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. :-)
Picture this: you're driving in the car with your daughter, talking away, about to enter a busy freeway, when all of a sudden something slams into your windshield, completely obscuring your view. You then realize it's your own hood that has flown open, smashed your windshield, and you're in big trouble because you're going fast and you can't see a thing. That was Angela and Micah on Friday afternoon.
for our stake Fathers & Sons campout. Brig was in serious heaven - there were friends to run around with, sticks to collect, fire to play with, hot dogs and marshmallows to roast/burn, and he could get as dirty as he wanted. We loved having Grandpa there with us, and I'm sure Brig will remember that for a long time. One particularly funny moment came when I was helping Brig go to the bathroom in the trees. Angela has been teaching him the anatomically correct names for body parts so he can be mature about them, and he's most of the way there, as evidenced by him asking me to help hold his "peanuts" up so he didn't go peeps on his pants & shoes. Classic.
It was so special, and such a sweet time for our family. Morgan was so prepared, as she had led and inspired weeks worth of FHE lessons in preparation for the actual baptism. We had quite a few nice friends come support us, including her non-member school teacher, and one of Angela's close non-member friends on her school board. We're so grateful for wonderful friends. As it turns out, even though it was the third baptism for our family, we still forgot some important items. You'd think we'd remember that we needed to bring towels with us, since we believe in this funny thing called baptism by immersion... but nope, no towels. It occurred to me as I 
remembered a towel I always keep in the trunk of my car, that we had the exact same quandary with Kennan's baptism, and used the exact same towel that time too - well, at least we're consistent. Highlights of the baptism were Angela's testimony, Kennan's Holy Ghost talk, and Grandma Richards' baptism talk. We had a big gathering at our house afterwards and, thanks again to so many wonderful friends, we had a beautiful spread and too much to eat.
