Finally, an update (or 2)

Yes, I know it has been while since I last posted on my blog here, so now I am going to attempt to atone for that by posting twice on the happenings since then. So this will be a two part posting. The first will be on the fun things we have been doing with our friends and just Rachelle and I. The second will be anything relating to sports which have occurred since April 1.
For the weekend of May 11-13, Rachelle and I decided to celebrate our 3rd anniversary by going to Mesquite and Las Vegas. It was a lot of fun and a well needed retreat from school and work. We spent Friday afternoon and Sunday morning in Mesquite, and all day Saturday in Vegas. It was a lot of fun. We cruised the strip for a while and saw the Mandalay Bay aquarium and the MGM lions. We also did some shopping at the M&M factory, some outlet malls, and at various little shops along the strip. I still think the best part of the trip was escaping the chilly temperatures in Ogden, and enjoying the 100 degree weather in Nevada.
(Rachelle and I across the street from the M&M factory)

On June 18, a strange thing happened. I turned 25! That's right, somehow I made it to 1/4 of a century old! We didn't do a whole lot for my birthday. As always, Rachelle and I went to Red Robin for dinner. And we went to dinner with my family at P.F. Changs in SLC which was fun. But I think that the highlight of the day was the cake Rachelle made for me. She discovered a cake called strawberry fridge cake (which is a white cake with strawberry glaze drizzled down through holes drilled into it and then covered with a white frosting). She made a round one which she decorated to look like a baseball which said Cubs on it. It was awesome!

(My Cubs birthday cake)
Our big thing this summer was to go camping. We tried to go several times, but only managed to get out twice. The first time was the weekend of June 22nd-24th. We went to Monte Cristo campsite (which is about 40 miles east of Ogden) with the Brainards and their friend Dan. It was a lot of fun, but the highlight was definatley the huge bonfire we made. We found a dry stump (probably 2 feet tall and 1 foot wide) which we put into our fire pit and lit up. Despite Rachelle's obvious distaste for it, we certainly attracted the interest of most of our neighboring campers. It was very entertaining. We also camped in a campsite in which the ground squirrels teamed up with the tree squirrels to attack us by stealing food and dropping pine cones on us (We think Dan may have been in on the attacks). The down side to this was that the squirrels were all over the ground and therefore, we had to watch the stupid little dog in the campsite next to us (whose owners weren't watching at all) catch and kill a squirrel. We were all very upset with that, but what can you do?
Our second camping trip of the summer was the weekend of July 22-23. We were at the Ruch's for a BBQ with all of our friends which was very fun (even though Doug or Trines, I forget who, hit me in the face with a wiffleball because when we decided to play, it was too dark to see the ball). Afterwards, we decided it would be fun to go camping. So we packed up our things and drove up AF canyon to the Granite Flats campground. We were lucky enough to find an open site so we set up camp and stayed over night. It was also a lot of fun. The highlight of this trip was probably the huge tent and mattress we were trying out. The mattress was one that Rachelle and I bought shortly after our previous camping trip because we found out that our old mattress had a hole in in. The tent was one that we tried out for the weekend as a test run. We borrowed it from the office manager at the PT clinic I was working at. And it worked out so well, we did decide to buy it.
(The Monte Cristo bonfire)

(Us with the Ruch family at Granite Flats campground)
Finally, the biggest thing for me lately, has been my preparations for my PT school applications. Which are a huge headache to complete. I really hope that I can get accepted to a program, and start this coming summer/fall. But in reality, it'll be very tough and so we'll have to see what happens. For now, my list of possible schools stands at:
Utah
UNLV
University of Colorado @ Denver
A.T. Still University
Washington University of St. Louis
University of Iowa
Pacific University (Oregon)
University of Texas @ San Antonio
University of Texas Southwest @ Dallas
Eastern Washington University (possibly)

Please, see part 2 to see what we've been doing related to sports lately.