Family Fun That Pays!

So we noticed there was snow on the Sandia Mountains on Saturday after our heavy couple days of rain in the valley. It had dropped into the low 30's on Friday night into Saturday morning and even left me surprised with some ice on the car windshield as I was rushing out of the house to get to the church.

When I got home, we made our way to the mountains to enjoy the beauty of the first snow. Everything looks more beautiful in white, even mother earth. We sang primary songs and laughed at the kids and their sweet innocence.

Up and up, round and round, back and forth we climbed the mountain.

The sun was shining on our fun family adventure. It was a perfect day to enjoy such beauty. The best part of all, it was free! Just kidding. The best part of all was being together as a family hoping to create memories that last.

Even our beautiful Princesa was smiling and laughing, not that its hard to catch her doing that.

See!

Now this guy had the right idea...yeah right! It was flippin cold up there. He must have been a super hero. That is quite a monster climb.

Little Miss Lydia was enjoying every minute of the ride up the mountain. She had her window down like daddy and refused to close it even at the pleas of her two older brothers in the back who were the lucky recipients of all that cold air.

I'm pretty sure the thermometer was dropping a degree for every minute we climbed up that road. When we got to the peak it was reading 27 degrees. It was quite a drastic change in temperature from our little valley home we left behind about an hour earlier.

The boys were in heaven the minute they jumped out of the car. They are standing in a stream of water from the snow melt off. They don't seem to mind a bit. That will change in a bit when they start to freeze to death, or so it would seem from the complaining.

What a beautiful view over the crest...there are no railings here and it is a complete drop off. We moved away from that spot quickly and went to the more tourist friendly spot.

Lydia refused to let anyone sit with her to take a picture. She got up before too long once her butt froze to death.

Mommy and Maya are loving it!

Notice the bald head. I just shaved my head the day before. Perfect timing! It was worth every minute though. However, in the back of my mind was my concern for a helpless victim of the snow who's tires I could hear spinning in the snow down below. On our way back down the trail I realized I needed to go check on them.

After trying to push them out with a couple of other guys, which failed miserably, I decided to risk our own freedom and back down to our grateful sojourners and tow them out. We found success and our new friends would not allow us to leave without taking some money for our time. I really wanted nothing in return, but the feeling of doing good. Nothing beats that feeling of the spirit confirming making a good choice.

After towing out the stuck Jeep with our Ford Explorer (just sayin), we headed down the mountain and made it home just in time to see the sun setting in the west.

The girls got a quick bath.

And Maya apparently didn't get enough to drink throughout the day. Whatever!

So, we ended out Family Fun Day with more money than we set out with. The only thing that beats free, is getting paid to have fun! But that is not the point here. I hope that our adventure not only increased our cash on hand for a short time but increased our family's ability to stay together. I hope it pays dividends in our children's future. I hope that adventures like these will help us to weather the storms of life. It is important to laugh, smile, and play together. I pray that we can make trips like this a priority and that it will continue to pay into the eternities with our children and family in general, doing what's right. I want our children to know that they can talk to us and that we can have fun together. We can be friends, but we are there parents and sometimes we have to enforce the "laws". I am so grateful for moments like this though when we can escape and leave all of the worries behind. I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for granting me moments like this to hold onto when times are hard; to remember how much we are loved as His children. So everyone get out there and have some fun. Enjoy the beauty of the Earth and who knows...you may come back with more than you left with (in many ways)!!!