Yes, the family has not released me from growing this horrible beard. It is at the "I want to rip my itchy skin off" length and I have agreed to keep it through Zion. I may decide to dye it a color or shave it in a strange way before I remove it.
We finally made it to the Grand Canyon and the first words out of my kids' mouths was, "that's a big hole." I will say the drive was neat but there were some stretches that were so straight you could see for miles. The hardest part was playing frogger around the countless RVs that like to drive 10 MPH under the speed limit and slow for every little sight.
We decided to hike into the canyon but not all the way since it was 350 degrees out and the trail looked like it was uphill both ways. About half way in we discovered a ton of fossils that are exposed. I love knowing that millions of years ago this area was underwater. Of course, I would have never swam back then as I am deathly afraid of sharks - thanks Dad for letting me watch Jaws when I was a child :-).
The viewpoints were spectacular other than the fact I am more afraid of heights than sharks. I had to will my legs to move towards the edge and wipe the tears from my eyes to take these pictures. There is nothing more embarrassing than some random five year old and a man with a walker pushing me out of the way to get closer to the edge.
The sunsets were amazing at the Grand Canyon. One of the nights we were running a bit late so I decided to run ahead on what I thought was a "short trail" to the edge. Altitude + long distance running = me almost throwing up and seeing my heart rate hit 140. Fighting through the pain and agony, I crawled the remaining 20 feet to shoot the pictures below. It was worth it.
What I learned today: We listened to Dax Shepard's podcast on part of the drive and his guest was Fred Savage (yes, the same one from the Wonder Years). They were talking about how we validate ourselves and get approval. Fred said something that stuck with us, "Don't let your circle of approval be too wide." What he meant was the people closest to you are the ones you should focus on and who should provide the most validation vs those you hardly know or are random people on FB or Instagram.
What I appreciated about the day: Things I did as a kid can still be relevant today. Disclaimer: DO NOT try this without proper adult supervision. I showed my kids how to flatten coins on a train track. They loved this and we did it a few times, with different coins, to see what would happen.
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