Best Wii Family Games

[Leanna Perr]

. . . And in thee (that is, in thy Priesthood) . . . , for I give unto thee a promise that this right shall continue in thee, and in thy seed after thee (that is to say, the literal seed, or the seed of the body) shall all the families of the earth be blessed, even with the blessings of the Gospel, which are the blessings of salvation, even of life eternal. [Abraham 2:9, 11]

I had this on my mind one day when I was reading Doctrine and Covenants 121, and I noticed an amazing pattern. This section was given after the Saints had been scattered and when they were suffering from bitter persecution. Joseph was wrongfully imprisoned in dreadful conditions in Liberty Jail, and he cried out to the Lord:

if a man marry a wife . . . by the new and everlasting covenant, . . . they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, . . . to their exaltation and glory in all things, . . . which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. [Doctrine and Covenants 132:19]

I met my wife, Angie, in a BYU family home evening group in our freshman ward in the dorms. I was lucky to find her so quickly. Following my mission, we were married. We had our first child, Ashley, and then moved to Stanford, California, so that I could go to graduate school there. We lived in a tiny married-students-with-children housing unit, which actually turned out to be one of the most fun places we have ever lived. When Ashley was about one and a half, she had a very regular bedtime routine: Angie would change her into her pajamas, brush her teeth, pray with her, rock her while reading a story, and then sing to her before putting her in her crib. I cannot explain in words the wonderful feeling that existed in her room on those nights during that bedtime routine.

Near the end, I poked my head out from underneath the crib, and Ashley detected me. She shook her head, pointed at me, and then pointed to the door. I was excused because I was not part of the normal bedtime routine. My sneaking into the room became something of a little game we would play.

Our next child is a boy. We named him Taylor. Taylor is very gifted socially, so he had many friends. By the time he was in high school, I was a professor at Caltech in Pasadena, so we lived in Southern California. We had a cool backyard: We had a pool, a hot tub, a trampoline, some outdoor speakers, a treehouse, and a zip line. You could climb up on the ladder of the treehouse, hop on the zip line, fly across the yard, and drop into the pool. It was super fun!

Our fifth child is Mandy. Her nickname is Six-pack because she was a gymnast and the only member of the family to ever actually have a real six-pack. This picture was taken at a daddy-daughter event planned by our local stake Primary presidency. [A photo was shown.] It was made into a button I could wear on my shirt.

The last child we have is named Benjamin. When he was young, we had a family tradition on the day after Thanksgiving. We would load all of our bikes in the back of the truck, get everyone into the minivan, and then drive up to a mountain trail near the San Gabriel River in Southern California. We would go on a bike ride there and then have a picnic at a park at the end. We did this every year.

Every day since the day I was invited to give this devotional until now I have pondered and prayed about what would be the most beneficial message I could share with you. In the end it is this: marriage and family are the pinnacle blessings both in time and eternity. This is why they are at the core of the Abrahamic covenant and the new and everlasting covenant. They are the key blessings in time and eternity.

So in the end, my devotional is simply this: a full-throated, unqualified, unreserved endorsement of marriage, family, and the proclamation on the family. I hope my words will encourage and strengthen you while you are making key decisions in the springtime of your lives. I love you all and wish you the best. Welcome to spring! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Freezing temperatures, bulky gear and a learning curve to figure out how to make it down the mountain in one piece may sound more like the opening setup of a survival story than a family vacation, but those are indeed some of the components of a family ski trip.

While I'm a big fan of waterslides, roller coasters, swim-up smoothie bars and relaxing resorts, after 12 years of taking a wide variety of trips with my kids, I'm ready to declare ski trips the winner in the best family trip category.

Despite the gear, the temperatures and the occasional wipeout, it's consistently the best all-around family travel experience. You may question my thinking given how much work family ski trips entail, but hear me out: Sometimes the most memorable trips are the ones that require a bit more planning and effort.

I've yet to sprout wings and fly, but when skiing down a trail with fresh powder beneath me and more floating down from above, it is as close to truly flying as I can imagine. When the powder is just right, you hardly hear anything else around you beyond the sound of your skis slightly slicing below you. Everything is calm and still as you are soaring down a trail with the wind in your face.

Blue sky days allow you to take in the majesty of the mountains around you and see for miles and miles. Although it's true that there is some work involved with skiing when you are gliding and taking it all in, you're sometimes just floating in a reality all your own with hardly any effort required.

But amid that initial frustration and learning curve, you get to watch your family's skills grow. You and your kids get to progress from the learning hill with the magic carpet to the easiest green run complete with a real lift to other runs with slightly more challenging terrains.

My kids love to talk about when they skied their firsts (think: green run, tree trail, little jump and more) in a way that you can sense the pride they have in getting better and having more of the mountain open up to them. Even though we live in Texas where snow rarely falls, this pride and periodic talk of their time on the ski runs absolutely follows them home.

Anyone with multiple kids probably knows that sometimes sibling rivalry and a dash of competitiveness can creep into almost any equation. I'm not saying that can't happen with skiing, but my experience is that a camaraderie of cheering each other on is far more common than any true rivalry.

The better everyone gets on skis and boards, the more fun everyone can have together on the mountain. As a result, I've seen lots of high fives and compliments flow between skiing siblings as they encourage each other to keep improving and trying new things. I've never had that happen at a beach resort type of vacation destination.

Regardless of whether the trail map is in an app or on paper, I've found that having to actually read maps and make a plan to get down the mountain naturally creates a rare opportunity for my kids to work together. Seeing them plot out runs they can do together as they eat breakfast or lunch is a great skill for them to use and develop.

Although they do make plans of attack when visiting, say, Disney World, there's a different level of gravity to the choices on the mountain than there is if you end up at Big Thunder Mountain instead of Splash Mountain.

Ski trips have you up early, outside all day, off the mountain by 4 or 5 p.m. and then relaxing in the evening as you plot out doing it all over again the next day. The focus of the entire trip is on being outside and active, and that makes it a pretty great family activity in my book.

It's not only timeless fun, but it can be pretty safe to do during the pandemic, too, especially if you are able to do a little extra planning to skip the indoor portions of the trip by having gear delivered and meals outside or in your lodging.

On recent ski trips, we've been diligent about packing drinks and sandwiches in our backpacks to just eat while lounging outside on the mountain. Not only do we then skip the packed ski lodge that was never a highlight of the day anyway, but we also avoid shelling out a ton of money for pricey on-mountain food and beverages.

It's not just the fresh mountain air that makes a ski trip enjoyable; the moments adults get to themselves are also part of the appeal. Whether your kids are good enough skiers or riders to take a few runs without you or they are still learning with an instructor or in ski school, you may get some time to just enjoy runs (or even lunch!) with other adults while the kids are doing their own thing.

Most of my own favorite trips as a child were the ones that involved us teaming up to go somewhere together with aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. When I was a kid, these big family vacations were often big road trip caravans from Texas to New Mexico or Colorado to ski.

If you've ever planned a big group trip, you probably already know how important this is to keep people from stepping on each other's toes or debating what to do all day. You're going to get up and ski, but even with that, you can all branch off and do different runs and meet up for lunch or at the end of the day.

Plus, even those who don't enjoy skiing or snowboarding can be satisfied during a family ski trip. Since most of the group will probably be gone during the day, there's space for some to stay behind at the lodge to relax or venture elsewhere to try non-skiing activities, such as ice skating, snow tubing, snowmobiling and sleigh rides.

The process of learning to ski for the very first time isn't always fun, and there are parts of a ski trip that feel more like work than a vacation. If that all sounds awful to you, then it's probably not the best trip for you to take.

However, once you get those first few days of learning out of the way and put in some of the groundwork to master the basics of both the sport and the gear (which includes knowing how to layer to stay warm), the payoff is as grand as the mountains themselves.

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