Car Alarm Goes Off While Driving on Freeway

Provo, UT

The "Great" Salt Lake

On Saturday, we took a ritual skinny dip in the Great Salt Lake. I wish you could understand the depths to which this lake is gross. The whole place smells like sewage, and bugs roll across the ground in swarms....literal, visible swarms. The best part of this lake is that it's 12% salt, so you can float like CRAZY! So not only were we skinny dipping in mid-day, but we had a hard time keeping everything under the water because of the buoyancy.

Fact: The only creature that lives in the Great Salt Lake is the brine shrimp.

Here's how our conversation went as we entered the lake:

Sarah T.: "EEEWWWW...this place smells like death and decay."
Sarah K.: "Uhh...what's that black stuff on the bottom?"
Sarah T.: "Death and decay."
Lacy: "You guys, this is really gross...why are we here?"
Sarah T.: "This is a God-forsaken place."
Sarah K.: "This really stings, guys. Why are there dead bird carcuses everywhere?"
Sarah T.: (gagging) "This is GROSS."
Lacy: "This really stings. And itches."
Sarah T.: "I feel like a brine shrimp could take advantage of me at any second."

After that, we took showers in the boat rinsing station, while all the boat-rinsers looked on.


P.S. We were clothed during the showers.

Utah, My Love

Tomorrow at 12:53 pm I fly out to Utah to see my two very best friends in the whole wide world. No coffee or tea for a week. :( But I am still so excited!

I will return to Idaho next Saturday....and then frantically try to put my classroom together.

Utah is the craziest place ever....I really am so excited to go back there!! The church we helped plant down there is now at 81 members...pretty amazing considering where it's located. When I lived there, most non-LDS churches had around 10 members.

Fun Provo Facts:

1. Population: approximately 116,000

2. Number of Starbucks: 1 (first one opened when I was there in 2005.)

3. Number of "De-Cafes": Coulen't find this information....but....a lot.

4. Number of bars: 1

5. Claim to fame: Home of BYU and Robert Redford's Sundance Resort (where the Sundance Film Festival is.)

Surprise!

Last week, Matt surprised me with a video scavenger hunt, which is one of the sweetest and most fun things he's ever done. We had a blast. I'll be posting clips from it soon...if I can figure out how to.

Today, my friend Amber and I surprised Matt and her boyfriend Mike with a golf trip...and we caddied for them all day, served them drinks, and rubbed their backs. ;) So fun!

And this morning I found out what our surprise weekend trip is...matt and I are going backpacking! He's been planning this for a while, so I'm pumped. Matt got a new water purifier and backpacking stove (that runs on ANY type of fuel) for Christmas, and I got a new Lowe Alpine backpack that I haven't used yet, so that makes it extra exciting. I have no idea where we're going....I just know that we're hiking up to an alpine lake.

So many surprises....it's been a good week.