Micah and I are both sick today. We both woke up this morning with some pretty gnarly stomach problems. I've worked a little from home, although I had a very serious sleep during the middle of the day, and I'm just starting to get my appetite back. In fact, I'm craving chips...

We had an awesome Sunday yesterday. As was probably the case with most of you, it was our Fast Sunday because of General Conference. It was my turn to conduct, so I also got to start the meeting with my testimony. I tried to relay a simple, unplanned testimony of the basics of the gospel, and I really felt the spirit as I was doing it. Then every single testimony after that was just amazing - there were no wandering travel-logs, no sob-story monologues, just great, spirit-filled testimonies the whole meeting. There were no awkward breaks, but it wasn't a stampede to the pulpit either, just good people feeling the need at different times to share their testimony. It was awesome.

Just want to say we continue to be grateful for really great friends. We have some friends who are facing different trials and hardships at the moment, and our hearts and prayers really go out to them. We think a lot about the Brady's and the Williams's in particular, but we are aware of others with important needs as well. If you're reading this, please know that you enrich our lives much more than we probably add to yours - so thanks for your examples, your goodness, and for your friendship.

Need blog topics...

I'm not sure if it's a sign of nothing interesting going on in our lives, or if I'm just in a mental cloud when it comes to deciding what to write. Either way, I obviously haven't been on top of the blog very much lately.

Maybe it's because I'm tired. Not tired of blogging, not tired because of lack of sleep, just tired. I guess that happens when you're training for a serious triathlon... So my exercise schedule looked something like this for the week:

Monday - swim 40 minutes

Tuesday - swim 40 minutes, bike 20 miles

Wednesday - swim 30 minutes, run 6 miles

Thursday - swim 40 minutes, bike 10 miles

Friday - run 10 miles

Saturday - I will ride 50 miles (with about 2000 ft of vertical climbing) and run 5 miles

So as I said, I'm tired. Can't wait for Sunday to REST!

Angela and I finally saw the movie Australia this week and we really liked it. It was fun for me to hear the Aussie slang, the accents, and see familiar landscapes (not that I'd seen them, but there's a distinctive look to Outback Australia).

It's been a very busy week. I've had multiple-hour church things two nights, Angela's had a couple of school meetings plus girls dinner & movie nights, and the kids have had the usual load of homework. We're really hoping our weekend can be calm.

Aggies = 6 year old

I flew Southwest to Vegas this weekend and I thought the stewards were pretty funny. They have a way of making everyone on the plane feel comfortable by mixing humor into their announcements. One of them, obviously from Texas, told a joke that I appreciated:

A Texas A&M Aggie and a Texas Red Raider were arguing about what was closer, the moon or Florida. The Aggie said, "well duh, you can SEE the moon, but you can't see Florida!"

I admit, that's not really even worth a laugh - maybe a small chuckle and appreciative smile, but not a real laugh. So I told the girls the joke at the dinner table last night and Morgan, with a sure look on her face, said, "yeah, that's right! Since you can see it, it's closer."

So that proves it, an Aggie is roughly equivalent to a pretty smart 6 year old.

Oh yeah, I have a blog...

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. If so, then you now like our blog more than you used to... It's been an awesome week and a half since I last checked in, so let me try to remember the highlights for a quick recap:

• -Went with the family to the amazing stake play - it was awesome but I was glad when it ended 2+ hours later
• -Rode 50 miles on my bike with a friend two Saturdays ago!
• -Sister-in-law Meredith had a birthday
• -We got invited to some new friends' for Sunday dinner (rare)
• -We had a fun FHE Skype call with Grandma and Grandpa, which the kids thought was really cool
• -I went on splits with the missionaries and had an incredible experience. There's a less-active man and his non-member wife that I've become friends with over the years as we've been here. We visited, I invited them to take the missionary discussions from the Elders and me, and they accepted. We start this coming Wednesday.
• -I filled out my March Madness brackets, which now have more red (aka wrong picks) than green on them
• -Kennan got braces (I think I wrote about this already, but just in case, it's worth mentioning again)
• -Morgan was Wilbur the pig in her 1st grade play, Charlotte's Web - she did GREAT!
• -I bought new golf clubs and the full set arrived in time for me to take them out for a trial run before my big golf weekend - love em!
• -And now, speaking of my big golf weekend ........

This last weekend was amazing. I went with Spencer and a bunch of our buddies (including Dave!!!) to St George where we have fallen into this every-other-year reunion with the same group of guys. It started off great as I went to San Francisco airport to catch my Southwest flight to Las Vegas. They were oversold and asked for someone to give up their seat for a seat on the next flight, which was only 1 1/2 hours later. I would've had to wait in Vegas for my shuttle anyway, so I volunteered, and got a $293 Southwest voucher for my troubles. It helped me anyway because I had some work stuff flare up and was able to get things organized within my team to basically take care of the problem while I was out playing (love that whole management concept...). So anyway, I got to Vegas, worked in the airport for another hour to finalize the work stuff, got my clubs without incident, found the shuttle in perfect time, and was on the road to St

George - very smooth! Friday morning we hit the golf course at

beautiful Sand Hollow out in Hurricane, UT. Amazing, gorgeous, difficult course. I didn't score very well that day, but I sure hit some great shots...those "sand" traps in the middle of the fairway caused me some serious grief. That afternoon was basketball and about 4 hours of sand volleyball, leaving us crawling into the cold pool and then the hot tub to try to recuperate. We finished off the day with a fast-forward version of the day's tournament basketball games, and crashed hard that night. Saturday started much the same way with another fabulous golf outing, this time at The Ledges golf course, which was a little less picturesque, but just as fun. I continued to hit the ball pretty well, and actually put together some nice holes including an eagle on a par five. Very fun day, and like I said, I LOVE my new clubs. It was back to the sand volleyball courts for another multi-hour play fest,

which was really great. Another dip in the pool/hot tub revived us, and Cafe Rio that evening filled our bellies as we watched another day's full of games in a few TiVo'd hours. What a great weekend - I was very happy to get on the plane early Sunday, and get home to my great family and our Sunday routine. I was so thankful to Angela for not only letting me go, but encouraging me to go, and actually being glad that I had such a great time - she's the best!

And now, it's back to reality, but feeling great from the good times.

Brig got a haircut yesterday.  His hair was pretty long, so we were in agreement it was about time. Unfortunately, it appears that the phrase "please cut it to a medium length" apprently means something different in some southeast Asian countries than it does here... So Brig's sporting a very short haircut, which doesn't necessarily look terrible, just MUCH different than we're used to.  I mean, I could've just done that with my clippers...

Morgan had a little accident the other day - she was riding in the shopping cart, which apparently tipped over as they were going to the car, and dumped her onto the ground.  She is now sporting a nice bruise on one cheek - no, not that cheek, the "lower" check - and has been having a hard time sitting down.  She was concerned before leaving for school that the field trip bus today would have hard leather seats rather than soft cloth seats to sit on.  I'm sure she'll be fine.

Angela did something funny this morning.  She was so tired when getting up for her 6am run that she accidentally put on two different shoes and didn't notice until she got home.  It's always nice to start the day off with a laugh...

Ang took the girls to our stake's YM/YW play last night and they came home just raving about it. They couldn't stop talking about how good it was, and how funny and talented all the kids were. It's nice to have good leaders who support that, and from what I hear it's a great missionary tool for the kids and their friends.  I'm sure we'll all be back at the play at least one more time this weekend.

I got a new set of golf clubs - I'm really excited.  I have been playing with my old clubs since the summer before I graduated from college - the first time - when we got them as an early graduation present.  So for 11+ years I've been playing with the same, knock-off, cheap clubs. You think the technology might have changed just a little bit during that time?  Yep, it has.  So I did a lot of research, weighing price and performance, and I feel pretty darn happy with my new TaylorMade Burner driver & 3 wood, and my TaylorMade Tour Burner irons.  What was even better, when we went to Golfsmith, we were able to get an additional 15% off the entire order, which was already discounted because they're last year's models.  Sweet!  I might even get out this afternoon to try them out...

Triathlon Pics

Beautifl day as you can see.  Fortunately no pics of me in my wetsuit and swim cap - looking like a beached whale with a red head.  Pretty stoked I did it...

Sweet Moment

I got home from my run this morning and was able to hang out with Brig for a little while just as he was waking up.  We played around for a bit, and then he watched me shave.  He thought it was funny how I put the shaving cream all over, and he watched carefully that I didn't get any in my mouth or my nostrils.  Then as I started shaving, he grabbed my left hand and just held it as I shaved.  As I was about finished he said, "Great job Dad."  It's funny how good that made me feel - I love that kid!

Google Magic

There was another cool Authors@Google speaker today: Earvin "Magic" Johnson.  He was there to speak about his book entitled 32 Ways to Be a Campion in Business (get the play on his #32?).  It was highly entertaining and pretty amazing to be there  - as you can see, I was pretty close.  He talked a lot about some of the business ventures he's done since his 14 NBA seasons with the Lakers, but the concepts he discussed were fairly simple business strategies - not bad, just not super complex.  He's been very successful in Urban communities, which is where they've always focused their energies. Probably the most interesting part for me was when he spoke about receiving the phone call when he was in Utah to play the Jazz that he needed to come home because he was HIV positive.  He said the hardest thing he's ever had to do was drive home from the Dr. to tell his pregnant wife, and then wait for the tests on her and the baby.  He talked about how he's learned from his mistake, and feels like he's making a difference because he chose to come out and be a spokesperson against the disease.  Pretty interesting.  Oh, and he also thinks the Lakers are going to win the NBA Finals this year (and as a part owner he's not biased at all).

You can find quite a few articles online today (check out Google Finance), but Google recently granted its employees the right to trade in our outstanding stock options for options priced lower at the end of last week.  Only under-water options were eligible (meaning not worth anything because our price is higher than the current stock price), which was about 95% of all options, so it was a big deal around the company.  Google will undoubtedly take some heat from media about "hurting" its other stockholders, but the fact that it is looking out for its employees means a lot to everyone I've talked to.  It's the understatement of the year, but I'm really grateful to have a job here.

A rare Sunday post

Having a good weekend so far.  The family's all happy and generally not fighting, which is nice. We've spent a lot of time on Morgan's school project, which was to build a Costa Rican Ox Cart.  I somehow got assigned this project by the household boss, and so spent multiple hours yesterday constructing a not-too-bad little model if I must say so.  It's amazing what you can do with tongue depressors (aka thick popsicle sticks) and a hot glue gun.  We're in painting mode today and it's looking pretty colorful.  

At lunch we were talking with the kids about primary and church, and Brig was talking about what he did in nursery.  Angela said "I peeked in on you and you were having fun!"  To this Brig looked confused, and said: "you peed on me?"  I'm still laughing as I write this...

So a few of you have asked about my triathlon yesterday.  It was crazy!  I had no idea what to expect going into it, but I had a general idea that it was going to be hard/fun.  It was both.  The weirdest part was the swim - we swam in the Bay, which was quite cold.  I had a wetsuit on, which was a totally new experience, and at first I was excited because it helped me float, but then throughout the swim I was very NOT excited because I had a very hard time breathing with the tightness around my neck.  That's definitely something I'll have to get used to.  It was also hard to navigate - I couldn't see a thing in the water, and it seemed like every time I lifted up my head I was either heading in the wrong direction, or it seemed like I was no closer to the destinations than when I'd last looked.  Needless to say I was very happy to get out of the water. I next jumped on the bike and it took my legs a pretty significant amount of time to get my legs feeling good.  I guess that's another thing I hadn't done was go right from the water onto the bike.  By the time the bike was over, I was glad there was only a 5k left as I was pretty tired. Luckily I felt better again the second half of the run and finished feeling ok.  It was really fun, and it also alerted me to the fact that I have to train a LOT harder for my long race coming up in May.  

Happy B-day Spencer! ... yesterday ...

I didn't have time to make a note of Spencer's birthday yesterday.  I believe he's 35, which is pretty freakin old.  He looks it too - probably up to 6% body fat, 2 lines of care in his boyish face, and streaks of gray cleverly hidden in his blond hair.  He's a great man, father, husband, brother, doctor, and lover (I hear).  Happy bday bro!

And speaking of birthdays, if you ever want to put on a cool birthday party for your spouse, do like our friends did last night and rent out a movie theater for an evening, invite 100 or so of your closest friends, have some food and drinks, and show your favorite movie.  Pretty good idea, not sure what the price tag would be (probably too high).  Unfortunately the movie they showed was Peter Pan (some version I'd never seen - definitely NOT the kids version).

The kids had "dress like your favorite book character" at school today and I noticed how similar their attire was to recent Halloween costumes.  I guess their favorite characters are determined based on how well they coincide with available dress ups.

Tomorrow morning at 7:30am, I'll be jumping willingly into the San Francisco Bay - yes, that questionably clean, incredibly cold, and saltier than anything I'm used to swimming in Bay.  My very first triathlon experience will happen tomorrow, and I'm both excited and filled with trepidation (mostly around the aforementioned swim portion).  Will be interesting to see how it all turns out - I'll let you know, unless I die.

Stuff

Kennan got her braces today, with two shades of green colors in honor of St Patrick's Day coming up.  You would think she had been given a gold medal as proud as she is about it.  When she found out on Monday that she was getting them today, she waited until that evening to tell us, brought us all together for a big announcement, and then she could barely contain herself when she spilled the beans.  What was funny was a few minutes later when Micah said, "so what's your big announcement?"  I think maybe Micah was waiting for something cool/good, and for some reason getting braces didn't qualify in her mind - go figure.

When our friends Kathy and JD moved back to Utah, we were worried about Brig losing his two best buddies, Joey and Sam.  It's turned out fine though as he loves playing with Jack and Alex, two other neighborhood boys, and aside from a few suggestions he's made to go play at Joey and Sam's grandma's house (where they were in Utah when we saw them), he's been great about it.

I'm doing a short sprint triathlon this Saturday - my first ever.  Even though the distances are super short, I'm still nervous about it because we have to swim in the Bay.  I'm most worried about swimming in salt water (gagging, etc.), and it will be cold as well.  But it should be a really fun experience as it's my first, and it will get me used to making the transitions for my big race in a couple months.  If I die in the water, Dan can have my bike as long as he doesn't get it stolen like his was.

I was really sorry (NOT!) that Utah lost to New Mexico last night, opening the door for BYU to potentially tie for the MWC crown.  Of course the instant I wrote that in this blog, it virtually assured that BYU will now lose to Wyoming tonight and it will be a moot point, but still, never a bad thing to see the Utes suffer.

Busy, busy, busy

Man, I've had so much going on that it's been very hard to take a few minutes (mostly because these always turn into more than just a few minutes) to update you on our lives.  I'll try to pick the pace back up, so that I can avoid being like all you "bloggers" out there who update like once a month and think just putting cute pics of your kids makes up for your inattention (ok, it might, but still...).

We hosted Kennan's amazing High School Musical 3 birthday party this Saturday evening, and I think it was a smashing success.  Brig and I were able to escape some of the madness as I took him to the Stanford basketball game (which was great by the way) and we missed the first half of the party.  We came home though to 18 little girls gorging themselves on popcorn, kettle corn, licorice, starburst, sourpatch kids, mint brownies, and ice cream.  It's amazing to me that nobody threw up. But Kennan had a great time with her friends, and because of the preparations, we can all now quote every line in every song of that wonderful movie.  So I'm your guy for HSM3 trivia in the future.

Brig has been back at his funny one-liners, although true to form, we rarely remember them a while after we're done laughing.  Particularly funny lately has been when he informs us in the mornings that he can't do stuff because his muscles are still asleep... that's a good one, think I'll try it.  Morgan made us laugh the other day as we were driving in the rain when she said, "man, it's really raining hard up there but it's hardly raining back here!" (as she sat in the back of car and watched the rain pound the windshield.  Oh, one thing that still cracks us up when we think about it from our recent trip to Utah.  Brig kept asking me to roll down the window, so I finally did thinking he needed a little fresh air.  Just as I got it down, out of the corner of my eye in the rearview mirror I see him wind up and fire his chocolate milk bottle out the window with perfect form.  Angela and I were laughing so hard we had a hard time making him understand that we don't do that.

I've been enjoying catching a few college basketball games lately, and BYU games in particular. It was a big win over Utah last week, and I actually got to watch it live in the comfort of my own home and on my TV, not on the computer.  The Stanford game on Saturday was also a big comeback win over USC, and then I watched Texas play well on TV last night.  It sounds like a lot of game watching, but I'm usually working or doing projects at the same time.

It's been raining pretty hard, which makes me wish the January weather was back (or any other month, I just wanted to say I was pining for January's weather cuz you don't hear that all the time).  We're not complaining though since people have been talking about the coming drought and I'm sure this will help.  The exercise is still going pretty well...