What do these two things have in common?

If you guessed that they are both things that Joseph got on his birthday, then you would be ... RIGHT!!

He is very excited to play racquetball with his new glove, and the other one has already proved immensely enjoyable on a quick trip up to Bridal Veil Falls this morning.

The last summer hurrah

My friend Joseph Creswell and I decided that we wanted to take a "man" trip before the summer was over. We worked on recruiting other guys to join, and at one point we had about 7 guys who were going to join the fun. In the end, they all backed out, the last two the night before, and the two Joseph's were left to go it alone.

We made it up there (Granddaddy Basin in the Uintas) early Thursday morning and blasted John Denver on the way up. Maren's gps and Joseph's guide book got us to the trailhead with no problems and we were off. The trail is a little over 3 miles before you get into the basin and then you have the option to follow several different trails within the basin. We headed west past several beautiful lakes and then found a heavenly spot to camp by a smaller lake which wasn't named on our map. We discovered later that its major shortcoming was a lack of fish in the lake, but there was lots of firewood and was a great place to camp.

That night we did some fishing at a larger lake (Betsy), and didn't catch anything but had fun. We ate dinner and went to bed. The hotdogs didn't sit well with me, and at 2 am I let them decorate the ground outside of the tent. That was my birthday present to Joseph as I had to lurch over him to get to the door, and Friday he turned 24. After that I got to sleep and felt much better. We spent Friday hiking around and did some fishing at Palisade Lake. There I caught the lone catch of the trip and we found some raspberries too that were delicious. We stashed our bags for most of the day, and in the evening we found them and then camped by Granddaddy lake that night. We finished Friday sleeping under the stars after eating the fish and some more raspberries.

Saturday I took the picture of the sunrise in the early morning and soon thereafter we packed and hiked out. It was a great time and the weather was perfect throughout. If any one is looking for a good place to enjoy the Uintas, Granddaddy Basin is a great one!

And the Lord thy God shall lead thee

Well, if the fact that we actually can move around our apartment now weren't enough, Maren ran into our old neighbors from our hobbit hole apartment and found out another reason that our most recent move was divine providence.

The story goes that after we moved out, another couple moved in, and then moved out again, at least temporarily. More specifically, within a few weeks of moving in, the shower drain got backed up. This resulted in sewer water spilling out into the apartment and turning it into a 3 inch deep pond of sewage back fill. Since much of our storage was under the bed and near the floor, we feel very grateful that we weren't the tenants during the great flood of White Gables. We also are glad that we only had to move once instead of move in, move out (with the stuff that wasn't ruined), and then move in again. Overall, we are very happy with how things worked out for us and hope that this experience doesn't kill the new couple so that it will make them stronger instead.

And the Race (for Medical School) Begins

Well, I have started interviewing for medical school. I left on Wed. for New York and got there Wed. evening to stay with a host family. They were very nice, and it turned out that they were good friends of Uncle David's family and had also lived in our ward at BYU for a week after we moved in and before they moved out.
They provided me with a good dinner, a shower, and a bed to sleep on which was very nice as I got ready for Thursday morning. I was at the school at 7:45 eastern time (5:45 mountain), and found that I was one of five people from Utah, out of the ten total that interviewed. Apparently BYU students like Rochester. The day included a campus tour, a nice lunch, and two interviews. They both seemed to go fine and I received no official rejections during the day. The campus was very nice as well, and upstate New York is gorgeously green.
That afternoon I was taken to the airport and headed to Houston to interview at UTMB in Galveston. Sadly, no reception met me this time, and I waited until after midnight to get the cheaper price on my rental car and watched X-Men while I waited on my laptop. I finally got my car, drove to Galveston, and had dinner at the Whataburger. Seeing Whataburger and HEB definitely made it feel like my mission which was comforting since I'd never been there before. I finally pulled off the road in a residential neigborhood around 2:30 and slept in the back of the car (it was a hatchback gratefully), until about 7:00. I went back to the Whataburger to clean up a little bit, and was the first one to arrive for the interview around 7:30.
This time there were about 60 people, and I only found one other BYU student. Out of the 60, only about 7 were not from Texas, so I felt special to be there. I again had my two interviews, lunch, and a tour of the campus. It was also a very nice campus, and I was especially taken with how you could park your motorcycle at the bike racks right outside of your building. It also felt a lot like my time in Port Isabel so the familiarity of the climate made it feel a little more homey.
I finished up and raced back to the airport. I got home at 11:30 mountain time, and was grateful for a soft bed and the chance to see my wife. It was exciting, but now I have to catch up on school and get ready to do it all again in a month when I have a three school whirlwind tour.