Scout Falls

Our Sundays have been lacking lately. Church is awesome. I love all three hours and my kids do too. No one argues or complains about going to church. We have church from 9-12 right now. We mostly make it on time. It’s not the church part I’m worried about. It’s after. Our routine has been to come home, make lunch, kids take off and Jeff and I clean up. Then after any meetings or responsibilities, Jeff and I are ready to just relax. So we end up reading or taking a nap and the kids spend the day playing games on the computer or phones and watching TV. They actually do go outside on nice days and play soccer or jump on the tramp. We don’t play with friends and we often have people over for dinner but I feel like everyone just scatters and does their own thing, which mostly involves TV for the kids. I don’t like it. 

Today Isaac was complaining about wanting to play on my phone. I didn’t freak out on the outside but I snapped inside. I was DONE with electronics! I nicely told the kids they had 3 minutes to get shoes on and grab a book of their choice and a notebook and pencil and get in the car. We loaded in the car and just started to drive. I had no plan. Just to get away from the constant distractions of electronics at home. We drove up American Fork Canyon to the Timpanookee trailhead and started hiking. Jeff brought his guitar. We hiked about a mile and a half. We stopped along the way and Jeff played and we sang Primary songs. We took about 30 minutes at Scout Falls to just be silent and read or draw and then we headed back. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know if that was the right thing to do to keep the Sabbath day holy. But I felt like it was a better choice than hanging around staring at screens all day. And it was great family time away from all the everyday distractions.