Bear Lake trip

We took a week off after the Vegas trip and went up to Bear Lake, whose 85 degree weather seemed frosty compared to the 143 degrees of Las Vegas.

The first week of July is pretty busy for us. The first is our Anniversary, the third is the wife's birthday, the fourth of July is, well, the fourth of July, and the fifth is baby's birthday. Rather than regretting this coincidence, however, we've decided to celebrate it by taking the entire week off and egaging in an orgy of frivolity and revelry we refer to as "Mickel Madness."

This is probably a good time to make sure everyone knows that the word 'orgy' refers to any act of immoderate indulgence, and usually doesn't have sexual connotations. That's the orgy I'm talking about. Sickos.




My step-father has a great sailboat in a slip at Bear Lake. It's a lot of fun.

Not getting much breeze, we hoisted up the 'spinnaker'. Here is what a spinnaker looks like.


The great thing about having two family members with birthdays in the same week is that you can recycle the cake. The great thing about having a one year-old is that they don't even understand the concept of present giving - they just want to play in the bag.

I was standing behind this girl in the pancake line in scenic Paris, Idaho and had to get a picture of her shirt. It says:

"You can watch things happen or you can make things happen. Bears MAKE things happen!"

Did you get that, everyone? Bears make things happen. So what's it gonna be? You just gonna sit there and watch life pass you by, like, I don't know, a sissy badger, or some dork deer? Or, are you gonna get out there, be a bear, and MAKE THINGS HAPPEN?! Which is it?! Which are you GONNA BE?!?

This is the pep talk I imagine this girl's swim coach gives before a big meet at whatever 1A high-school she goes to.

The baby pulled her first act of shoplifting during this trip, nicking this spoon out of the nicest restaurant in Bear Lake while we were there. This is her giving a celebratory suck on said spoon.

Here she is exerting her human dominance over my mom's small rat-dog. I've just realized that about 90% of the pictures we take are of the baby. I never thought I'd become one of those people. Oh well.

After B.L. we came down to Salt Lake and hung out with family for a few days. Here's a trip to Raging Waters, the place that has "waves above the rest".

Since being married, starting a career, and having a kid, I've realized it's good to get to places like this every once in a while just to get the excitement level in my life up for a bit. Not that married, baby, work-life isn't great - it is. It's just that not many adreneline-producing, heart-pumping things happen and going down a steep waterslide somehow makes you feel alive again.

Yes, I am fully aware of how lame that sounds.

That's it for now. There was also a triathlon that I'll leave for another post. I better get back to work.

Remember everyone -- BEARS MAKE THINGS HAPPEN.