making a serious bid to supplant the long-reigning PC in our home. By Tuesday afternoon, we had decided to radically change our computing habits, and thanks to a very kind friend who works at Apple (and his friends & family discount!), we ordered ourselves a very sleek and amazing new computer.

Shockingly, it was delivered the very next day, and now the kids have proceeded to set each of us up with our own login and preferences, and we are loving the huge new screen that is our new computer. The only remaining problem (other than the credit card bill) is that we would like to recover some of the stuff from off the old computer. I have an external hard drive plugged into it, which has a lot of the pictures and music, but unfortunately it's been a while since I thought to do a backup... So we're hoping we can resurrect old bessie for just one more short stint in order to complete one more backup, and then we'll let her go in peace.

Exciting times!

An Epic Century and 50' Free Fall

Two highlights for me of our Utah trip were the 108 mile bike ride I did with Dave and MattMax, and cliff jumping at Flaming Gorge. Both were scary, fun, and very manly, all rolled into one giant ball of fun-ness.

The Century started at Thanksgiving Point, went around Utah Lake, and then ended up where it started. Dave, Matt and I went out with one of the first groups, and quickly settled into an excellent bunch of riders who not only pulled well themselves at a good speed, but were knowledgeable enough to thank us for our good pulls when we took a turn on the front. I happened to be on the front at one point when I looked around and noticed nobody was behind me - this wasn't good because Dave and Matt had been right on my wheel, followed by the rest of the group. I slowed up, let the group go by, and noting no Richards' anywhere, rode back to find Matt standing on the side of the road with his crank/pedal in his hand. Not a good sign when you're only 22 miles into a long day of riding...

Fortunately, he was able to get his bike all put back together (and good enough that he had no more bike problems the rest of the day), and we were off, trying to get into another good group. We took advantage of the early aid stations to refuel, but our first real stop was at mile 50 for a relatively early lunch. Unfortunately for us, this was the first great deception of the day. It seemed as if this was roughly the halfway point, so the logical assumption was that we were halfway done. Not so fast, my friend...

We left the lunch stop feeling great. Before long we made a big sweeping right hand turn, and here is the second great deception of the day - We were just turning along the south side of the lake, but it appeared to me as if we were now heading up the other side. So I thought we were making great time, and I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of wind on the "backside" of the lake. Then we made the actual turn up the backside of the lake, and I realized just how wrong I'd been.

The next 50+ miles were straight into a headwind that reportedly reached 30 mph for much

of the day. And to make matters worse, the third great deception of the day was that it was a flat, fast course ... those darn rolling hills on the backside not only broke our legs, but broke our spirits too (ok, that's a little dramatic, but H, it was hard!). Dave and I had taken turns doing most of the pulling on the front to make sure MattMax, in his first century ride, was able to

finish. Thank goodness we did, because he had a lot more left in the tank toward the end

than we did, and he did some heroic work to pull us home. All in all

a great team effort. But there's one thing MattMax needs to learn about riding with me... when we're within the last 20 miles, dead wasted, and riding on sheer will alone - and I ask how many miles we've gone... either refuse to tell me, or flat out lie that we're further along than we really are. I asked for a mileage update at what I thought should have been about mile 99 (and hence a much-needed aid station just around the corner), but Matt so cruelly informed me that we were at 93 ... that was the low point of the whole day for me. I will call that the last great deception, and I fully blame MattMax for perpetrating it!

So we finally made it. Incredibly tired, sticky, salty, but happy. It felt like a great accomplishment, and I couldn't have asked for two better compadres to have done it with (except for the rest of the bros!). I have to say that Dave was The Man! - he was so strong and consistent, and his pure joy in riding helped us see the fun in it even as we struggled.

Which brings me to the other great highlight... cliff jumping at Flaming Gorge. I had never been to FG before, but just this one trip was enough to sell me on that wonderful place! We did a lot of fun things there, but as the pictures attest, it doesn't get much better than

hurling myself off a 50' cliff, counting the seconds as I hurtle toward my sure death, and at the last second squeeze my legs together. The whole family had a great time jumping off ledges of various heights, and I enjoyed throwing some fun flips and dives off of shorter 20' cliffs. But when Cameron and I followed these teenagers up to the GrandDaddy ledge, I knew we had met our match, found our refiners' fire, and encountered the true test of manhood. The five of us stood gazing off the gargantuan cliff, and then I realized there was an opportunity in front of me. You don't want to be the last to go off, and you don't want a couple of teenage boys to show the adults what's up - no, I realized there's only one person who can step back, say something freaking cool, and then be the first to hurl himself into orbit while the others stand there with open

mouths. Yep, that's how I think of these things. And that's what I did. While the rest of the group pondered the eternities, I stepped back, said something cool and funny, and let 'er rip. And how was it? In the immortal words of Chris Farley in Tommy Boy, "Thaaat ... was ... AWWWWWEsome!!!" Cameron followed me, still in a position of great honor because he beat the young'uns down, and we ended up doing it again with all the family gathered in the water below to bask in our awesomeness.

So there you have it. By no means should anyone construe the choice of these two highlights to mean that I didn't enjoy, love, cherish, and treasure all the other fun activities and associations we had while in Utah.

These just happened to be the most memorable to me as a 37 year old guy who fancies himself as still being young and vigorous... Good times for sure!

The Prodigal Blogger Returns

It seems like weeks and weeks since my last blog update. Probably because it has been... A big part of that was the fact that I was mostly offline for the past couple of weeks on vacation in Utah. No, it's not that they don't have the Internet there, it's just that we were either entrenched in the mountains, or not in front of a computer by choice.

The theme of this year's vacation was definitely family. I'm sure our few remaining Utah friends will send us dirty looks and virtual daggers for not stopping by when we were in town, but literally, we were wall to wall family time this trip. My entire family was in town for a big reunion and it the first time we'd all been together in ages. We gathered from California, Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, and Utah. We also had good times with Angela's family as everyone was gathered on that side too.

It's tough to list all of the fun things we did, but my style is usually to just make a big old list of all the highlights:

• -plenty of swimming at the local pool
• -hanging out with family on both sides
• -great food the entire two weeks
• -fishing trip with the young sons into the Uintas, and actually catching a bunch of fish
• -movie night for the kids with a projection screen in the back yard
• -fitting our whole family in the cabin
• -lots of bike rides with brothers
• -temple sealings with the adults
• -Ice Age II with Grandpa and Grandma
• -golf with Dad and Nate, and then again with all the brothers and Dad
• -tennis with the kids
• -camping at Flaming Gorge
• -river rafting the Green River, including numerous water fights and "accidental" push-ins
• -cliff jumping! (this was perhaps my personal highlight - 50 ft was my best jump)
• -our own little family's fun vacation dinner at Magleby's
• -the shower after camping
• -finally sleeping in a bed on the 10th night of our trip
• -Seven Peaks water park with the kids and cousins
• -another personal highlight - the ULCER 108 mile bike ride with Dave and MattMax (Anne and Brandon too, but we missed each other)

I've probably missed some fun and important things, but you get the picture - lots of fun, lots of family, and a great vacation.

I'll try to post more often now that things are relatively back to normal now. We're looking forward to finishing off summer of the next week or so, and I'll tell you what else is on the horizon soon.

Evil Micah, New Bike, Countdown Begins

Micah's latest thespian venture started this weekend - it's the play Aladdin, but not the Disney version, so there are characters and parts of the story that are different. Micah plays Jaffar's evil sister, Halima, and I have to say, she does a very believable evil, scheming sister. Unfortunately she only has one singing solo, but it's as good as usual, and I love watching her.

Kennan has dance camp this week, which she's very excited for, and may be the beginning of more dance stuff in the future for her. We hope she continues to enjoy it and does well - nice for her to be good at something she really likes.

I went out on my new bike a couple of times and I really, really like it. Still dialing in a few things, but all in all, it rides sweet and I'm feeling very cyclish. May be time to shave my legs again...

And the countdown begins to this weekend's long anticipated family vacation!

Chaos

Swim team practices and meets, play practice, YW activities, tennis lessons, trips to the beach, play dates, piano lessons, PTA work (it's summer...go figure), So You Think You Can Dance marathons ... man, our kids are going to need to get back to school to get a break... Just the other day during one of their tired moments, Brig and the two younger girls were arguing about something. He finally got extra frustrated and yelled, "I'm not going to be your sister anymore!!!"

Things are humming along though. We're all healthy and happy, generally getting along, and having a great summer. Well, I should say, the family's having a great summer - I just work here. But speaking of work, it's really been going well lately. Our finance org is going through a big restructuring, so things are changing a bit, but I'm excited about the opportunities that will come eventually from it all.

But let's get right down to the important stuff - for those of you who don't know yet, I bought a new bike! It's a sweet machine - at least I think so, because I haven't seen it yet. And after a long, long wait, today's finally the day - I just saw on UPS.com that delivery will take place today, and the bike arrived in Sunnyvale just down the road at 6:30 this morning. Very excited!

Ang and I went out with some fun friends last weekend, ate good Thai food, and saw the movie The Proposal. Somehow, nobody told me that Sandra Bullock was in the movie, but I was stuck by the time I found out. It was fun to just be out with friends. Micah and I are also actively seeking a good time for a daddy-daughter date to see Harry Potter together - it's a little tough now that her play is starting this Saturday. She's excited for it, and it will be fun.

I've been enjoying watching the Tour de France, mainly because the American riders and the American teams are all doing well. I'm sure they're all clean, right? Riiiiiiiiiiight...

Gabrielle, and other less serious stuff

Our little niece, Gabrielle, is in surgery today for a partial amputation of her foot. She was born with a birth defect to her foot that would have made it impossible for her to walk. She's a sweet little girl, although we don't know her too well since they live in Arizona, and we're all praying for success in her surgery. We're sure everything will go well, and we're thinking of Mike and Romina and their family.

Brig had a couple of fun sayings yesterday. He said to Angela, "Mom, when I was a baby, I was SO weird!" When she asked him why he said, because I had no teeth, no hair, and I couldn't even talk. Another time, Angela asked him if he needed to go peepee. He said, "MOM! you can't say peepee words, that is NOT 'septable!" He's also been imitating a scene from the latest Night at the Museum movie - he'll pull up his short sleeves, kiss both biceps one at a time and say, "Thunder" and "Lightning" ... "Fire power!" Pretty funny...

Gonna be a fun day for me today - our team at work is going up to AT&T Park for a Giants baseball game in the afternoon. Should be a great time, especially since the Giants are playing unexpectedly well this year. Interestingly enough, all the summer interns are going up to the Giants game tomorrow night, and since one of them is on my team, I also have to go to that game tomorrow night as well. That's a lot of garlic fries and bratwurst!

Vive le Micah!!

Micah & her friend at Google for lunch with Dad

Playing Dance Dance Revolution in the Google lobby

Hangin out at Google cafe, PIC

The kids helping celebrate Micah's bday this morning

I just can't believe it. Our little Micah, our first born and oldest child, turns 12 years old today! And yet on the other hand, I almost feel like asking, "she's only 12?" It would be impossible to put into words what she means to us - we marvel all the time at how good she is and how well she is doing in her life. She's not perfect, but I can't really imagine another normal, well-adjusted 12 year old being any better.

Today is a day of fun firsts for Micah. This morning, as her main birthday gift, she received her own cell phone. I know, crazy, huh?! I think she loves it - I've probably received 10 text messages from her today! Even more weird to me though, is that she got her ears pierced today. I haven't seen it, but Angela says she looks cute. For some reason that was a surprise to me as we've never talked much about it - well, I should say, I haven't been privy to those conversations, which is probably good.

I love Micah, she's so awesome!