Christmas Success

Just a quick note to tell you what a great Christmas we had. Our plans
were forced to change at the last minute thanks to a massive Christmas
Eve snowstorm and a poor little boy who threw up a dozen times during
that day, so we couldn't go to the cabin for a rustic Christmas
morning. We were bummed, but we made up for it with plenty of good
family time.

It's been great spending quality time with family on both sides, and
the food's been tremendous. Thank goodness for a couple of good
basketball games to work off all the holiday eats.

We were all excited about the gifts we gave and received, and we're so
grateful for everyone's generosity. The kids were spoiled as usual,
and it was fun for Santa to see that he/she nailed the presents.

Dave and Meredith had their baby at about 10:45 on Christmas Eve night
(only a week overdue). Mere and baby Bea (Beatrice) are doing great.
We really miss Nate and Jenny and their boys who are still back in
Philly thanks to Nate's stinky job.

BYU pulled out another miraculous win in their bowl game, and a Texas
win tomorrow would be icing on the cake.

And we're thankful for the Savior at this Christmas time, and for
family both near and far.

OK, I guess that wasn't really just a quick note...

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our friends and family members! This is our Christmas card picture this year, so if you haven't received it, I'm sure it's, uh, in the mail... We're grateful for all of you!

And, we're on the road again starting early tomorrow morning. It's nice to have it almost here, and we're looking forward to seeing everyone. Over the next couple of weeks it's likely that blog entries will be sporadic at best, but if there's fun stuff to update you on, I'll give it a try. We'll take plenty of pictures and post them sometime around Easter, so don't worry about missing anything.

Let the fun begin ................

Holidays

Man, we need a holiday from preparing for the holidays, and we still have a lot of preparing left to do before we can actually enjoy our holidays.

There are 38 hours until we pull out of the carport with our nose pointed east. If we factor in about 6 hours of sleep tonight and tomorrow, that leaves only 26 hours. I'm pretty sure that's not enough hours to accomplish everything we still have on our lists. Joy and Good Tidings...

But then, I remember we have bowl games starting this weekend, and everything seems ok. Add to that the fact that we are officially done with all, and I mean all, our Christmas shopping - so if anyone has any last minute requests, keep them to yourself.

Interesting school winter concerts the last couple of nights. Firstly, Kennan did a GREAT job singing her solo! She was really awesome, and we've gotten so many comments that it was great to see her shine. That was on Monday night where the choir sang and the band tried to play. Tuesday night they had another one, which was all the grades singing their "winter" songs. Of the roughly 15 songs we heard, I recognized exactly 1 of them. This whole "don't offend anyone who might not be Christian by not singing any Christmas songs at all" routine is really old and tired. It doesn't help either that there's a music teacher who wants to spread her wings and invite the kids along on her little artistic adventure. Needless to say, this was not your typical winter concert, let alone Christmas concert.

Anyway, we're stoked for our trip, let's just hope we make it before falling apart completely.

Things we're looking forward to for the holidays...

• The Las Vegas Bowl - not going, just watching
  
• Grandma L's Christmas day feast (turkey, stuffing, potatoes, crepes, etc., etc., etc.)
  
• Grandma R's Christmas Eve dinner (not sure of the menu, but who cares...)
  
• Christmas Eve gift exchange (Spencer & Molly ... aaah yeaaah!)
• hiking in to the cabin in the snow by moonlight late Christmas Eve
• hoping Santa finds us at the cabin ;-)
• Christmas morning at the cabin
• giving Angela her present!
• seeing the kids get their presents!
  
• basketball with dad, brothers, friends
• skiing
• other bowl games
  
• a movie or two
• visiting family at their houses
• cousin play time for the kids
• hanging out at Christine & Cameron's
• seeing our partially built Provo spec house
  
• Preston's baby blessing and the sweet after-party at the Leishman's
  
• extended family Christmas party at Great Grandpa R's
• Dan coming to stay with us a for a few days after New Years (wish H & P could come)
• a little time off work
  
• the drive out there - yes, we're even sort of excited for that
  
• NOT the drive home

I've gotta run to get the shuttle bus up to SF for a holiday Bay cruise party - one of the many festivities for work...

Peace

Ch- Ch- Ch- Chaaanges...

Sometimes life throws you curve balls, sometimes it's change-ups, and sometimes it's high and tight chin music. I would categorize these recent developments as a slow-moving knuckle curve: you're not sure if it's curving or dancing - just that it's moving - but if you time it just right, you can hit it a mile because it's going so slow, but you're not really sure how the defense is placed, and ...

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago our bishop announced to the ward that he and his wife have been called as mission president to Albania starting next July. This was exciting news for them and we were all very happy for their upcoming experience. But what it also means, is that my bishopric calling may be short lived. Even if we all get released, it's been a very rewarding experience and I'm grateful for it. That said, I really hope to not get released because I've been enjoying the calling and my responsibilities. Needless to say, that will represent a big change in my life, and maybe our lives.

Also, we spoke last night with Bishop and his wife, and it looks like we're going to rent their house while they're gone. It's an exciting step for us, and will raise our rent a lot, but they've also been generous in helping us find a level of payment that works for both of us. It's a MUCH nicer/bigger/better house than we're currently living in, although we really like our current house and situation we've been in. So that will represent big changes for all of us - and all good! We've really been blessed.

As for everything else in our lives, it changes at a more normal rate. We're all growing and learning...

Birthday and stuff

Ang and the kids all celebrated another birthday yesterday - yeah it was mine, but it's much more fun to think of them a year older than they were last December 10th than it is to think of how old I am now. They were great - they really know how to make an old guy feel loved.

We started off the day with our traditional birthday donuts for breakfast, and the festivities continued when Ang and Brig joined me at work for lunch. Kennan and Morgan had asked me what I was going to do during the day on my birthday, and of course I told them I was going to work. They said, "but it's your birthday!" If only that counted as a holiday... I was surprised that people I work with knew it was my birthday because I hadn't told anyone - it was good for getting off a little earlier than usual and heading home to begin the evening activities. Ang made an awesome birthday dinner of beef & broccoli, pot stickers, rice, fruit, Martinelli's, and my favorite gingerbread cake with whipped cream. It was outstanding! Gifts followed, and as much as I liked the generous clothes, books, and treats, it was the girls' homemade cards that were the highlight. I had been asking for the "world's best birthday cards" as what I wanted for my birthday, and they really worked extra hard on them. I loved them!

I also appreciated the emails, calls, and cards from family. If nothing else, a birthday is at least an excuse to talk with my brothers and sisters and parents. We didn't feel the need to make it long because we'll see everyone next weekend.

We're looking forward to our trip, but holy cow is it sneaking up on us. We have so much to do before that time - not sure how we'll get it all taken care of.

We have loved the Christmas cards and pictures that have started pouring in. We put them all up on our front room glass door and windows (and leave them up til Easter or so) and really enjoy looking at them. So if you weren't planning on sending us a card, think again!

Thanks again for the b-day wishes, and we'll catch up more later.

YouTube video

Here's a really good YouTube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi4fzvQ6I-o

Before working in Silicon Valley, not a lot of this would have made sense to me. Now, it's hilarious. Hopefully my company can continue to perform well enough to justify the high stock price, thus rebuffing the "bubble" label.

Happy Birthday Dan and the usual "we're so busy" stuff

Happy Birthday Dan! We hope yesterday was a great day for you and that you got all kinds of cool stuff.

We got a beautiful Christmas tree over the weekend and it's amazing how putting it up with some nice white lights and fake red berries can bring the holiday mood into our house. It's only a matter of time until Brig entertains himself with the decorations, but as long as he doesn't pull the tree down, it's all good. We've also had some early success in getting Christmas shopping done, and I do believe we're well on the way to being done - that's surely a new record! Problem is, now we have to wait...I asked Angela late last night (thinking in her 3/4 asleep state she would agree) if I could give her her present early this year - no go.

This is going to be a very full week for us. We've got all kinds of play rehearsals in preparation for Kennan's big performance on Thursday night and Saturday night. We can't wait to see her - she's the Mad Hatter in a play called "Read the Book" by her drama teacher. I actually drew the graphic for the play, and I think it turned out pretty well - the t-shirt looks pretty good. Here it is without the words that were added later...

We also have my work party on Friday night, our ward party (in addition to the play) on Saturday night, a Saturday night birthday date after the ward party (next Monday...cash is fine), and varying levels of stress caused by homework, piano, and friend drama.

Hard to believe we're less than 3 weeks away from our trip to Utah. We're excited to see everyone out there, including some of our non-Utah friends who will also be there visiting at the same time.

Sad news this week that Poochy, the furriest of the LeBras clan, has passed away. We will miss seeing her around the house this Christmas. She was the only dog that our kids actually liked, which is definitely saying something. She'll be missed.

Recent Pics

Ang & Brig

Brig & Morg cleaning the bottom of the kitchen bench

Brig got a fire hat from the LAFD at the Festival of Lights and he wears it 24/7

We like to shave together

Busted trying to find the marshmallows

I have no idea what's going on here...

Still learning, but sometimes successful

Brig loves books, and he'll take them from anyone who will read

The girls with their friends at Festival of Lights

Back on the wagon

I can relate to Jan Ullrich. For those of you who don't know who that is, he used to be one of the world's best cyclists before he retired because he was about to get busted for blood doping and other performance enhancing drugs. OK, I can't relate to the blood doping or drugs part (but if anyone knows any good Spanish doctors, I'm looking to boost my marathon time...). Anyways, Jan had a habit of finishing his cycling seasons strong, and then letting himself go - putting on weight, not training, living the good life - during the offseason. He invariably would come into camp the next year overweight and out of shape, and would have to spend the first few months of the season riding himself back into shape. Now THAT, I can relate to...

Post-marathon life is a beautiful time. You don't have to run if you don't want to, you don't have to watch what you eat (you think, at least...), you can bask in the accomplishment, and a few attaboys from co-workers and friends are always nice for the ego. Problem is, a couple weeks of indulgence turns into a couple of months, and next thing you know, you're fat, out of shape, and used to sleeping in. Usually it takes me at least through Christmas to come to this realization, but this year, I've peaked early - I never really got down to my "playing weight" and was in marginal shape at the race. And now that it's officially the offseason...I'm Jan Ullriching myself.

SO, here it is - I'm running again, working out at the gym, watching what I eat (aside from holidays, weekends, and when the urge REALLY hits), and feeling much better about myself. I'm motivated to work hard, and I'm a much happier person.

Just thought I'd share that with you.

7 lbs, 7 points, and 38 minutes

Where do you start after a weekend like that?

We had a great Thanksgiving holiday, which, while we weren't with our families, we were surrounded by many friends who are our adopted family. The bottom line is that I think I must have gained at least 7 pounds with all the food I ate, and I'm guessing I'm not alone in that respect. It started off of course with a great T-giving feast of turkey, taters, stuffing, yams & apples, cranberry sauce, orange rolls, regular rolls, salad, apple pie, and pumpkin pie. If it had ended there, that would have been enough to sustain me for the entire remainder of the weekend. But the madness continued when Angela put on an outstanding Asian dinner for our dinner group friends the next evening: beef & broccoli, sweet & sour chicken, sticky rice, brown rice, PF Chang's lettuce wraps, pot stickers, Chinese chicken salad, and the pies left over from the night before. Talk about a flaxen cord! But it was good to be with everyone, and especially we were grateful for each member of our little family.

And then there were the sports. A 7 point come-from-behind-in-the-last-minute win by the Cougs over the Utes in football made my year - again. As I said to my brothers in an email this morning, anytime you can beat the Utes at anything, it's great; but if you can tear out their hearts and stomp on them at the same time, all the better! Sorry Matt D, Sam, and everyone else who hasn't been converted to greatness yet. How could it get better I ask you? Well, the Cougs bball team beat the #6 team in the country, and hung dang tough with the #1 team in the land for 38 minutes of hard ball until they hit the proverbial wall. Good times ahead for our athletic teams. Angela asked me after the football game if I was going to lead off our Christmas DVD with that as I did last year...you never know, my friend, you never know...

It was also great to chat with my old friend and former roommate, Craig Mortensen, on Saturday. He and Krista were some of our closest friends in college, and still that way except for the fact that we talk about once every five years or so. Regardless, it's great to have awesome friends.

I'm reading an amazing book called The Blindside, by Michael Lewis. It's a football related book, but I would recommend it to anyone. I haven't finished, so I'll reserve too much comment until I'm done, but it's really good - you should check it out.

And finally, we feel really festive after attending the Festival of Lights last night with a bunch of our ward friends. It's a big holiday parade that serves as an official kickoff to the Christmas season and festivities. No tree or decorations at our house yet, but we're shooting for this weekend to get going on that.

Hope you all are well.

what I'm grateful for

This is a great time of year! What better way to start the holiday season then by buying a bunch of really nice birthday gifts for John at the day-after-Thanksgiving shopfest? And there's all kinds of football on this weekend, and nobody has work or school...man, I'm in heaven.

OK, OK... so there's a little more to it than those things. It's a nice time to reflect (during commercials) on all the things we're grateful for. It seems we've already been doing this a little more than usual as we try to follow the counsel given by some of the Brethren during conference - to be more grateful and acknowledge our blessings daily. So I thought I would create a list. My gratitude includes but is not limited to the following items in no particular order ( ;-)...I'm cracking myself up here!):

Angela
Micah
Kennan
Morgan
Brigham
parents and in-laws
brothers and in-laws
sisters and in-laws
grandparents and extended family
nieces and nephews
friends
my calling
the gospel
health
health of the family
a great job
relatively cheap rent in a good house
air conditioning in our house
functioning cars
sports and fitness
good food
opportunities before us
experiences behind us
that I still have a few brown hairs left
and much more.

Thanks for listening...

Work Slammage...

As you can tell, or maybe you can't, but the frequency of blog posts has slowed down significantly over the past few weeks. This is not due to writer's block, or a lack of postable material, it is simply due to a decrease in my work-life balance. Work has been increasingly busy, and due to a big new project, I have been missing more and more family dinners lately. It's ok, because this is a good opportunity for me, and this is very temporary, but it's been busy.

A couple of things I wanted to tee up as we head into this week. First, of course, is Thanksgiving. We'll miss being with all our family - this is one of our favorite times of year, and it's always a little sad to not be around family. Fortunately we have a really strong friend group out here, most of which don't have family close either, so we'll have some good friend time this week. I'm not going to lie and say I'm not happy about a few days off of work either.

Second thing worth mentioning is there are a couple of ginormous football games this week. I actually hate to even discuss the BYU-utah game because it just adds to the fire, but it will be a big one to test the progress of a Cougs team that has shown some vulnerabilities this year. As much as I wish I could go to the game, I DON'T miss living in Utah during the buildup to the game (and sometimes for the aftermath...depending on the outcome). The other big game for our family is the Texas-texas a&m game. Sure it's not as big as Texas-oklahoma, but it's a fun one nonetheless and it's looking good for the Horns this year. Anyway, good games on from Thanksgiving on - so enjoy the weekend.

If I don't have time to post again, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving, and don't eat too much!!! We love you all.

Obama

OK, for those of you who don't know, Google periodically has interesting people come in and speak and answer questions. Today was Barrack Obama, and here are my thoughts.

I was more impressed with Obama than I have been with all the other Democratic candidates I've seen. He seemed less slick and political, and yet in a twisted way that probably makes him more so of both of those, if you get my drift. He started off with a prepared speech of about 10 minutes, and I guess it would make some people happy because he used Google themes as the whole basis of his talk, but to me it smacked of pandering to the audience. Of course, they all would have done that, so that's not really a bad mark against him. He then sat down with our CEO and had a Q&A, including a few audience questions that were of the "Oh Barrack, we love you, blah blah blah" variety.

Obama talks big. He has a lot of things he throws out that he "will change when I'm president". Double spending on healthcare, double spending on science and research, faster broadband for all US citizens, greatly reduce the federal deficit, withdraw the troops out of Iraq (of course), eliminate all wiretaps and email reading (ironic, since many argue that's what Google basically does!), welcome immigrants in, personal presidential diplomacy with other countries, and eliminate the influence of special interest groups by making all laws at a big table while broadcasting on C-Span or over the internet (huh?). The one thought that kept charging through my head was, "oh great, they're going to raise taxes to pay for all this stuff..." Perhaps it's my ignorance when it comes to the actual workings of the political process, but I have doubts about his ability to make sweeping changes like that. He sounded like the candidate who promises big things and then hopes everyone forgets when it comes time to deliver.

One thing that did surprise me a little bit was he is much less vocal about the current administration's mistakes and problems than the others have been. He alluded to them and mentioned them periodically, but he didn't build his whole platform around them as Edwards and Richardson did.

Fundamentally, I disagree with almost all of what the democrats stand for - most of all abortion and increased taxes. However, if I had to vote for a democrat for president, I believe it would be Obama - especially if the alternative were Hillary. He struck me as very young, and probably too inexperienced in the political arena, but that may not necessarily be a bad thing. Maybe he could turn out to be great, and maybe our country will be better off after all if we just get the heck out of Iraq (and hopefully stay away from Iran and Pakistan...). Anyway, it's tough to get a flavor of a candidate after just one meeting, but he's impressive and doesn't seem like a bad person.

Perhaps he'll lose this election, but build political equity for the next one four years from now...

Gas prices

I know everyone's complained about it, but it's getting ridiculous. I was driving home from work yesterday and the cheapest gas I saw was 3.45 for regular unleaded. My first thought of course was (well, actually, I better not print that...). My second thought was, "I wonder if all the gas stations are this high, or if I can find one cheaper?"

It turns out that Google Maps can help you figure that out. Go to maps.google.com and click on the My Maps tab on the left side. You should see a section called Featured Content. In that section you should see a link called "Gas Prices from GasBuddy.com". If you click on that link and input your zip code, then Google Maps will populate the map with all the gas stations in the area and then you can click on them to see the lowest price. Pretty freaking cool - makes me want to go back out and get gas again.

Not much going on...

I was sick over the weekend but seem to be feeling better today. There have been a few of us hovering close to the sick-not sick line, and I think I finally got bumped over it, but all good now.

I went to the latest Warren Miller ski movie on Saturday night and loved it. It's just a bunch of stuff that 1, I'll never do, and 2, I couldn't do even if I dared. But it seemed like a great kickoff to our ski season, which should consist of actually skiing again this year!

We're spending Thanksgiving at home this year but will be thinking longingly about last Thanksgiving on the beaches of Maui. Oh well, if we went every year, it wouldn't be as fun, right? Uh, I'd like to try... But it'll be fun to be with friends and our little family, and to have a few days off work/school. It's a really great time of year, and it seems to be the front door to a lot of good times in December as well. We're still formulating our Christmas travel plans, but the forecast is looking good for a Christmas trip to Utah.

We took down the crib and put up a small in-between bed for Brig before he actually goes to the bigger trundle bed in the girls' room. He has been doing a pretty good job in that bed the last few nights, and it's so cute to have him in his own bed. He mysteriously still is in our beds when I wake up in the mornings, but at least he doesn't start out there any more.

Kennan's soccer ended and she got the "Defender of the Year" award. She was a good little player and I had fun coaching the team. I am debating whether to coach again next year, because one of her friends told me at the last game that "Kennan says you're pushing her too hard." I really was always very positive with the girls, Kennan included, and I think she just interpreted my encouragement and instructions as too much pushing. I don't want to be one of "those dads", so we'll see about next year. Oh well, at least I got a $50 gift certificate to REI for my efforts...

It's not even Mother's/Father's Day...

I had a really fun conversation with Mom and Dad R. the other evening as I was finishing up work and they were just sitting down to a feast at the Cheesecake Factory in Newport. It's so great to have fun parents, on both sides, who we can easily talk to and who support us and love us unconditionally. They care immensely about our kids, about our lives, about our living situations, about our jobs, about our safety, about us visiting, and about things that make us happy.

I thought I would post today about my Mom and Dad. They are so great! What's funny to me is that with all the successful, powerful, generous, and spiritual things they've done and are doing, the thing I care most about, and makes me the most happy, is just when we can talk and laugh and be ourselves together. We don't always get that because most of our conversations are over the phone, or over a choppy webcam, and it's not always easy to connect. But maybe that makes our real connections all the better, because they are not as common. I love when Mom laughs openly, and when she jokes and chatters about things that are fun. I love when Dad wants to hear about my job, or cares about sports, and can relate to things going on in my world. I love that Mom and Dad both care about eternal things, and I love that they both care about fun, dumb, temporal things as well sometimes. I guess what I'm trying to get across here, is that they are great, and normal, all rolled up in the same bundle. Sometimes you get the church leader side of them, and sometimes you get the total opposite - and it's awesome to get both sides at just the right time.

Anyway, thanks to Mom and Dad, and to Angela's parents as well, for being so involved in our lives, and in our kids' lives. Thanks for raising us well, and for not completely letting us go when we branched out on our own. We love you very much.

Halloween Pics

Morgan (Elfeba) with her face painted at the Googleween party

Kennan's face painting from the Google party

Brig posing for his one and only normal picture

Brig was scared of his costume, so it was tough to get him to keep it on...

The good witch Guhlinda ready for trick-or-treating

The Lion, The Witch, and The Black Cat with a White Face

Relaxing from a fun night charging around the neighborhood helping Brig grab handfuls of candy from people's Halloween buckets

Happy Birthday Clint and a few other things

First off, happy birthday to Clint over the weekend - wish we could have been there to celebrate with you guys! We hope you had a good time with your family and friends!

Provo house #2 seems to be coming right along under the watchful eye of Cameron and CW Construction. We're excited to see it progress, and we look forward to testing the real estate market once again to see if we can sell this baby. We think it'll be no problem because we will have such a great agent this time (Christine)! When I first saw the pictures of this house, I thought it was a hotel or a ski lodge...I think we might actually fit in that house ourselves. Actually, we would probably fit in about 1/4 of that house. But we'd sure like to try to live such that we actually lost a kid in the "East Wing" every once in a while. As it is now, we're not in danger of having one of the kids feel isolated from the rest of the family...

I don't know if any of you saw the announcement this morning about the Google foray into mobile phone operating systems. This replaces the speculation about Google selling its own phone, but it's exciting for us nonetheless. From what I have heard, our operating systems will be the basis for some pretty sweet phones and features.

Finally, lest you think I've moved on from my obsessions, let me just say there was some fun football over the weekend. It was great to have BYU back in action after a very long layoff from meaningful games. They played pretty well and beat one of those teams they're supposed to beat. This week will be a much sterner test - I'm hoping they can come through on Thursday. Texas executed yet another stunning 4th quarter comeback against OSU, but unfortunately we didn't get to watch it as we were shown the very exciting (NOT!) PAC 10 game of the week. And finally, I watched the Patriots-Colts game last night in fast motion and that was a great game as well.

I'm going to post again in a few minutes with our Halloween pictures - you'll love the one of Morgan!

Earthquake and Halloween

Last night we were at home, Ang was helping the younger kids with their bath, Micah and I were sitting at the kitchen table working on her math homework, when our house started to shake. We have been here for almost 3 1/2 years, and we keep hearing about earthquakes, but we hadn't felt one until last night. It started for Micah and me by the laundry room door beginning to rattle and shake noisily, followed the room moving for no apparent reason. My first thought was that it was a couple of big trucks rolling by right outside our house (we live in a parking lot after all), but we didn't hear the noise that would have accompanied that event. It lasted only a few seconds, and then it was over except for a couple of very brief aftershocks. Micah was a bit scared, but other than that it was no big deal. I was surprised to see it on a lot of news outlets today, but I guess it was a 5.6 quake down close to San Jose, which would be big enough to make the news.

Anyway, we're fine, and we can now say we've felt a real earthquake (although that wasn't exactly something we were looking forward to). We're glad it wasn't a bad one!

Ang and the kids all came to Google yesterday afternoon for the big Google Halloween party for the kids and families. It was really fun - they got their faces painted by very talented artists (pictures hopefully by tomorrow); we ate good food; and just had a good time. The adult Halloween party is today (not sure I'm going to make that one as I'm a bit swamped with work - yes, work). I'll give a full Halloween report tomorrow after all the festivities have ended and the sugar high worn off.

Everybody stay safe tonight!!!

picturesofthereallyfuntriptodisneyland

Herding cats ... waiting in line the first day

The obligatory family picture in front of the Mickey garden - it was made out of small pumpkins this time instead of flowers

Grandpa with all the grandkids (Grandma came that evening)

Hard to be sad at Disneyland

The girls with Mickey in his Halloween costume

Morgan in her demolition derby car

Brig and Dad on the Dumbo ride; he is saying "all done!"

Mommy and Brig on a ride in Bug Land

These are our normal faces

Ang and the girls getting soaked

The results of the soaking

In front of the "California" sign in the matching shirts the kids wore on the second day

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for a great trip!!!!!

Kennan finishing off the trip by blowing Disney wishes to everyone

The Magic Kingdom

Wow, what a great trip to Disneyland last week! The best part for our family was definitely seeing the majority of our cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, and it didn't hurt to have a place like Disneyland as the backdrop. We were proud of the kids for being brave in their own little way, and being generally happy even when they were so tired from the long days. Here are a few highlights as told by the kids last night at dinner:

Micah: favorite rides were Space Mountain, Matterhorn, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but in typical Micah fashion, she had a hard time narrowing the list to just those three. She loved being buddies with close cousins Elle and Jane, and being with everyone in the family.

Kennan: favorite rides were of the gentler variety like Peter Pan and some of the shows, but she was proud of herself for going on the very scary Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Matterhorn, although there was a bit of persuasion happening to get her through the gates to those.

Morgan: favorite rides were Matterhorn and Grizzly Gulch River Raft (we got drenched!). She was very brave, and ended up riding the Matterhorn three times.

Mom & Dad: favorite rides were Soarin' Over California, Maliboomer, California Screamin', Tower of Terror, and any park bench in the shade.

Brig: favorite ride was definitely the horsies on the carousel, followed closely by the stroller at times that he didn't want to be running freely through large crowds.

Ang and the girls also really enjoyed a fun little show and event at the American Girl Doll store in L.A. This was in lieu of friend birthday parties for this year, so they really had a fun time that was much anticipated, and they each got a fun outfit for their dolls. Brig and I walked through a Beverly Hills swanky mall and chuckled at all the people trying to look fashionable.

All in all, a fabulous trip. Which is a good thing, because I'm being totally swamped at work today. There's a lot going on here and I'm right in the middle of a lot of it - very good! We're looking forward to the Googleween tomorrow, where the kids get to dress up and come to Google for a fun party, and then we're all excited for our very fun annual family Halloween party with a lot of our school friends. Ang and Micah have a "growing up" program tonight, so I guess Micah will now know more than we are comfortable with when it comes to certain "things". Oh well, at least she doesn't have to go to the 5th grade maturation program with Great Grandma Richards like her Dad did......

Disneyland pics when I get the time...

More on the trip...

With all the talk about the Southern California wildfires, I thought I would post some info I found on the web. The two links below are to recently updated maps and images showing the locations of the fires that would affect our Disneyland trip.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=117631292961056724014.00043d21dedd02f5ae1f7&ll=33.651208,-118.146973&spn=2.199313,4.405518&z=8&om=0

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/fireplots/cgb2007296_0700.jpg

It's really sad for all the people who are losing their homes, and worse, but I think the fires won't affect us too much other than potential traffic problems with a couple of the fires burning close to relevant freeways, and with air quality. The CDOT doesn't indicate any fire-related freeway closings at the moment, but you can call 1-800-427-7623 for updated road closure info. I also checked the Disneyland websites and there was no mention of closures or changes to park hours or operations due to fires.

Ironically, a fire engine just pulled up outside my building here at work...they're probably just here to use the gym (hopefully). Speaking of work, we had another cool visit yesterday - from the band, Matchbox 20. They played some songs and answered some questions, and it was really cool. I love the live music visitors the best, although the politicos are interesting as well.

Have a great day.

Family Reunion

The term "family reunion" doesn't always conjure up the most pleasant of thoughts, but this week, it's the greatest! The majority of the Richards clan is headed down to Disneyland for a few days of fun together, and we can't wait! The girls have been counting down for weeks now, and we're amazed the time is almost here. We've been so busy that it's come upon us somewhat suddenly.

A few things that will be great about this week's trip:

• All but Dan and Hailey will be making the trek to SoCal. We'll really miss them, but considering they have a very new baby and a tough first semester of business school going on, it's understandable that the timing didn't work perfectly for them. It'll be awesome to hang out with everyone and relax together.
  
• We'll all be on vacation at the same time...I know, you're thinking "duh", but when we go to Utah to visit, we're typically the only ones on vacation, so we have to sort of weave our vacation with everyone's normal lives. They do a great job of accommodating us, but that's just the point - nobody will be accommodating anyone, we'll all be on vacation together.
• Disneyland: if you do this place right, it can be great. This is the right time of year, and I'm guessing it won't be overly crowded, so we should have a great time. Also, from what I hear, the hotel is very close to the park (i.e. walkable), which will give us a lot of flexibility with tired kids and dads.
• The weather: here's the forecast...Thursday - Sunny, 83 degrees; Friday - Sunny, 77 degrees...... ah yeah.

We're really grateful to Grandpa and Grandma Richards for putting this together. They're the best!

Quick hitter

A couple of cute things Morgan has said recently: the other night she
had a splinter in her foot and she said we could get the "twizzards"
to get it out. Also, she told Angela the other day, "Mom, I can't wait
til I'm a mom." Angela, who had just watched conference and was
thinking how great it was that her daughters are being raised well,
asked Morgan why she was excited to be a mom. Morgan said, "so I can
have all the power." ... One problem I see with that - how did she
think moms have all the power?! What a crock!

Micah ran for student body president this week and unfortunately she
didn't win. She's a little sad about it, but the 6th grader who won
has tried twice already unsuccessfully, so it's really good for him.

Went on another bike ride today ... Sweet!

Littla Dis, Littla Dat

Brig helping make rolls - he would NOT give up that rolling pin...

Brig wearing the Big Man's shoes

The family with the Disneyland countdown paper chain - before Brig destroyed it

Brig doing his "ooooooh, poopy" face

Post-marathon lounging in St. George

At the zoo

A rare tranquil moment...

We're slowly catching up with the general conference sessions we missed the weekend of the marathon. It's so great to be able to either watch them on our DVR whenever we want, or watch them online. We're still formulating our list of favorites, so we'll discuss more when we get through them all.

Our family had a really fun bike ride on Saturday. We borrowed a bike from a friend that had a baby seat attached to it, so we could all ride together. Brig loved riding behind me - he thought it was pretty cool. We're now thinking about getting our own baby bike seat, although I'm expecting Brig to start riding a two-wheeler any time now, so maybe not.

And speaking of bikes, I renewed a torrid affair with an old flame over the weekend. I rode 25 miles through the hills above our house, and it was a glorious experience. The weather was perfect, the bike worked great, and my legs didn't fall off, although they felt like they were going to. It's amazing how different it is on your legs riding a bike vs. running. But it was really great to get out again, and as soon as I can stand to sit in the saddle, I'll be back on the road.

A few friends and I watched the BYU game online until about 1am Sunday - a bit of an ugly game but a win's a win. You can imagine that my Sunday am meetings came pretty early that day...

Angela went to parent-teacher conferences for all the kids today and they all got high marks. They all have areas in which they can improve, but generally are doing well. We're proud of them and we love them.

Mobile blogging

This blog post represents one more step into the technology world. I'm
posting from my cell phone - the first of probably many interspersed
with regular posts.

It's raining today - lovin' it! Downpours have been quite intense,
which is fun. Unfortunately that means our ward service project
tomorrow has been cancelled, and probably the soccer game in the
morning as well. Nothing going on tonight, so probably a family movie
night. Should be fun.

Some Interesting Stats

John's family statistics:

• Grandkids: 20
• Granddaughters: 11
• Grandsons: 9
  
• Grandkids on the way that I know of: 1
  
• Grandkids living outside of Utah: 7
• Estimated cumulative years in college so far: 98
• Estimated miles driven by Dad to help kids move: 8,725
• Countries served in as missionaries: 9
• Estimated miles flown to mission destinations: 58,362
  
• Estimated BYU games watched or listened to: 270
  
• Estimated number of sports played competitively: 11
• Marathons run: 19

Any other contributions to the list?

Yankees are OUT!!! (sorry Clint, couldn't resist)

OK, so I admit I don't care as much about baseball as I used to. Given that, there are still a few constants that can easily get me interested...

1. Somebody beating the Yankees
2. The Red Sox winning (because it ticks off the Yankees)
3. Somebody beaning Barry Bonds
4. The Giants not re-signing Barry Bonds for next year even though he wants to come back
   

Not sure who I actually want to win this year. I was a Cubs fan forever, but have recently lost track of most of their players and hence don't have as much fervor for the brick and ivy of Wrigley Field. Maybe I'll become a Cubs fan again and bust out my old crusty size 7 1/4...

On a different note, I thought I would mention a couple of new Gmail tips I found out about recently. One of the main complaints I have had with Gmail is that when you are typing a new message or responding to an old message, you can't access your inbox to refer to other emails...or so I thought. Turns out you can. Just hit Shift + "C" (or "R" to Reply, or "A" to Reply All, or "F" to Forward) and you can compose in a new window. You can also click on the icon in the top right corner of the compose box for the same effect if you forgot the key strokes. Also, if you're tired of clicking "return to inbox", just click "U" instead.

Hey There

Well, I think it was a successful trip to St. George. We drove out there Thursday night, arriving around 1:30 in the morning, and enjoyed sleeping in on Friday morning. We relaxed Friday, hitting tennis balls with the girls in the morning before the high winds came. The marathon expo in the afternoon was fun, and it really made Angela wish that she was running. I can relate from times I've been there in a supporting role...although during the race I wondered why anyone would want to do that...

We had a great pre-race dinner on Friday night of pasta, chicken veggies, salad, and bread with a lot of fun aunts and uncles and cousins. It was so fun to be with them - probably the best part of our trip overall.

To the race: I did fine. Of course it was hard, and I got tired, but I was able to run the race without the severe leg cramps I usually get, and my time of 3:43 was actually faster than I had predicted I would run this year. The best part was running with a couple of old friends - Matt for the first 1/2 of the race, and Darek, who I unexpectedly ran into at mile 16 and we ran the rest of the race together. It was so fun to see people I only get to see once a year at most.

The hardest part of the whole trip was being away from Micah. We were so sad to receive her homesick calls Friday and Saturday night as she had returned tired from her week field trip and just needed a family and parents to be with her. We felt miserable as we wished so badly we had planned a little differently. Our friends with whom she stayed were all so kind, but it's just not the same as family. We left early Sunday morning, drove faster than I should have, and got home around 5pm Sunday to give huge hugs to our Micah. It was so great to be together again. The other kids traveled amazingly well, and it was a fun trip.

We have some catching up to do on Conference, but at some point I'll give some of my impressions of this year's talks and my feelings. We're so lucky to have this semi-annual opportunity to be uplifted by the church leaders.

I'm very sore ... thank goodness we live on the ground floor.

Roadtrip Weekend!

I woke up this morning early, stomach churning, palms sweating, mind racing...and that was just for the drive today. I've still got two days before the real pain even starts. We're all excited about our trip to St. George - so much so in fact that we decided to leave a day early and drive out there this afternoon instead of tomorrow. It's about a 9 1/2 to 10 hour drive, so we'll get there very late tonight, but it will still be good to have a day to relax and get ready tomorrow. We have every conceivable thing you could want to keep yourself awake and occupied in the car: DVDs, CDs, books, magazines, toys, books on CD, iPod, Diet Cokes, snacks of all variety, and one antsy and screaming Brig...should be fun!

I packed all my stuff last night and it took me an hour to get everything together that I need for the run - I'm going to be a regular general store out on the road. I wear a cycling jersey for the run because I like to have the big back pockets to store stuff I might need. We'll take some pics and maybe even some video and put it up here when we get back. My goal: to relax and have fun. My secondary goal: try to stay under 4 hours.

We're excited to see friends and family who will be there as well. There are a surprising number of Bay Area friends who are making the trek, and many of our old running friends and family members from Salt Lake will be making the exodus. That's the best thing about the whole experience.

We miss Micah. Reports are that she's doing great, but we sure wish she was going on our trip with us. It seems like every year she has something that prevents her from going to St. George - oh well, maybe next year.

This is how I'm going to feel after the race

My running partner

Overnighters

Kennan had her first Brownie campout over the weekend. It was in the brownie leader's back yard, which was fine with us, and she had a good time. We let them use our new tent, and when I went over the next day to break it down I was surprised how big the tent is. We need to go on a family campout! It was a bit cold for all the kids, but they all survived and we surprisingly didn't get any phone calls in the middle of the night.

Micah is now on her 5th grade week-long field trip. It's supposed to consist of a bunch of hikes and science projects, and she was really excited for it. Dad made the first mistake of the trip by sending contraband with her - the rules apparently said "No iPods", and not knowing this, I thought she would really enjoy listening to mine so I put it with a note in her bag...hope she doesn't get in trouble on account of me. They're sleeping in cabins, and her teacher informed us that she was one of the lucky ones who got a cabin with its own bathroom.

Brigham continues to have his own little fun overnighters in our bed. He's been a real stinker going to bed lately, and now that he's realized that one of his parents is a softy and one of them is not, he only lets the softy hold him when it gets close to ni-ni time. The softy parent has a hard time hearing him cry, so she will go rescue him against her husband's orders, and so now he knows he can rely on his mom to save him from his prison crib. You can probably tell this is a sore spot for the non-softy parent...

3 days 13 hours to St. George.

I love weekends

This is Brig's hybrid pitching and free throw stance

We don't mind boys climbing on Micah's back, well, Brig at least

Kennan got one of the first Principal Awards of the year

Put me in coach!

Thought you might enjoy a few pictures.

It's amazing how satisfying a kids soccer game, and hours of work down in the depths of the basement can be. We had a great weekend, including the right mix of work, productivity, and relaxation, and friend time. We also had a really fun party at a friend's house from the school - a very nice house in a very nice part of town with a very nice catering menu and very nice people - a lot of fun! The Cougs won their game last night so that was good even though Texas lost. Another highlight was Micah, Morgan and I had a great long walk this afternoon while Ang and the other kids slept.

So the kids are just singing along with the Wicked CD and I am once again blown away by how good Micah sounds. They all love to sing, and are good singers, but Micah sounds like she could be in the cast right now...

Micah leaves tomorrow morning on her week-long 5th grade field trip. We're really going to miss her, especially since some of us won't see her until Sunday night after St. George. It's hard to let your 10 year old go for a week with the school, but we're sure she'll be ok, and we'll somehow manage without her.

And speaking of St. George, I'm excited to run with Matt and Jason, well at least until I drop off their scorching pace. So I should be able to hang with them for at least a couple hundred yards, and then maybe I'll catch up again when Matt stops to make a deposit around mile 4, but I have a feeling it's going to be a lonely road for me.

SORRY!

Whoa! Thanks Clint for bringing to my attention the inappropriate ad that was showing on the blog. I had no idea that was there - somehow they started showing display ads instead of my usual text ads. Either way, it's gone now, and it won't be back. Now all of you who didn't see it are wondering what you missed... too bad.

Trip Pics

With Karen and Joe at Trafalgar Square (I forgot to ask them to turn around)

Looking down the river at the London Eye

Big Ben from across the Thames

Buckingham Palace before the changing of the guard

The changing of the guard

Me and thousands of my closest friends waiting to see our sovereign queen...

Emasculating myself

Thank goodness for Japanese tourists who didn't find it strange at all to take a picture of a strange guy acting as if he was trying to walk through a wall.