Hello All,
  Another weekend is winding down and I'm here to fill you in on our week.  Brad and I had a busier week than usual.  We attended an Orientation to the Pilates Reformer on Tuesday night.  We had a good class and we are more acquainted with the reformer.  We ordered a DVD so we can do workouts on our reformer at home.  We are very excited for the DVD to arrive as we think it will be a great workout alternative.

I had off from work on Thursday, so I headed out for a hard ride up City Creek Canyon.  About 4.8 miles into my ride, I got a flat.  It figures that I would get a flat the one time I was riding alone!  I hadn't had a flat in a LONG time, but I didn't have any problems changing my tube.  Instead of heading up the canyon, I turned around and headed home since I only had one spare tube on me.  It was a good thing because my rear tire was half way deflated when I got home.  I guess both my tires wore out at the same time.  On Thursday night, we attended a Bates event called Welcome to the City.  Other NESCAC schools were there and Brad and I mingled with Bates, Bowdoin, Colby alumni.  I felt really old at first, but then a lot of people showed up that had graduated ahead of me.  It was a nice event and I'm happy I attended.

On Saturday, Brad headed out for a ride and since my new tires that I ordered (from Backcountry) hadn't come in, I went out for a long run.  We both had awesome workouts which set a nice tone for the rest of the day.  Brad used the early afternoon to get some work done while I went out to check out bridesmaid dresses for my wedding.  Later in the afternoon, we drove up to Snowbird for Oktoberfest.  Brad and I bought these awesome glass beer steins and we got a really good black bier.  We walked around the festival while enjoying some people watching and the crisp air was really nice too.

On Sunday, we decided to venture out on another mountain bike ride.  We bought a book at Barnes and Noble and we choose a nice sounding trail ride from it.  We headed to Mill Creek Canyon to the Big Water Trail which is 6.5 miles out and back ride.  I know I'm not an experienced mountain biker, but the book definitely made out the ride to be a lot easier than it was.  We had a really big elevation change in a matter of 2 miles.  The area was beautiful and the trail was really great, but all the rocks and roots were very slippery because of recent rainfall.  I did a lot better than I had on previous trails.  I had one fall, but it happened so fast, I couldn't even tell you how it happened!  At the top of the trail, we came upon Dog Lake which is this small, serene lake nestled into the aspens.  Brad and I enjoyed watching a dog swim for sticks while we caught our breath.  The dog loved the water, but was the least efficient swimmer ever!  I took a video of it - see below.  The ride down was a lot more fun and wasn't as technically difficult as it was going up.  That may be because it's easier to go over rocks and logs when you have more momentum - but I'm not really sure.  It was a good, hard day of mountain biking and I look forward to continue to challenge myself.

I'm very happy to have made it up the trail!

Brad hanging out among the "quaking" aspens.

Quaint Dog Lake at the end of our mountain bike ride.

 Beautiful bluebird sky and nice view on our descent.

After Brad and I got home from riding and Brad had four hotdogs(!) for lunch, we got busy with our new gear from Backcountry.  We both got new tires (and they are REALLY nice) and Brad got a bike computer for his mountain bike.  I'm so pumped to go for a ride on my new tires - I wouldn't have been able to afford such a nice set if it wasn't for my sweet discount.  Working hard at Backcountry certainly pays off!!

The weather is beginning to change here. The mornings and evenings are very cool, but the days are still warm.  We saw some leaves beginning to change in the higher elevation.  I'm not sure if there will be any kind of apple harvest here - I don't think Utah has apple orchards.  I'll be really sad if we can't get apple cider and cider donuts here!  I am already missing the New England fall season a lot, but snow will be here before we know it and Brad and I will be skiing in November.  We decided to get season passes at Alta since both of us get decent discounts from our jobs. 

In other news, I really hope Rhode Island sends out my duplicate title.  Brad is all set with his Utah plates, but Rhode Island has really screwed me over by never mailing my car title when I registered there.  But something worth noting is that when Brad and I got our Utah licenses we had to take a written test.  Brad is a really good test taker and is obviously extremely smart, but guess who got 100% on her exam??  That's right, I did!  This will probably be the only time I ever score better than Brad on an exam, so that is why I am publicizing it. :)

In work news, Brad is enjoying his fellowship and he is learning a lot.  He is being kept very busy with a lot of work to do for three surgeons, but it is all contributing to his growth and development as a foot and ankle surgeon.  As for me, I got trained in returns last week at Backcountry, so it's nice to be more versatile at work.  Even though my work is very physical, I am really beginning to enjoy going in and doing some hard labor instead of sitting behind a desk trying to motivate uninspired college kids.  The people I work with are very passionate about outdoor activity and it is very refreshing - that doesn't mean I don't have my bad days, but there seem to be less of them lately.

Well that's enough from me.  I'll be back with another update next weekend!!  Thanks for reading :)