Jumbled thoughts

I've been wanting to fill you in on some funny things Brig and the other kids have been saying lately, particularly on our recent trip.  We even wrote a bunch of them down to remember them ... problem is, they're in Angela's journal, and it's NEVER a good time to retrieve them.  I'll try to get to it this weekend because you might find them entertaining.

Angela and I are catching up on a few TV series we record but haven't gotten around to watching yet.  It's tough when you can't ever start watching something until at least 9:30pm at the earliest, and especially if the next morning is an early run or boot camp.  But we've been really entertained by LOST and 24, although we're still multiple episodes behind in both.  Also, there are quite a few American Idols on the DVR that she and the kids are working their way through.  I'm interested in that one, but not as much until the competition gets whittled down to a manageable number. Anyway, it's fun to have a diversion to end the night just chillin' and not worrying about anything else.

I've been a little bit up and down this week because I'm eating differently (a LOT less bread, rice, grains ... essentially simple carbohydrates).  I'm not on a crazy diet or anything, it was just bugging me how much each meal revolved around carbs.  So I've been eating a lot of fruit, veggies, and meat, with some dairy and nuts mixed in.  I made some exceptions for Kennan's birthday dinner and celebrations, but other than that, it's been pretty steady this week. Problem is, I'm still trying to figure out how to keep my energy up while in training, and I failed miserably a couple of times.  I bonked so hard on a 4.5 mile run that I thought I was going to die (that was after the previous day's bike and swim sessions, so not a real surprise).  Anyway, I hope it's worth it because I've realized how much comfort I take from eating stuff I like.  I will say though that some things I used to crave a lot are sounding less good to me now, so maybe it's working.

Happy Birthday Kennan!!!

Kennan turned 9 years old today.  She's such a sweet girl 95.4% of the time - we're so glad she's part of our family.  She had a fun day.  It started off with the traditional birthday donuts for breakfast, and she was able to take donut holes for her class at school.  She got to join me for lunch at Google as is also a tradition, and that was really fun.  Tonight Ang made a great requested dinner of salmon, rice pilaf, yellow squash, rolls, and a birthday apple pie.  It was really good!  The gifts were fun, and seemed to be just right as Kennan was happy and excited.

Kennan has always been our testament that each kid is different, but not any less good or great.  She probably gets sick of being compared to Micah, who everyone thinks is perfect.  Kennan is so good in many ways, and different from Micah and Morgan.  But you know what, she sure makes us happy, and we're so glad we have her.

All home, safe and sound

We are finally all back together and home and happy.  We drove back from Utah on Saturday, leaving fairly early and making excellent time because of good weather and very little traffic.  We made it home in plenty of time for Angela and I to even go to the Saturday session of stake conference (thanks to Angela's gentle urging) and we were very glad we did because it was great.  We were also glad we didn't save the drive for Sunday because the weather was much worse that day.

Last night I picked up Micah at the airport when her flight landed just before 1am.  It was delayed an hour already, and it seemed that every step along the way took forever, so we didn't get home until after 2am.  It didn't matter because we were so happy to have her back.  She had an awesome time and we're all very glad she was able to do it.

I have a million things to do at work, so more to come later this week...

"Crackbook" and a great week in Utah

We were out to dinner and a make-out session last Friday night with some great friends for Valentines day (OK, no make-out session...inside joke), and they were talking about how they'd each just joined Facebook and had enjoyed catching up with a lot of old friends.  It sparked my interest and I decided to join, so when we got home I fired up the computer and opened a Facebook account.  The first thing they asked me was if I wanted Facebook to search my Gmail emails for other Facebook members, which I accepted, and I was stunned with how many of my friends and family already are on Facebook.  I also joined a couple of groups, like my mission group, a group from BYU Rugby, a group for alums of my business school, BYU, and my high school.  And then the avalanche started... Less than a week later I'm over 100 friends (yeah, who knew!) and enjoying catching up with some old mission buddies and high school friends that I haven't seen, or even thought of, in years.  It's actually pretty cool, but as the title suggests, somewhat addicting.

As most of you know, we've been in Utah since Sunday.  It's been awesome!  We've skied three days - twice at Sundance, and one glorious day at Alta.  The second Sundance day and the Alta day were both days full of amazing sunshine following huge nightly snow storms, so we got the best conditions possible: bluebird skiing on miles of fresh powder and soft groomers with no crowds (midweek skiing is the best!).  The trip at times has felt a bit frivolous because of the money we've spent on lift tickets in these tough economic times, but the memories will be long-lasting and totally worth it.  Kennan and Morgan have continued to blossom as great skiers, and Morgan is convinced she can now do black diamond runs, while Kennan is much more cautious but actually might be an even better skier than Morg is.  

The one drawback of the trip is that we really miss Micah, who is still in Costa Rica.  We got one general email update from the Principal, who is there with the group, and they're all doing really well.  I guess in the case of Micah and other individual kids, no news is good news.

We're headed back to CA tomorrow and looking forward to getting Micah back and settling into our work, school, life, and training routines again.  We feel very rejuvenated and happy.

Blessed Tax Return

Ah, what a great time of year...  spring is looming; we're getting through the sick season; and we get to find out how much of our hard-earned and much-needed money the government borrowed from us over the course of last year.  Some people I know withhold as much as possible so they get a large refund, while others fight to keep every red cent until the bitter end and then they pay a large bill to the gov't eacy April 15th at 11:59pm.  We probably fall in the middle somewhere, but that usually means that we get a pretty decent refund at this time of year.  Angela did our taxes last night, and preliminary indications are it's going to be a nice refund... YES!!!  (only problem is, our state refund is likely not coming for a while as the wonderful state of California figures out how to get out of a $43B hole...nice).

So we've decided the trip to Utah is ON.  We're looking forward to some skiing, some family time, and Angela promised she'd drive a good chunk of the way (yeah right).  The weather along the drive promises to be interesting, but we're not going to be in a hurry so we'll be careful.  We're getting new tires put on the car as we speak, we're changing out all the wiper blades, we're having the battery and starter tested, we're getting a lube & oil and brake flush, and we'll have snow chains - all of which means we're likely to have something completely unforeseen go wrong... 

Crazy Idea

Every once in a while, we get a crazy idea in the back of our minds, and try as we might, we just can't seem to shake it.  We're in the middle of trying to shake one of those crazy ideas right now.  The kids are off of school all next week, and we sort of have this itch to go to Utah and go skiing.  Actually, Angela is the driver of this idea, but I'm slowly getting enticed onto the bus myself.  

My first thought was, "I don't think I can take the time off work," but that problem dissolved when my manager assured me I could take the whole week off, and he actually encouraged me to go.  My next thought is how much it will cost, and that's not one that will go away so easily.  Obviously we would hope to stay with family, but ski passes are not cheap nowadays, and I don't know if you've heard, but the economy is fairly depressed right now.  However, as someone pointed out to me, it's just money, and your kids will have a great family memory.  This is true.

The other thought is that Micah wouldn't be with us (Costa Rica), which would be too bad for her to miss out, and it wouldn't be a true family vacation.  So should we wait to spend the vacation time and dollars when the whole family can actually come, or should we go when we have a good chance regardless of Micah not being with us?

Still pondering..............

Tidbits

I told you last week about Brig's fall out of the Expedition head first onto the driveway.  Well, it turns out that, as he told us later, he was trying to be a diver.  Now that's a new one for us ... hopefully he learned his lesson.  That's about all I can say about that.

We went up to San Francisco for the Chinese New Year parade on Saturday.  It was fun even though it was extremely crowded.  At every point along the parade route it was 6-7 people deep standing and watching.  This made it difficult for us to see, but let me tell you, Morgan sure had a great view from atop my shoulders.  I think she's the only one who really saw the parade in its glory.  I tried to give the other kids equal time - in fact, at one point I had Micah on my shoulders, and then I started feeling bad for Morgan, so I picked her up in front of me and held her around the knees (with Micah still on my shoulders).  That actually worked well until my superhuman strength ran out - somebody nearby must have had kryptonite.  

Angela's awesome.  She's constantly trying to help people out, and always thinking of other before her own comfort.  She's a great example to me of being kind, selfless, and thinking of others' needs as being as important as our own.  I'm pretty sure she's keeping our family afloat in the blessings department because of how great she is...