Brains verses Beauty

I'm extremely tired today. This was running through my head last night and hopefully it will make some sense as an exhausted ramble.

I know, as a country, we put a lot of value on how someone looks. I do not think it is healthy nor fair. In an effort to fix this, it seems we are now pushing the value of being smart, especially to girls. I wonder if we are creating a similar monster. Just as people come in all sizes and shapes, people come with varying IQs. Replacing someone's value based on one thing they have little control over with another doesn't seem right to me.

I want to be clear that I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't be educated. I think everyone benefits from more education. I just have a problem sending a message that someone's value is dependent on how naturally smart (or smarter than others) they are. I don't think anyone's self esteem should be based on how smart they are any more than it should be based on how good-looking they are. And I think being pretty is just as much as an accomplishment as being smart, and vice-verse. Why can't we just accept that people come with different genes and talents. Some people are pretty, some are smart, some are athletic, some are naturally social. A pretty person who works hard and becomes a super model has succeeded just as much as a smart person who becomes a physicist or an athletic person who plays in the NBA. The admiration should come from what people have done with what they have, rather than what they were born with.

Call me crazy, but what if we actually valued someone's character. What if, as a society, we taught that being a good person is more important than being pretty, smart, athletic or successful. Instead of seeing success as being a super model, scientist, or athlete, we see successful people as being  kind, honest and hard working. In reality, this is where we all start on the most equal playing field, so success in this area is actually based on what you do not something out of your control.

No matter what skills or circumstances you were born with, everyone is equally capable of making choices that will build strong character and lead them to be kind and generous. Honestly, I think this would solve the self-esteem issues more than any thing else. How great would a society be that doesn't say one person is better than another based on smarts or looks or natural abilities, rather our collective character is such that we value each person for what they contribute or their hard work in any area regardless of natural ability. Let's stop comparing ourselves with arbitrary criteria and instead, build and support each other in our differences.

Weekend Report-Fathers Day

Happy Father's Day to the best man I know.

The weekend started out with a fencing competition.

Both boys did well and had fun.

Sunday we celebrated Rick. Homemade cards from the boys.

We gave him a 3 month subscription to Birchbox Man. This was one item included. Foldable sun glasses.


Rick sporting the glasses and the box.


Rick also got a new chair for the home office. This has been needed for a long time.

And now you no longer have to wonder about the colors we are contemplating to paint the living room.

Just throwing in a crappy pic of my big brother and me on Friday afternoon. We had a great mountain bike ride.

Kitchen Remodel

Hooray, the kitchen remodel is finally finished. Here are some pics

Overview:

We LOVE the custom wood bar.



Extra large composite granite sink and touch sensor faucet. Love them both, except now I habitually touch all faucets thinking it will turn them on. It sometimes takes a few tries before I realize I have to turn a handle.



Back splash. Can you tell those top vertical pieces are copper? We did some copper accents with the back splash, cabinet pulls and faucet.


We love the granite, even though it caused the most trouble. Actually, it was the installers that were the problem. They cut it too short, took pieces we needed to hook up our disposal, and broke a drawer in the kitchen. Now that everything is fixed, we love it.


We opted for a creamy yellow paint. (Flowers courtesy of my back yard!)


And a finishing touch of these cool outlets that you can plug a USB directly into.

Here are a few before pictures. 

So much better now!

Weekend Report

My baby sister ran her first marathon over the weekend. We took some time out from painting the kitchen to cheer for her at the finish line.

Here's part of the cheering section

Cute Bree and Maya

Heidi - about a block left. Smiling and going strong!

 

Here is Heidi with the friend she trained and ran with. Cute girls.

This doesn't qualify for weekend, but I had to add Isaac's 8th grade award ceremony we attended last week. He received an award for Excellence in Music. High school next year! Yeehaw.

What's for Lunch

In an effort to save money and eat healthy, I try to make my lunch and eat at the office. Lately I've been stuck on this fabulous sandwich.

Sunflower seed bread, cheese (either Swiss, Havarti or chive and onion cream cheese), some light Balsamic dressing, roasted red peppers (this is the secret ingredient), dill pickles, and some organic red lettuce.

I buy the small chip packs in bulk. It's economical and limits the amount of chips I eat.

Doesn't it look delicious!

Weekend Report - Escalante

We took off Friday after school and headed down to Escalante. A BIG highlight of the drive down was coming up over a hill between Torrey and Boulder to see a Mountain Lion in the road. He trotted into the woods where we stopped to watch him for a few minutes. Amazing!

Saturday we got up and went to the visitors center, which we found out is closed on Saturdays. What!?

Here is Isaac out front.

We then took the long drive to the Peekaboo, Spooky and Brimstone trailhead.

The plan was to go up Peekaboo (because I did not want to go down the first part) then down Spooky and over to Brimstone.

Here are the boys at the beginning (this is what I didn't want to go down, it was scary enough going up)

Once we scrambled into the slot canyon it was beautiful!  The boys loved it. Throughout the slot there is some scrambling up, over and around rocks, not to mention a couple of tight squeezes. I think they had no idea what they were getting into and you could tell how excited they were to explore.

Aptly named, Peekaboo.

 At the top, we missed the cairns leading us over to Spooky and ended up doing the upper part of Peekaboo, which turned out to be pretty cool. Luckily, I have a husband with a great sense of direction and we didn't have to do any backtracking to get to the top of Spooky.

Rick and I did the top part of Spooky, but we came to an area where it looks like it stops. Then we realized we could see about 20 feet below us through holes between the boulders at our feet. This is where Rick and I bowed out. The boys were up for the adventure and found a place to lower themselves into the heart of Spooky.

Rick and I found that we could walk along the top of the slot. After we met the boys at the bottom, I went back in with them and Rick took a couple of pictures from the top. There were only a couple of places we could actually see all the way to the bottom.

 From the top... and then zoomed in

 We ate lunch in the shade of Spooky. Rick and I went as far as we dared. We both have bit of claustrophobia, so we felt pretty brave doing what we did. There was a slightly overweight guy who hung out with us. He couldn't fit through the first tight squeeze and was waiting while his wife went up and back.

Isaac at the entrance (bottom) of Spooky

 

 Dead rattle snake. We are glad this is the only snake we saw the whole day.

Parts of Spooky are so tight you have to take off your camel back and go sideways.

 

 Then came the loooooooong walk to Brimstone. It only took about 45 minutes, but was through deep, soft sand. It was hot and exhausting. Along the way, we met a family from Germany who were lost. We gave them directions and our map. Other than that, we didn't see anyone the whole trip out to Brimstone and back.

Zane was always leading the group.

 

 Rick and Isaac coming up the rear. While Rick and I were talking with the German family, Zane and Isaac played on a big sand hill.  Isaac had to stop to pour about 2 cups of sand out of his shoes.

Brimstone was amazing. It is the deepest of the three slots and also a bit humid, so it felt air conditioned. After being hot and sweaty, it was almost cold in Brimstone.

Brimstone gets darker and thinner the farther back you go. There was a lot of water the first time I went (about 8 years ago), and we didn't get very far into the slot before having to turn around. I was glad it was dryer this time. It made the long walk worth it.

Rick and I stopped about right here. The boys were a little freaked out by a dead crow. You can see how dark it was in this deep slot. There were places the sun would break through and it was beautiful to look up and see the sun coming through the waves of sandstone over our heads.

They went a little farther, but it was pretty tight and started to get muddy, so we headed back.

Zane led the way. BTW, don't let the teenagers lead! We stopped at Spooky on the way back just to rest in the shade a few minutes. After we headed out, we missed a turn on the trail and ended up on top of the cliff instead of in the wash. We'd been hiking for about 6 hours at this point. It was hot and our water was running low. I found some shade of tree and sat down for a few minutes. I seriously thought I would puke or cry.

The boys scouted around to get our bearings. Zane finally recognized the TOP of Spooky. We opted to hike over to the top of Peekaboo and take that back down to the trailhead. So, that scary part I wanted to avoid going down, I had to go down anyway. The boys helped me through it. We were all very happy to get back to the car.

Me near the bottom of Peekaboo.

To get back to Escalante, we had to travel 26 miles on a washboard dirt road. It didn't matter. In under 5 minutes this is what the back seat looked like.

Nothing like working your teenagers to exhaution.

Sunday we went to church in Escalante. Such a nice ward. We stopped at Anasazi State Park to see the ruins on our way back home. 

It was such a fun weekend. I'm glad I got to share one of my favorite hikes with my family. I realized I'm not in the same shape I was in last time I did this hike. I was feeling my age, but happy my feet are finally healed enough to spend the day hiking.