Swallow Him Whole

Lately my kids have gotten into a nasty habit of not being obedient.  Last week Jeremy had it in his mind that he was going to sleep over to Grandma and Grandpas no matter what.  We told him no and put him to bed.  A little while later, we went in to check on him and he was gone!!  The first place we looked was over to Grandma's, but he was no where to be found.  We looked for 30 minutes and didn't find him anywhere.  I was starting to panic.  Suddenly Mom called and said that he was hiding underneath Grandpa's bed.  Along with the torturing punishment we dealt out, we decided to have a little FHE about being obedient, and what better example than Jonah.  Linsey was up for the week, so I figure we would have a combined FHE with her, mom and dad, and the Stokers.  I had mom make some boats with the kids before I got off work and then we headed up the canyon.
I had made some puppets to go along with the story, and as Dad read the story of Jonah, I acted it out with my puppets.  The kids loved it.  Jeremy kept saying that everyone need to mind or they would get swallowed by a whale.  After we read the story, the kids each grabbed their boat and we sailed down the creek.  They really enjoyed it.

 
The kids would squeal with excitement when the boats would sail past.
 
Tyler was so excited that he slipped and took a head dive into the river.  Once they sailed down the creek they docked in a calm harbor.

I explained that the boats all huddled together were our family and that the calm harbor was Heavenly Father and that He would always take care of us as long as we were obedient.  The kids were getting antsy so we gathered everything up and went back to roast marshmallows.  This is one of the few times that Dad allowed a fire.  The kids had a ball roasting marshmallows.  Hopefully Jeremy and Bailee will be more obedient.  Only time will tell.