Bear Lake

Our last weekend before school started, we went up to Bear Lake.  There were two reasons for the trip: (1) So Sarah could participate in the Bear Lake Brawl Triathlon with some family and friends and (2) so we could spend some time with Papa (her grandpa who lives at Bear Lake).

We had a blast, but I'm not sure what my favorite part was.  It could have been cheering my wife on as she completed her second triathlon.  It could have been my accomplishment of riding around Bear Lake (50 miles)on my bike before they started.  It could have been all the jokes I made about doing things with your "bear" hands since we were at Bear Lake or referring to anything else as "bear" that is really "bare."  It could have been the wicked farmer's tan that I got for forgetting to put sunscreen on my arms for my bike ride (I put in on my face, neck and legs).  It could have been riding the wave runners on the lake.  It could have been spending time with Papa or going to church with him.  Since there are so many options to choose from and I'm having a hard time, I let you decide your favorite, with a little help from some pictures.

Sarah in the back of Brenda's truck, getting ready to drive over to the triathlon start.

The Triathlon Crew - Brenda, Sarah, Matt (Sarah's cousin wearing the helmet) & Joe (Sarah's lab buddy)

Sarah finishing the bike portion of the triathlon.

Re-hydrating before the run.

(I don't have any pictures of her running because she was too fast.)

Nothing better than a Fat Boy to help you recover from your race.

The Happy Couple after triathlon or ride around Bear Lake.

Farmer's tan after bike ride.

(I'm not sure whether the wall paper or the farmer's tan is better.)

Everyone showing off what's left of their triathlon numbers or their new farmer's tan.

Me and Sarah with Papa.

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DMV

So this is actually about going to the Drivers License Division, but to everyone outside the people who work there, it's pretty much the same thing as the DMV (Division of Motor Vehicles) to everyone else - ridiculously long lines and extreme wait times.

As I'm sure you've guessed by now, we had to make a trip to the DMV, i.e., the Drivers License Division.  I needed to renew my drivers license and Sarah needed to get a Utah drivers license with her new name on it.  I'm sure most of you have been to the DMV before, and my guess is that it's only worse now that Utah passed the law that you have to show up in person to renew your license rather than doing it by mail.

The thing that surprised me was the attitude of people who work there.  They must have just accepted the fact that lines are always long there and people wait for a long time.  So, here's how it went:

We walked in, got in the first line and filled out our paperwork.  Then we got to the "information desk" where they took our pictures, checked our documents, and got our signatures.  Then the guy handed us the papers and nonchalantly said "It'll be just an hour wait."  Just an hour?!?!  How long do things around here normally take?

Then after our wait that was just an hour, I got called up to the desk and the lady asks me, "Did you have to wait long?"  I thought to myself 'yeah, I had to wait long'  but then thinking that their perception of time is different there, I responded with "No, only an hour."  She looked at me funny as if she was thinking 'Only an hour?!?!'  to herself, then apologized.  I guess not everyone there has a strange perception of time.  Lucky for me, I don't have to go back for another five years.

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Camping in the Uintas

With our second to last weekend before school started, Sarah and I decided to go camping in the Uinta Mountains with Brenda (partly because we wanted to make it up to her for bailing on our trip to Havasupai and partly because we felt like going camping).  I had gone to Jenő and Edit's sealing in the Bountiful Temple that evening and I was planning on meeting Sarah and Brenda in Kamas.  The original plan was to go to Mirror Lake, but when does anything in life go according to plan?

Edit, Sarah, Me and Jenő

(Jenő was the Branch Mission Leader in one of the cities on my mission and Edit has been living in Utah for the past fifteen years, working int he Humanitarian Aid Department of the Church.  She had be married but was recently divorced and she and Jenő decided to get married, so he moved here from Hungary.  My mission president performed the sealing and it was translated into Hungarian for Jenő because he doesn't speak English.)

So, one of my headlights had burned out and I didn't think it would be a good idea to drive up in the mountains without a headlight (despite my mother telling me that plenty of people drive with a burned out headlight).  After the sealing, I drove to Murray to fix my car there, only to run into a lot of frustration, tools dropped into the engine that didn't fall through and tight spaces that weren't too kind to my knuckles.  Long story short, it was dark before I left Murray, so Sarah and Brenda decided to leave Kamas and find the first area to camp that they could.  We later met up in Kamas and went to the camp together.  The next morning, we went for a nice bike ride up the canyon (if any bike ride up a canyon can be considered nice).

Me and Brenda with our tent.

(Leave it to my wife to take a picture of me camping with another woman.)

The Provo River, right next to our campsite.

Landscape picture taken from our campsite.

(I couldn't really think of a good description for this one.)

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