You can't ignore one end without hurting the other!

I have been vacationing at the same spot, every summer (well, almost every summer) since I was 4 years old.  Bear Lake, Ideal Beach to be exact!  And today I am here to declare that it is a MAGICAL place.  Once you get there, everything you need for a full week of entertainment is all within walking distance.  The beach, the water, fields of deep green grass, swimming pools.  The magic starts with the facilities, and then perhaps moves to the FOOD!
When I was a kid I remember being able to choose a box of SUGAR cereal (which was a huge treat in our house) and bags of green grapes lying around.  My kids will probably remember bags of Hershey's bars and chips (Costco has really enhanced the entire food journey)!  The food is magical (but sometimes hampers the magic after the pounds begin to add up), but I think (this is brave of me) that it might still be magical if we ate mac and cheese all week long. 
As a kid I remember sitting on a picnic table late at night with my dad and sisters after a lightning storm had hit a tree by the condos.  I remember packing the car with mom.  I remember being so excited the night before we were to leave that Erin, Susan, and I stayed up chatting while mom and dad yelled, "You had better get some sleep...." I remember.....PEOPLE......just having one week to do NOTHING but be with each other.
This year, the kids were flitting about, while the sisters were in deep conversation in one of the condos.  The question had to come up at some point.  How long will we keep trying to do this vacation?  It is getting harder and harder to find one day, let alone a week, where everyone can make it! At this point, the conversation  took a more serious turn.
JoDee declared, "I don't know, but we need each other, the world is a yucky place."  We all completely agreed and came to this consensus.  We have to have a good enough relationship with our nieces and nephews that at any time we can say, "You are acting like an idiot, knock it off!"  A person can only take those words right if they know the kind of love that backs them up.  And sometimes, it takes a lot of LOVE to say those words. 
I have thought a lot about a statement made by President Hinkley, "Don't be the week link in the chain."  These are my thoughts.  I am just one link, there were links before me, and there are links after me.  I cannot ignore one side of the chain without hurting the other.  I think I am discovering that we are all in this together, the living, the dead, the young, the old. 
Someone once told me that at some point I needed to cut the apron strings and concentrate on my own family.  Well, I agree.  I need to concentrate on my own family, the links before and the links after.  When I sit in sacrament meeting with my small children filling up an entire bench and sing "Families Can Be Together Forever," my heart melts.  Ironically enough, 30 years ago, my mother was probably singing the song, having the same feelings.  30 years from now there will be 5 little Bolton families filling up 5 little benches, singing, and hoping as well!