Pure Joy

Three generations of Richards men just got back from Scout camp doctoring this week (it might just be me, but don't you think three doctors from one family is a little overkill?), and I have to share some pictures they sent out.

A couple of observations about this picture. First, look at how excited Pete is to have his cousin Grant catch a fish with his Dad's help. This is the first installment of our "pure joy" series of photos. Secondly, I think that might be the first fish Nate has ever caught ... :)





This is Grant showing off his fish - that's good stuff buddy! Does it get much more happy than a kid with what might be his first fish ever?






Here's the three amigos (Cort, Pete, Grant) proudly showing off Grant's fish - a real group effort!







And finally, here's the true definition of "Pure Joy": up at the crack, fishing pole in hand, first cup of coffee to greet the dawn, ready and raring to go ..... or, at least up at the crack with your pole.

Count Brig and me in for next year!

Political Mumbo Jumbo

One of the interesting things about working at Google is I get a unique opportunity to see a wide variety of speakers come to the company to present their message. The best one I've seen lately is Grete Waitz, the best women's marathoner of all time. But equally as interesting in an "I can't believe people are actually buying this" sort of way are the presidential candidates who swing through and give their spiel. Since I've been here, John McCain, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson have all spoken. Here are some thoughts...

I'm blown away by how fickle politics can be. It really is just a game of spouting whatever the current hot topic is, and either jumping on the bandwagon for or against depending on the tide of public opinion. The Democrats are obviously very forceful against the war, and against anything President Bush has done or stood for. To be honest, their speeches and platforms remind me of the Jr. High and High School campaigns where they promise the world without offering anything by way of how they'd actually accomplish stuff. I catch myself chuckling because I expect the next words to be "...rootbeer in the drinking fountains..."

So I finally broke down and donated a little bit of money to Mitt Romney's campaign. I did this for two reasons - 1) so people would stop asking me for donations, and 2) because I think he's the candidate who most closely matches my personal ideals and fits what I hope our President can be. I have been pleased to see him picking up steam in some of the critical polls, and I was also surprised to see that he has raised the most money among Republicans. Support whomever you want - this is definitely NOT a plea for you to contribute to Mitt, or to try and say you should do anything. I just wanted to mention that I've been impressed with him and his campaign so far, taken as a whole... that's all.

The Sickness continues

Angela had a cold, Morgan had the flu, Kennan had a cold/cough, Micah had a sore throat and cough, Brig threw up in our bed last night, and I missed the first half of today's work day lying in bed with stomach problems. Oh well...

Looks like I may have jumped the gun a little bit in announcing we were coming to Utah for baby blessings this weekend. The more we think about it, the harder it sounds to do. It would be pretty tough for us, and as much as we'd like to, we just don't think it's going to work. So sorry for the false announcement - we really did decide at that time to make the trip - but it looks likely we won't make it to Utah this weekend. This is one of those times we wish we didn't live quite so far away.

Tomorrow's blog topic: Politics

Working from home

Well, I'm working from home today as Morgan is sick for the second straight day. Yesterday, she came out in the morning and said she needed to throw up. She's usually very good at recognizing this need, so we got her to the toilet quickly. She then informed us that she had thrown up twice during the night but didn't want to wake us up because "we were sleeping". Unfortunately, we found at least one of those incidents had been in her bed - which she and Kennan were still sleeping in come morning. So today the rest of the family is headed to Capitola beach with some friends, while she lies quietly on the couch, and I work in the kitchen.

No real weekend plans, except that Angela may head to girls camp with the YW for Sunday, which would make for an interesting sacrament meeting given that I'm conducting that day. We'll work it out though...

The girls did great at their first swim meet of the summer last night. And for Morgan, it was her first real swim meet of her life. They all swam at least freestyle and backstroke, and Micah also swam butterfly and breaststroke. Some highlights included Morgan and Kennan swimming in the same heat in backstroke, and Micah winning her heat in backstroke. I was a volunteer timer for the second half of the meet, and Ang was on "keep Brig out of the water" duty. We were very pleased that the meet only lasted three hours, which is a vast improvement over years past!

Unfortunately, due to a small little incident in Yosemite, we are in the market for a new digital camera and were not able to take any pictures. There will be more opportunities throughout the summer though.

We have made a decision: in honor of Clint & Caroline's first baby, and Spencer & Molly's twins, we decided we need to come to Utah the weekend of July 1st for their baby blessings. One problem - they're both at the exact same time. Man, what are the chances...? Oh well, it's still worth our coming, and we will split duty between the two blessings, while making sure everyone knows our whole family would have loved to be at both. So I guess we'll see everyone very briefly that weekend - we can't wait!

Getting Behind Here...

ANNOUNCEMENT: Before I get started, I just wanted to announce tonight is the first swim meet of the summer. Go Girls and the UC Sharks! Now back to your regularly scheduled post.

Wow, the week goes so fast when you're busy, I find myself way behind in my posting. I still have to report on my weekend...

I played golf at two amazing courses over the weekend. Poppy Hills, which is one of the famous 17-Mile Drive courses between Monterey and Carmel, and Bayonet in Monterey. Pictured is Poppy Hills, which is appropriate as this was by far my favorite course. It was perfectly manicured, nicely challenging, but ultimately pretty playable for a reasonable golfer.

I shot a 91 at Poppy, which I was happy about, particularly the string of 4 pars in a row followed by a birdie. That, however, should also tell you about how a few of the other holes went... All in all, very fun, and it was capped off by staying at a very nice home on the 14th green of Pebble Beach golf course that evening. My Saturday am run was on the fairways and cart paths of Pebble Beach - tough to get any more scenic than that.

Bayonet was a debacle. It is a course that is very unforgiving of mistakes. While I didn't play horribly, I didn't play well either, and the deep, thick rough and massive overhanging trees just bent me over and kicked me hard in the ... well, you know. It was pretty, but somewhat hard to enjoy when I spent most of the day playing out of trouble. I was able to pull things together toward the end of the round, but then got much more tired than I expected from all the golf, and it was definitely over at that point.

Great weekend, but if I had stopped after the Poppy golf, I would have probably been happier.

Our Schedule this week

Monday: FHE at friends' house to see Yosemite slide show

Tuesday: Family lunch at Google; Angela enrichment night

Wednesday: Swim meet; John basketball later in evening

Thursday: Ang YW presidency meeting

This is a very typical week for us, except that I don't have bishopric meeting this week. These activities are all in addition to daily swim team, work, and summer weekday trips to beaches and museums and parks, etc. As you can imagine, we're looking forward to our vacations for some R&R!

Thanks for sending baby announcements for Jake, Emmy, and Ezra - VERY CUTE!!! But then, what would we expect from such HOT parents?!

Father's Day Tribute (key sappy music...)

These are all the Dads and Very-Soon-To-Be Dads in our immediate families. You're all great fathers and your kids are lucky to have you. We can't forget Grandpas either, and if I had pictures of Grandpa Richards, Grandpa Gurr, and Papy LeBras I would have included them as well.

Keep up the good work, fathers!

Let the Countdowns Begin

A few countdowns to important dates:

17 days until Ezra, Jake, and Emmy's baby blessings
21 days until Tour de Philly featuring Angela and John sans kids
23 days until Tour de France
37 days until Utah
48 days until Cougs football hype starts
59 days until Return to California
78 days until Cougs football first game
85 days until Rugby World Cup 2007
114 days until St. George

Note: I purposely chose to leave off birthdays for two reasons: 1) some people don't think they're important dates any more, and 2) I'm bound to forget a bunch of them.

You Know You're Spoiled When...

1. ...you go out for a nice anniversary dinner at a very respectable seafood restaurant (NOT Red Lobster) and you just don't enjoy the food that much because you can eat everything on your plate for free five days a week for lunch at work.
2. ...when you get so many sunny, warm days in a row that you are actually wishing for a little rain to mix things up.
3. ...when you have so many parties, social, and friend opportunities that you start looking forward to a boring weekend with nothing to do but catch up on housework.
4. ...you live close enough to your church that you complain about having to get the kids in the car for such a short trip (OK, this doesn't mean much to those of you in Utah, but it does to the outsiders)
5. ...you live so close to work that it's not worth riding your bike because it's just long enough that you might get a little sweaty, but way too short for any kind of workout.
6. ...you have to ask your wife every night before leaving work what she made for dinner so you can decide whether you want to eat her food or stop by the work cafe and get a to-go box (I would always rather eat Angela's food - this is just a hypothetical situation that I'm sure some people would find difficult).
7. ...your kids are so healthy they complain about a mosquito bite for like four days.

We're grateful for our blessings and for where we live.

Mongolia, of all places...

Dad's in Mongolia at the moment on some kind of voluntary surgery mission. Mom has forwarded some updates from him and he seems to be doing well. It sounds like he is with a good group of docs, and also knows some of the Church mission people as well. I believe he has roughly another week there, and it will be interesting to get his take on the whole experience when he's finished. It's a long way off, and it seems so foreign because we know so little about it - our thoughts and prayers are with him. Good luck Dad!

Last full school day for the kids today, and I'm not sure who's more excited - the kids or Angela. Ang is really looking forward to not having to get kids ready for school, and not have "school nights" anymore. My concern there is that we now won't have school nights, but we won't have "Mom and Dad" time either as the kids push the limits of how late they can stay up.

And speaking of Mongolia... I probably had as much chance of going to Mongolia as I did of playing golf at some of the amazing courses in Monterey/Carmel (Pebble Beach, Poppy Hills, Bayonet). BUT... guess who's playing Poppy Hills and Bayonet on Friday and Saturday?!?! Yep, me. It'll be a little more spendy than your average jaunt around the links, but we're getting a nice member discount, so definitely worth it. I'll think of you all as I'm stroking gorgeous drives down pristine fairways (and into rough, traps, trees, out-of-bounds, adjacent fairways, houses, cars, and playing partners).

INCREDIBLE WEEKEND!

We thought we had seen magnificence before. But we haven't experienced it to such a great degree until we went to Yosemite National Park with our family and some friends over the weekend. We were completely blown away at the unbelievable beauty and power of that place. It was a short trip, leaving early Saturday morning and coming back last night, but we packed a lot of hiking and sight-seeing into those two days.


The kids did great, even with the predictable tiredness coming out every once in a while. They hiked well, especially on the boulders leading up to lower Yosemite falls (see picture to left...there was less water than this picture shows), and also had a lot of fun playing in the water of Mirror Lake and Sentinel Beach. It was fun to be there with good friends, who each added their own insights and fun to the trip. The pictures I've put on this post are just internet pictures, but when I get a chance to gather pics from our trip from a few other sources, I'll put our pictures up for you to see.



Other highlights were:
1. Sentinal Dome hike, including avoiding the "bear" that the kids were worried sure was lurking in the forest.
2. Glacier Point sunset, or just missing it because of spending too much time on the top of Sentinel, but the view (pictured at left) was spectacular and dizzying.
3. Jumping out of the car for the first time inside the park and having the kids say, "Ooo, it smells like Manure! I don't like Nature!" (it turns out we were parked by the restrooms, which is where the ripe smell was coming from, but that was a hard impression to overcome for a few minutes).
4. Brig splashing and stomping his feet in the water at every opportunity; also playing games with Dad's ear from his perch atop my back on hikes...my ear is just starting to recover.
5. Getting to the hotel late Saturday night after a full day and actually having a reservation and a very nice room, and the fact that the Riches didn't run out of gas on the way down the mountain.

Great weekend trip, and we wish we could've stayed longer. But we also realized that with the relatively short drive (3 1/2 hours), it would be a fun day trip in the future...we'll definitely be going back!

Have a great week.

Aaaah, Friday

A couple of really big things today. First, I officially got into the St. George Marathon yesterday. I'm very pleased, and I feel motivated again to run and train now that I have something set to shoot for. I'll talk more about my training and race philosophy this year, because it's changed from previous years. Bottom line, I'm excited and thankful to them for working with me. I think it was more difficult this year to beg your way in after the lottery because they really booked it to the bursting point to start with. The thing that got me the nod this year was that I've already run 7 of them and they wanted to help me out.

Secondly, Kennan lost her front tooth the other night. It was really loose, but she, being the, uh, how shall I put this, the pain-tolerance challenged one in our family, refused to let me pull it out. Well she came running in to my room early in the morning, tapped me on the shoulder, and excitedly informed me that she woke up and her tooth was sitting on her tongue. I guess that's one way to do it...

Thirdly, we're headed for a fun weekend getaway to Yosemite tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn. We're really excited to get there because we've heard so many good things about it but haven't seen it yet. It's also great because we're going with some awesome families from our ward. It's so nice to have amazing friends!

Finally, and this is the best part of the post really, we have our latest installment of Star of the Week. We've taken a couple of weeks off due to Memorial Day weekend and then Brig's walking new preempting anything else last week. But I'm really happy to announce our latest Star:

Nathan "Nany Pooh, Nate the Great, Nater" George Richards

And in his own words (YOU'RE REALLY GOING TO LIKE THIS!)...

My name is Nate. I have been sober...well, for my whole life, but I used that joke once and somebody laughed, so I thought I'd start this little expose off with the same line...I don't think it's gonna fly here though...just a hunch.

I am married to Jenny and we have two incredible kids named Grant (4) and Jack (just about 2). We live in Phil-adel-phia. Jenny and the boys live in a suburb called Havertown. I live in my hospital in Center City Philly and visit Havertown as much as I can...he he he...(insert comment here about surgery residency). We are just finishing our first year of residency, yes...out INTERN year. Ahhhh.

We are happy, healthy, and well, spend most of our time enmeshed in some form of the alphabet or another. So, in the spirit of Grant and Jack, I'll outline our life using the alphabet:

A: I am ALIVE...and most of the time I am AWAKE. (note: that may or may not correspond to the times when I am ALERT).

B: I am BUSY...I work "80" hours a week, which sometimes is actually true, but more often than not, is a little bit of an understatement.

C: I am CLUMSY...I probably don't need to elaborate here, but in the interest of those who don't believe me, I will. I once stubbed my toe...no not that one...on a bed frame and almost cut it off. I have also tripped over more than one tennis net in my life time. My favorite story is from my illustrious childhood. Once, John was chasing me while playing "David and Goliath." In my terror, I ran straight into the wall only to intimately introduce my forehead with a light switch. 4 stitches later, the only question left was why that day, GOLIATH PUMMELLED DAVID?

D: I am DRY. My humor that is. It is too humid here to ever be truly DRY physically.

E: I spent some time in the ER today at the VA in Wilmington, Delaware. Within 15 minutes, I had sown up a head wound, placed a foley, and convinced a psychotic girl that there really wasn't anybody standing behind her yelling. It was EVERYTHING I want, and more.

F: I am FUN...er, actually I like to have fun, but I had to write "am fun" to maintain the continuity of my treatise. For FUN, I like to ride my bike, or steed, as much as I can, to play with the boys, and to run with Jenny. I like to eat good food, and good food likes to stay on me which necessitates my earlier mentioned hobbies.

G: I am certainly not GREGARIOUS, but that is a cool word. I am, however, interested in GOOD books, my favorites are "Team of Rivals" by Dorris Kearns Goodwin, "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow, and "It Came To Pass: the story of BYU football" by Dick Harmon.

H: I am HAPPY. I am happy with my family, my church (I am the secretary in the Young Men) and my work. These things keep me going, and in all serious, define who I am. I love the time I can spend with each.

I: I am IMMOVABLE IN THE PAINT

J: I am not at all, nor have I ever been, able to JUMP more than 1-2 inches.

K: I am KIND of shy.

L: I am certainly very LOUD when I cheer for the Jazz and the boys are sleeping (or so I am told.) It didn't help that they just lost...grrr.

M: I am MAN enough to admit that my favorite movies are still "The Man From Snowy River" and "Three Amigos." Sure, there have been a few classics put out since then like "Meet The Parents," "Ocean's TwentySeven," and any number of Jennifer Lopez movies, but nothing beats the classics yet.

N: I am still NATE, despite myself. I could kill for a good plate of NOODLES at Copolla's in NYC, or a big greasy burger from FIVE GUYS burgers here in Philly.

O: I am OBVIOUSLY on a roll here, so why stop now?

P: I am actually PETERING out, so I'm glad there are only a few letters left

Q: I am QUITE an efficient time waster (as evidenced by this extensive blog entry).

R: I am REALLY glad that I can say my R's now. Just think, I no longer have to worry every time I see a Ram, even though I experience flashbacks to my visits with the speech pathologist and being trapped in my soccer coach's car with the rest of the team and not being able to get out until I said, "the Rough Ram Ran aRound the Raggedy Rocks."

S: I am SUPER STOKED (that "super" was for you, Molly) for Cougar Football season. I think they've got a good shot at being a solid team again this year.

T: I am always, always TIRED nowadays.

U: I am realizing it now that Grant is actually really funny when he reminds me that UNDERWEAR starts with U...he he he

V: I am VERY VERY VERY grateful for each and every one of the blessings that make my life what it is. Namely, my wife, my kids, my parents and siblings (yes...all of you), my faith, and my rugged good looks.

W: I am WAITING for this to be over.

X: I am actually going to order an X-RAY as soon as I'm done typing this.

Y: I am very fond of the word YES, it is the answer to most of the important questions.

Z: I do wash, or at least I used to wash, with ZEST fully clean!

Double Whammy! - 34 and 13

This is a very celebratory time of year in our house. Yesterday, Angela turned the big 34, and there was much celebrating. Actually, due to a couple of gift snafus, and the kids' everlasting Spring Concert (can you hear me gnashing my teeth still?), most of the celebrating after our fun donut breakfast was done by Ang and her friends during the day. She has amazing friends.

As you can tell from the picture, she seems so much older than 34 ... we're not sure why she is aging so fast. Oh well, we all get old and decrepit sometime, it's just a little sad to see her let herself go.



Today also happens to be a big day for another reason. It is the day after the D-day anniversary. Oh yeah, and it's our 13 year wedding anniversary. Man has it really been that long? We both still have vivid memories of our dating, engagement, wedding, and first few years. It would be a stretch to say we always remember everything the same way, but if Angela just acknowledges that I'm right most of the time, then she will be much more in line with my way of remembering things. As you can tell, I've really grown a lot in our 13 years together ... notice I said I'm right "most" of the time instead of "all" the time. Thanks to Morgan for taking the picture.

I love Angela very much. She's the perfect Mom and wife, a great friend, an excellent YW leader, a good school volunteer, a fantastic cook when she gets around to it, an above-average singer, an enthusiastic sleeper, a beautiful lady, and my best friend. Thanks Angela for making me better than I could have been otherwise!

And I couldn't resist ... here's Morg.

Quality Entertainment

Brig discovered his bike helmet, and let me ask you: does it get any better than this? He wears it in his highchair while eating, he wears it while running around the house, and I'm surprised he hasn't worn it into his crib for naps.

It occurred to me that we're saturating you with Brig pics and items. Rest assured, we love the girls just as much, and they're just as cute in their own way. I'm realizing though that we just don't take as many pictures of them. We'll work on that.

Game Film Breakdown

After extensive analysis of the game film of Brig walking, I have some observations to note:

1. He can run in traffic: some backs have to have a clear lane through which to carry the ball, and are afraid to get hit. Brig demonstrated an ability to pick his way through a shifting defense, even without proper blockers, which could be a big deal if he plays at East.
2. He is patient in letting the play develop and the hole open up: some backs just put their head down and bull their way straight into the jaws of the defense, never seeing the hole open up to the side or one second later. Brig clearly showed a sense of patience, not afraid to get hit while things played out in front of him, and then he exploded into the gap.
3. He has good hip swivel: some players just never develop good balance and the ability to change directions quickly. This talent appears to be innate in Brig, as you watch him throw subtle moves, almost as if he's dancing with the flow of the game, that serve to keep him limber and able to attack at a moment's notice.
   
4. He doesn't let obstacles stop him: a lot of babies would have been stopped cold by the 1/4 inch high transition from kitchen vinyl to fluffy-ish carpet. Not Brig! Whether it's a massive D-line, or a 1/4 inch metal strip, Brig just charges right through with no thought to the physical consequences.
5. He showed a propensity to be distracted by the Cheerleaders: yes, I have to admit, he did falter once as he got seduced by the craziness that is his fan base and the cheerleading squad. We've talked about this, and as long as it stops once they reach the playoffs, we're ok with it.

So you can see that Brig has a bright athletic future ahead of him. Now if he would only learn that falling off stuff and hurting himself can be avoided. He fell off a table he climbed onto yesterday, and he still hasn't figured out that going off our bed head first onto the hardwood floor could be avoided by turning around and sliding off feet first. Oh well, I guess he'll be tough at least.