Kayaking Trip...

About a month ago Jake and I borrowed our friends Jeff and Katy's kayak. We started at a little pond by there home and ended up at Utah Lake, only about a mile and a half. We considered going across the lake right then, but thought better of it and decided that one day this summer we would go all the way across and back.

This Saturday was the day. The weather was suppose to be slightly cloudy, perfect to avoid crazy heat and sunburns. The night before we looked up the distance; 6 miles across to total 12 miles. I have to admit, I was more than a little intimidated. We had only ever gone 1.5 miles and now we were shooting for 12??

(Jake was sure to speak in an Aussie ascent to match his new hat)

We decided to play it safe and kayak for an hour and then evaluate whether we should continue on or turn around. 

Turns out we were faster than we thought. An hour into the kayaking and we were more than half-way; maintaining an average speed of 3.8 miles per hour with our fastest pace at 6 miles per hour. Not too shabby.

We made it across in an hour and a half! On the other side we enjoyed lunch, some relaxing, and some swimming before we headed back. Jake made a very noble goal to go the entire way back without stopping. He stuck to it but couldn't completely close his hands for the rest of the night :-)

We had an incredible time! It was a beautiful day and we had sooo much fun together! Like always :-)

Hobbit Caves...

Jake and I had the most amazing time camping this weekend! Late Friday night we drove up Logan Canyon and found a wonderful little spot to camp. We didn't get in until 1:30 or so, but with the cold front that came in, the weather was absolutely perfect!

As always, Logan Canyon was beautiful...

Saturday we slept in and then spent the day relaxing. We headed to USU campus where Jake reminisced and showed me around where he spent his glory days. It's a beautiful campus and it was fun to learn a little bit more about Jake's college self (which he misses).

We then went to hang out with our friends Dan and Sharli at a pool party/bbq. The weather was so great afterwards that we decided to just head back up the canyon and spend another night. Sunday we enjoyed a couple of lovely hikes and then headed up to Bear Lake for a scenic drive and lunch.

On the way back through Logan, we were driving the back roads looking for a nice park to take a nap at. Instead, we ran into Dan and Sharli who were on their way to go climbing - so naturally we joined them.

What a cute little family!

And Jake and I were still able to squeeze in a little relaxation on the side of the road... Sharli thought we looked like hobos, but we enjoyed it. Plus, we didn't have to crane our necks to watch them climb - a win-win situation.

**(just as a side note so I don't get in trouble... I didn't really take any of these pictures - just the one of Dan and Sharli. I don't ever think to take pictures until after a fun event, so I ripped these off the internet. Go Kyra!).

Midnight Project...

Mom and I stayed up late last Friday working on a project.

Before...

After...

They don't all have pictures in them yet, but I figured they would get filled faster if we had to look at empty frames on the wall rather than them sitting stacked in a pile in the office. 

My favorite part of the whole process? Sitting with mom until 1:30am going through old pictures. Boy do we have some funny ones! The early morning hours may have made them a bit more funny than normal, but we definitely shared some great laughs. 

Article Analysis...

Watching TV Can Lower Children's Self Esteem, Study Finds

I read this article and I like where they think they were going with it. However, I found it to be written very poorly. So naturally I decided to tell them how I felt in a comment after the article. This is what I said...

I find this article weak in its analysis of the study. Had I been willing to purchase the full text of the study I may have found the actual source more credible, but next time I'd like to see mention of how the study came to the a fore mentioned conclusions, rather than just the opinion of the author if this article.

This article makes it seem as though they are claiming that there is a causal relationship between television viewing and self-esteem, without regard to other possible confounding variables. Did they take into account the length of time the children spent watching television and how this may correlate with neglectful parenting - which probably affects self esteem more than television. Did they have historical controls in their observation to show past and present television effects? What about a control group to compare the findings to? How is it that no focus can be given to the type of programming viewed but then a statement like "Parents can help counter these negative effects by choosing programming that reflects positive values and refrains from promoting stereotypes" be made? 

Next time let's introduce some statistical back up to the conclusions stated and it will probably make this article more credible and worth considering.