I love weekends

This is Brig's hybrid pitching and free throw stance

We don't mind boys climbing on Micah's back, well, Brig at least

Kennan got one of the first Principal Awards of the year

Put me in coach!

Thought you might enjoy a few pictures.

It's amazing how satisfying a kids soccer game, and hours of work down in the depths of the basement can be. We had a great weekend, including the right mix of work, productivity, and relaxation, and friend time. We also had a really fun party at a friend's house from the school - a very nice house in a very nice part of town with a very nice catering menu and very nice people - a lot of fun! The Cougs won their game last night so that was good even though Texas lost. Another highlight was Micah, Morgan and I had a great long walk this afternoon while Ang and the other kids slept.

So the kids are just singing along with the Wicked CD and I am once again blown away by how good Micah sounds. They all love to sing, and are good singers, but Micah sounds like she could be in the cast right now...

Micah leaves tomorrow morning on her week-long 5th grade field trip. We're really going to miss her, especially since some of us won't see her until Sunday night after St. George. It's hard to let your 10 year old go for a week with the school, but we're sure she'll be ok, and we'll somehow manage without her.

And speaking of St. George, I'm excited to run with Matt and Jason, well at least until I drop off their scorching pace. So I should be able to hang with them for at least a couple hundred yards, and then maybe I'll catch up again when Matt stops to make a deposit around mile 4, but I have a feeling it's going to be a lonely road for me.

SORRY!

Whoa! Thanks Clint for bringing to my attention the inappropriate ad that was showing on the blog. I had no idea that was there - somehow they started showing display ads instead of my usual text ads. Either way, it's gone now, and it won't be back. Now all of you who didn't see it are wondering what you missed... too bad.

Trip Pics

With Karen and Joe at Trafalgar Square (I forgot to ask them to turn around)

Looking down the river at the London Eye

Big Ben from across the Thames

Buckingham Palace before the changing of the guard

The changing of the guard

Me and thousands of my closest friends waiting to see our sovereign queen...

Emasculating myself

Thank goodness for Japanese tourists who didn't find it strange at all to take a picture of a strange guy acting as if he was trying to walk through a wall.

Perfect weather

Yesterday had to be the nicest day you can possibly imagine. I don't know if it's because I've been out of town in less Sunny climes, or if it's just this early fall time of year, but I was just in awe of how nice it was whenever I stepped outside. One of the benefits of the Google campus is that the buildings can be somewhat spread out, and I got to walk to one of the further buildings yesterday. Sunny, probably 70 degrees, a little crispness in the air but perfectly comfortable in short sleeves, a few leaves changing but still a lot of green - good to be alive!

Brig's been a stinker at night lately. I'm sure it has "nothing" to do with the fact that Ang let him sleep in our bed the whole time I was gone. He's not his usual self at nights, and it's a bit frustrating. But of course it's impossible to be mad in the mornings as he is so loving and happy. For you young parents, just get used to the idea of their sleep patterns being very cyclical...you think you've got it down, and then everything changes. Thank goodness for the mornings to remind us how much we love them.

We've been experimenting a little bit with leaving Micah in charge of the kids at home, and it's worked out pretty well in the mornings as we exercise. Last Saturday we tried it in the evening as we went out for a close and quick dinner with some friends. Didn't go over quite as well as we were hoping, but we'll continue trying when the circumstances seem right. It's very enticing to think that soon we'll have our very own bonafide babysitter!

Another busy week, but then that's a bit redundant to keep talking about. Suffice it to say we're doing well, and roughly succeeding to get the things done that need to be done.

Great to be home...Now looking forward

Despite the travel day from "H" in which all of my flights were late, it was awesome to come home. The family is all doing well and it's hard for me to keep up with everyone now that I'm unaccustomed to everything going on at home. My body clock is a little off - I went to bed last night at 8:15... I think that's the first time in my life.

Before I forget...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAMERON! - another year older and, since he hasn't fallen off any 3-story buildings lately, it appears wiser too. We wish we could be there to celebrate with you guys.

St. George is 11 days, 20 hours away as I write. I really enjoy the whole weekend - driving to St. George, staying with the Coltons in Green Valley, picking up my number at the Expo, seeing family and friends (Uncle Mike, Matt & Sheri, etc.), and then there's always the race. We're currently trying to decide if Angela and any of the kids will join me or if I will drive by myself. Of course I strongly prefer them to come, but she isn't sure what is best...

As some of you know, of the 7 marathons I've run, I've had severe leg cramps in most of them. It's a big problem for me, and it's been weighing on my mind so heavily that I'm almost dreading the race next week. But I recently talked to a guy in the neighboring ward who's run a lot of marathons and has overcoming cramping problems (no Matt, not those kind of cramps) like I have. He gave me a rundown on what he does to allude the cramps, and I'm very excited to implement these things into my race day regimen. With this new information, I feel like I at least have something that has worked for someone else, and I'm really hopeful it will work for me too. So because of this, I'm excited again to run!

Angela has been plowing through a new book series. The first book, Twilight, we have both read and liked, and I guess Ang liked the second one as well because she's been up reading at all hours of the night and seems to have finished within a shockingly short period of time. So if you want a quick read and a pretty good story, you might think of picking these up.

And of course, the universe righted itself this past weekend with BYU winning big against a decent conference opponent, and Utah losing big to a hapless conference opponent. Glad things are back to normal and order is restored. Also, if any of you have been catching any of the Rugby World Cup games, the quarterfinals are almost set now and it's going to get really good pretty quick here. New Zealand, Australia, South Africa have all looked really good, and France is dominant again after laying an egg against Argentina. The winner should come from one of those top three.

As for the home front, our goal for this week is to make it as NORMAL as possible. That usually means church stuff at least half of the evenings and a lot of homework/activities for the kids. Sounds pretty good to me.

Dublin and family update

First of all, I really miss the family! Angela has been very busy...frequently still awake at home working on projects or reading when I wake up the next morning here in Dublin. She's so great with the kids, and they probably don't even know somebody from the family is missing. It's hard for me to be away for a whole week. I enjoy traveling very infrequently, and I've really enjoyed myself here, but I keep lamenting to myself about what I'm missing at home.

Brig has been picking up a lot of new sounds and words lately. He also likes to mimic movements, and Angela's been telling me they both love to play that game together. His favorite book is his animal book, which he will sometimes insist on taking to bed with him. He's teething again with some of his big teeth, and that's never fun for him or us. But he's still our happy little guy, and I can't wait to see him again.

Morgan has a lot of good friends, with a play date today, and is loving kindergarten. She is amazing with her reading and sight reading on her self-imposed list of "sight words". We're really proud of her, and we have heard from her friends moms that their kids want to read like Morgan.

Kennan has been a little sick this week, even coming home from school early yesterday. We knew she wasn't faking it because she really likes school. She is currently reading an abridged version of "Little Women" and loving it. She also really likes soccer and is exhibiting a lot of good skill (I hear, I haven't been to any games yet this year...good coach, huh?).

Micah continues to keep herself super busy with meeting high piano standards, assisting with the piano teaching once a week, assistant directing Kennan's school play, rehearsing for her own school play, doing homework, trying to squeeze in a play date every now and then, and who knows what else. Luckily she's very responsible and gets things done without too much prodding and poking, and she's of course a good girl and always fun to have around.

As for me, I'm having a good time in Dublin. London included: Wicked, Buckingham Palace, the Tate Modern Art Museum, a great walking tour of London with Karen and Joe, and I can't even list all the things we saw on our adventure. Dublin has been a little more centralized as it's been very busy with our work meetings and activities. I enjoy the people on the team, and apart from the meetings, we've had a fun dinner and cultural show at a pub, a great team building event at a castle that consisted of "Irish olympics", and many relaxed interactions. I was glad to get my presentation out of the way on the first day so I could relax after that - it went pretty well. I decided to not run at all this week so as to rest my injured foot that's been bothering me for weeks now.

Well, despite bringing my digital camera, it never crosses my mind to take it with me until a couple days later when I think "that would have been a good picture..." I have a few, which I'll put up when I get home, but not as many as you'd think. Sorry.

Really looking forward to the journey home tomorrow because that means I'm just hours away from the family!

London

I have a few minutes this morning before heading off so I thought I'd update you on my trip so far. The flight over wasn't terrible despite leaving 2 1/2 hours late - thank goodness for business class. There were a couple other Googlers on my flight, so instead of taking the train we just shared a taxi.

The highlight so far has been seeing Wicked. I went by myself last night (couldn't get a date on such short notice) and really enjoyed it. I felt a little guilty going without Ang and the girls, but they'll get their chance soon enough.

Things in London are very expensive. It doesn't seem so bad at first but you have to keep reminding yourself that you're paying in Pounds and not Dollars - so it's more than double.

The weather has been beautiful. I was sort of expecting rain, gray, wind, etc. but it's sunny and warm. Today will be Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, the London Eye, and more. I'm excited to hang out with Karen and Joe, who I'm meeting in about an hour.

I'll post more later.

London and Dublin

Hey Y'all. Dan & Hailey finally decided on Preston Scott Richards for their little boy. While I admit it's a fine name, it just doesn't have the same ring as some of yesterday's suggestions. I think I can grow to like it, especially since I already informed Dan & Hailey a while ago that I'll be calling him Prez for short. Good job guys!

Tomorrow night I leave for London, where I'll be until Monday evening, at which time I go to Dublin for the rest of next week. I'm really looking forward to it! I have never been to either place, so this is a great opportunity for me. I got a very good seat to Wicked on Saturday night, but the highlight of the London stop will surely be hanging out with Karen (Angela's cousin) and Joe on Sunday. If anyone has any great suggestions about Must-Sees and Dos, please comment asap or email me so that I can work them into the plan!

The Dublin trip is for work meetings, which will be good as most of our team is going out together. It'll be fun to spend time outside the office with the people I work with, and to do it in a completely new setting will be great too. Admittedly, I'm also going there with an eye for what it would be like to move there for a while, as there may be opportunities for me abroad in the future. Probably not, but we'll see...

CONGRATULATIONS DAN & HAILEY

We're so excited to announce the birth of "Boy" Richards to Dan & Hailey. Wow, we can hardly believe he's finally here - we've waited to patiently and worked so hard for this moment. Fortunately for Dan, Hailey's so cute that anything with her genes is going to turn out perfect. We're a little concerned about all the fuzzy stuff on his head - we're not really sure what that is, but hopefully he'll lead a normal and productive life.

In the spirit of being as helpful as I always like to be, I thought I would give them some suggestions for what names they should or shouldn't use.

DON'T USE:
10. Ruprecht (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels...)
9. Jackson (you can never move back to Utah)
8. L'Shawn (he'll get a lot of "are you adopted?")
7. Pat
6. Stacey
5. Kelly
4. Alma ("how many wives do you have?")
3. Sue (Johnny Cash said it would make him tough, but...)
2. Roran (or "Wowan" in our family)
1. Richard

USE:
10. Maximus (anyone seen Gladiator?...enough said)
9. Googlamus (Morgan's suggestion)
8. Rocky or "Rock" (Philly, of course)
7. Geno or Rick (you can open a cheesesteak shop)
6. Blitz, Sprint, Speed (people will think he's faster than he is, which knowing Dan, is a good thing)
5. Stockton or Malone (obvious reference to your upbringing)
4. G. (easy to spell, hard to forget)
3. Vinny (easier to get your way when spoken in NY accent)
2. Tucker (never mind the rhyming, it's a great name)
1. John (with an "h")

Hope this helps!

Micah got her first job. OK, she's not exactly working yet, but she was asked by her piano teacher, who runs a big operation, if she would like to be an assistant. She has to go through a series of trainings and evaluations first, but after a couple of months she'll start getting paid for her once-a-week duties. She's pretty excited and already has grand plans for her earnings.

My impressions of the Rose Bowl and the game: The Rose Bowl actually looks smaller than I thought it would from the inside. It's huge, but because it completely encloses the field, it's not as high up at any point as you'd think. The game was a story of two completely different halves. The first half was stinky, the second half was as exciting as I've been to in a long time. It definitely made it worth going...man, a couple of breaks here and there, a call that finally went our way (for once), and that's a different outcome. I was extremely impressed with Max Hall - that dude is fearless in standing in the pocket, and he threw some really nice balls. I was also really happy another guy and I drove home after the game instead of staying one more night and flying home Sunday. It was really nice to spend a quiet day with the fam.

I gave the Bishop's Youth Fireside address last night and talked about Following the Right Leaders. I think it went pretty well because I shared a bunch of examples that the kids could relate to. That was my first one because I've been out of town for the others this summer, and it was fun to do.

This week shouldn't be quite as hectic as last, as we only average maybe one thing a night instead of three. I think we're realizing that with the kids getting older and thus having more activities and responsibilities, and then with both of our church callings, we are always on the edge of out of control. I think we just need to get used to it, which will hopefully increase our capacity to deal with having a million things to do.

Eye Candy

The best picture of all time!

Coach

Ty and Giff sharing a moment

The ceremony w/ Elder Ballard & Pres. Samuelson looking on

Anticipation

Rushing the field

Pregame haka

Oh yeah, there was an actual game

FHE at Golfland

Nice form!

Brig playing defense by lying on the hole

High School Musical 2 party

First day of school

I'm back...

Wow, what a whirlwind the last few days have been. I'll give you a quickish rundown, and then throw in a few pics for your enjoyment.

Saturday I went to Provo for the BYU-Arizona season opening game. It was awesome! I absolutely love the feeling of walking into LaVell Edwards Stadium, seeing the predominantly blue-clad fans, and feeling the energy. It was also neat to attend the lunch and ceremony for Gifford Nielsen and Ty Detmer as they got their numbers retired. I was impressed with the perspective of both men as it seemed more about family and team than it did about their football accomplishments. And of course, BYU won the game - great start to the season!

The next day Angela flew down to Disneyland with a few friends to run the Labor Day Disneyland 1/2 marathon. She did really well despite the oppressive heat, and she was happy to report her ailing leg gave her no problems. She said it was amazing how many people ran the race. While she was gone, the kids and I had a fun time. We rode bikes, went to the school playground, went swimming at a friend's pool, had a movie night, and generally stayed happy without Mom.

The morning after Ang got home late, I jumped on a plane to Austin for some work-related recruiting at UT. The weather wasn't great - it rained - but it was so nice to be back in Austin. The recruiting stuff was fine, but the highlight by far was hanging out with our lifelong friends, the Smiths, that night. We miss them and love them! I also got to have lunch yesterday with a couple of close friends from school, and it was fun to catch up. Food choices: Salt Lick BBQ, Chuy's Tex Mex (absolute #1 favorite of all time!!!!!), and Rudy's BBQ.....mmmmmmm!

So now we're home and sort of back to normal for a couple of days. Wow.

I'll create a new post in a few minutes and upload pictures in that one.