A Trip to the Rim

Every year at Christmas time my parents go on a little road trip and meet my Aunt Nadine on the Mogollon Rim to give her their gift.  This year because Dad is going through chemotherapy, he wasn't feeling well enough to drive and my Mom had to serve in the Temple, so they asked if Rich and I could take Dad. This is the week before Christmas, I have so much to do and Rich is crazy busy with work but we were happy to go. Rich left early to go check on a job, so Mindi and Trulie took me to Scottsdale to meet up with them and off we went. Nadine left Springerville at 9:30 and so did we, we were hoping to get there at the same time. There was a bad storm last weekend and another one moving through tonight and tomorrow so today was the day. As we reached the top of the mountain it became really foggy. Growing up in the desert we really don't have that much fog, so I was really scared. We saw Nadine parked on the opposite side of the highway, so Rich turned around and we loaded the citrus, ham, granola bars and pomegranate jelly Mom had made for the family in the White Mountains. I could not believe how pretty it was. I pulled my camera out and started taking pictures. The temperature was around 34 degrees and Dad was shivering as we visited with my aunt before she took off going North up through the fog. Rich had decided to bring some snow home for the grand kids so he went in the ditch to scoop snow in the back of the truck. By the time we got home there was just a little bit left, most of it had melted. When we got to Payson we decided to get some lunch. Dad hasn't been able to eat hardly anything and has lost about 30 pounds. His coloring doesn't look good and his hair is thinning. I was so happy when he was able to eat a little serving of chili and a frosty ice cream shake. We talked a little bit about how he feels about his situation. With the chemo he can't eat much, but without it he is in terrible pain. He has been having dreams about his father who died when he was only three days old. I don't know if he will make it to another trip next year to the rim, but I'm thankful for the time we got to spend with him today. I keep trying to remember the three things we take with us when we die, our character, our relationships and our covenants.