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?!