Trek

On June 24th, 25th, and 26th, Brent and I went on a pioneer Trek with the youth in our stake up near Mormon immigrant trail. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had. I felt an increased appreciation for those that left all they had and lost family members in search of religious freedom.

Day one was 11 miles with the last 4 being STEEP uphill. Day two 7 miles and day three was almost 6 miles. Brent was involved in a lot of the planning because he is in the stake young men's presidency and actually chose this route and left the detail of the last 4 miles out when he told me what we were doing. Nice huh?

We had 7 kids (5 boys and 2 girls) and an aunt pulling the handcart with us. There were 10 "families" total from our stake. Here are some of our family pictures. We loved the kids (and aunt) that were assigned to us, they were AWESOME!

Family Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was lots of pushing and pulling...

 

Grave sites on the way...

 

Crossing of creeks...

 

Lots of downhill, but even more uphill-at least it seemed like a lot of uphill!

 

Day two it rained when we were starting out for the day. I'm not a fan of rain unless I am inside, but I smiled anyway! (The first night we awoke to rain several times and we were not in tents so I was pretty tired of rain by now.)

 

Mormon Battalion. After suffering insane amounts of persecution and being driven out of their homes the government came and demanded the saints give up all the men to go march leaving women and children alone to finish their trek.

 

 

Men getting their instructions before departing.

 

Girl power! We are all by ourselves now! We can do it!

 

 

My girls pulling hard. I am helping them I promise! (You just can't see me pushing from behind.)

 

Men lined up to watch and not able to help. They had previously watched from up above without our knowledge. I was so happy when our 5 boys and my husband returned. It wasn't the same without our whole "family" together. I'm sure the feelings were magnified immensely when the saints were reunited with their loved ones.

 

These amazing women are all in my ward here. I love our ward and all the awesome women we have in it. 5 of us were Ma's with one kitchen helper and one walker/supporter. While taking a rest and waiting for the men to return we took a quick picture.

 

All the Mas and Pas together. We had a great time with all these people.

 

Our Stake President was such a trooper. He was there the whole first LONG day with us and helped push as well. I think he is in better shape than I am.

 

Our bishop from before our ward was reorganized a couple years ago and is still a bishop for another ward and our current bishop and wife came to walk with everyone and support our youth. Jeff and Cher were Ma's and Pa's with us. This is on day 2 in camp taking a much needed break.

 

We had a great time with the youth and appreciated so much the time we had to learn about our ancestors. We were so lucky to have such great youth to learn from and with. We shared stories along the trail and made memories that I won't forget. I was VERY happy to get home to a real shower and flush toilets and appreciated them that much more.