aaaahhh, Friday

We were playing tennis as a family a few days ago and I was very pleasantly surprised with how well Micah and Kennan can hit the ball. I'm not calling them prodigy's or anything like that, but their improvement from the last time I hit with them individually was really remarkable. I guess they can keep taking lessons.

Bay Area good weather, blah blah blah ... OK, so I know it's good weather out here. But I have to tell you, we've had morning fog, which is fog/clouds that roll in from the coast and then burn off in the late morning or early afternoon, every day for weeks and weeks. I'm seriously a sunny morning equals good start to the day kind of guy. Enough of the fog already! And speaking of weather, I know it's been hot in other parts of the country (Utah!), but it has barely felt like summer here. I'm not sure it's even got over 80 this whole summer. I think I actually prefer a good hot summer sometimes (probably until I'm actually good and hot).

Looking forward to the weekend!

Family Happenings

We took the family up to the Giants-Cubs games in San Francisco last night. What a great time at a fun park with some awesome friends! ... but ... it got very cold, and it's definitely not cheap to take the family to a game. After tickets, parking, and a very modest amount of food, we were over $200 all in. Oh well, very fun, and worth the experience every once in a while. AT&T Park in SF is a great place to watch a game, even if the Giants lost :(

We're feeling the end of summer coming on rapidly as we're in the last full week of summer for the younger kids, and Micah will start the week after next. It's been such a mild summer here that it definitely doesn't feel like August, which nobody's complaining about. The last few days have been filled with swimming, friend time, tennis lessons and running club, and "Micah Camp" where Micah, with help from her sisters, puts on a 3 hour camp for neighborhood kids. The kids are actually excited to go back to school, so let's get it on...

I'm looking forward to an upcoming trip to London and Dublin starting next weekend and through the following work week. It will only be 1 week, and it's necessarily filled with lots of work, so I'm not anticipating any "fun" time, but it's always fun/interesting to go someplace far away for a little while. It would've been fun if Angela could've come with me. I was really worried for a while because I hadn't used or seen my passport for three years, and it wasn't in the box where we normally keep it. Not to mention that we had moved since the last usage, so who knows where it could have been. We started looking without success, and just as I was considering paying lots of $$$ for a rush passport replacement, I took a page out of my kids' book, said a prayer, and literally as I was finishing the prayer I walked right to the location where the passport was hiding. Pretty awesome.

Just want to say how grateful we are for our families and all the support, love, and friendship we get from them. It's so nice to have them behind us through all our ups and downs.

Dog Days of Summer? Not really...

Here we are in August, summer seriously almost done, and we're definitely not quite ready to be thinking about back to school yet. With all the fun things we've done this summer though, it feels like a fulfilling break, and we have lots of good memories. After a long trip to Utah, it's been nice this week to be home, unwind a little bit, see friends again, sleep in our own beds, and just be normal. That being said, what a great time we had on vacation!

The highlights of the Utah trip are as follows:

1. Reuniting with Kennan and Morgan, who had been in Utah for about 4 weeks prior to our arrival - it was SO great to be with them again!
2. Richards family reunion in Bear Lake. We stayed at the beautiful Laketown Lodge and had a blast. Boating, wakeboarding, tubing, and swimming at the lake was a highlight for everyone, but let's not forget the fun waterfight, bike rides, talent show, family DVDs, food, baseball game, and general hanging out.
3. My 20 year high school reunion where I caught up with a bunch of old friends, and Angela actually had a great time too.
4. Hiking to the 'Y' with the Whatcotts and Romina.
5. Many great bike rides for me: up Provo Canyon, to Spanish Fork, from Lehi to Bountiful, up Emigration Canyon, etc. Highlight was riding with Dave in Emigration - especially coming down very fast :-)
6. Days of '47 Rodeo with the LeBras family.
7. A couple good days of golf
8. Seeing Morgan and Kennan swim in the county swim meet and both do well.
9. Multiple dinners at Grandma LeBras' house

Pretty sure I missed some fun things, but there you go... Thanks to all our family for making room for us, spending time with us, and being such great friends.

Finally, Morgan left me a voicemail on my phone yesterday proudly announcing that she got braces. I'm pretty sure she's not feeling as happy about that this morning, but you should've seen her big grin as she showed them off to everyone at the school picnic last night. She's a real cutie.

the latest

I don't have time for a huge update, but here's what's going on:

• Kennan and Morgan still in Utah with LeBras/Drake cousins and having a ball. They have been well-cared for, and kept busy with fun activities and good things. But ... we miss them like crazy and can't wait to see them again very soon!
• I've been going through some struggles at work, and am in a bit of a valley in terms of how I feel about my professional life and career. I know these things come and go, and family support and hard work - combined with lots of prayer - will help me get going again.
• Angela's started running and working out again after girls camp duties and her sickness following have finally wrapped up. She's enjoying summer days with Brig and Micah - swimming, running club, beach trip yesterday, friends, etc.
• Angela and Micah spent last weekend in San Francisco as Micah's main birthday present. They went with good friends Becky and Elizabeth Fuchs, and did fun girl things like shop, see the latest Twilight movie, and eat good food. I've realized a week into Micah's teenagerhood that she's still pretty much the same good girl ... so far :-)
• I've been swimming and riding my bike as much as I can - I've been really enjoying getting back into fitness since my knee is feeling better (no running still though), and it makes me feel better about myself when I'm working at it.
• My 20 year high school reunion is in a few weeks. I'm really looking forward to seeing old friends and catching up with people I haven't talked to for many years. Facebook connections have been a really good way for me to reunite with many, so it'll be good to see people face to face.
• Trip to Utah coming up for family reunion and ample time to hang out with the Fam - we're excited!

Teenager?! ... What?!

I feel old sometimes. My hair is graying rapidly, my metabolism moves at a glacial pace, I stare with a grumpy expression at dumb teenage boys, and I like Neil Diamond. But I was completely unprepared for this day to come. Today I am the father of a teenage daughter. Never mind that she bucks most of the stereotypes of teenage girls. Never mind that she's responsible, kind, a good student, and doesn't play silly games. Never mind that all was good yesterday when she was still 12...

OK, so it's actually a really happy day. We love our Micah so much. She's wonderful in so many ways I can't even begin to list them all. We're incredibly grateful for her, and despite our objections, are really happy to see her growing up and progressing. She's an example even to her parents, which is fine because by all accounts she's likely to be the main breadwinner in the home within the next year or two (just kidding).

The pictures are of our lunch at Google. We really miss Kennan and Morgan, who are still in Utah and can't celebrate with us. But we know they're thinking of Micah, and it means more homemade apple pie for us tonight!!! I'm a dang lucky guy, and I love my family more than anything!

Brig and Dad...

Brig and I have been having a fun time without any smelly girls around. Some of the highlights have included ice cream cones at Baskin Robbins (Brig picked vanilla, which sort of makes the other 30 flavors a moot point), reading books before he falls asleep, watching Giants games, and just hanging out together. It's cool to have him all to myself, although by the time we both get home from work and playing, he's usually pretty tired so our time's been somewhat limited. He's a cool kid!

It's been forever...

Wow, three weeks gone since the last time I wrote. Truthfully it feels like three months.

I've driven a lot of miles over the last few weeks - over 3,000 miles over two weekends. The first trip was to Boise to support Spencer and Dave in their Boise 70.3 half Ironman. The best thing about it was being able to hang out with those two guys, plus Meredith and her family. The worst thing about it was not to be able to run the race with them (although when they both got off the bike and started the run, there was a significant part of me that whispered quietly to myself that I was glad to not have a 1/2 marathon in front of me).

The second trip was a family quick-hitter to Utah for a couple of reasons. Angela was running the Ragnar team relay from Logan to Park City with Molly, so that was the main thing that got us there in the first place. She had a great time, enjoyed her 1am 7 mile leg the best of her three, and would love to do it again. Another reason we went was to deposit Kennan and Morgan with Christine's family to stay while Angela was at YM camp. Because it's not easy to then go back and pick them up, they're actually going to be there for a few weeks until we go back for our big summer vacation. And finally, I had some appointments there to catch up with some new and old friends, and it's always nice to increase the size and scope of my personal network. The drive home was tough because my last appointment caused us to not leave Utah until about 4pm for the 12 hour drive home ... long night.

Work has been pretty good for me. I spent two days last week up in San Francisco at a big sales conference, which was fun, enlightening, and motivating (even though I'm not in sales). Beyond that it's busy and intense, while still being fairly manageable.

Angela and Micah left this morning for YW camp, and will be gone the entire week. That leaves Brig and I at home together, which is fun, but requires a lot of help during the days from friends. Fortunately Ang did a great job of making all the arrangements, so we'll have evenings to hang out, and then I'll be the master of a very quiet house each night once he falls asleep. I miss Kennan and Morgan a lot and wish they were here with us - I understand that it would've been a lot tougher, and I know they're having a great time with their cousins, but still... More than anything though I'm glad for Angela that camp is finally here, and will be over this weekend. She's been so busy she rarely gets to bed on time, rarely gets up on time because she's so tired, and always has things hanging over her head. This is a brutal calling.

I've started riding my bike more fervently over the last couple of weeks, and I've enjoyed it a lot, although I tend to overdo it periodically and then pay for it with knee swelling and aches for a few days following. Once such overdo was this last weekend when I rode a Cystic Fibrosis charity ride from SF up through Marin County. I had not realized how much climbing was involved, and probably wouldn't have signed up if I did - so I'm glad I didn't know because it was really fun (aside from the leg cramps, exhaustion, etc.). We rode 72 miles with 5,500 feet of climbing - I burned 7700 calories. I actually felt great, but I've been super tired all weekend, and a bit achy.

And one final great thing I'm looking forward to... Angela and I on an anniversary getaway down in Carmel next Monday/Tuesday. And I don't even have to take any work off because I get the 5th and 6th off for the 4th. :-)