Family Recreation

Lesson: Wholesome family recreation builds and strengthens our families. When we build connections and memories, we want to be together now and forever. It is worth every effort to make family memories!

Doing fun stuff together as a family is what it's all about! I heard it articulated, I think in a parent seminar, that our teenagers will always connect with someone or something. It can either be us or it can be someone or something else. Despite our best efforts, my oldest son decided to connect with others rather than our family. He pulled away from us and wanted to be with his friends all the time. We were a burden, they were everything. This didn't seem logical to me at all and I didn't know what to do. As the situation worsened, we felt more and more paralyzed. My husband and I didn't go out together because we felt we needed to be home for the other children, and be ready for the next crisis with our son. The whole family and house felt like a dark cloud had settled over us. We remained in this state for many months, maybe a couple of years.

Then, we decided to take our lives back. We wanted our children to enjoy their childhood in our family and we needed to help make that happen. As sad as it was, having our son away for a while was a very good thing. I give a lot of credit to our other children who slowly began to laugh again. The cloud was lifting! We teased, joked, goofed, wrestled, sponge-bobbed, movied...you get the idea. Life was beginning to be fun again.

When our son was in his program, we were able to visit him as a family a few times.  We made every effort to have a ton of fun when we were together. We have many fond memories of those visits. Here are some of our memories -

Shaving cream fight.

 Time in the mountains at the beautiful mountain cabin.

 Can you tell they've been riding quad runners?

 After going out for breakfast for a special birthday.

 Riding segways in Snow Canyon.

 Yep, horseback riding up near Zion National Park.

 Taking little brother for a walk in St. George.

The Family Proclamation I've mentioned before states: "Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities." And all the while building a legacy of memories and example for our children to follow with their own families.