TREK...

Our stake Trek was such a great experience.

It was fun, spiritual, physically draining, and memory building.

Just a glimpse of what the pioneers went through, but about 1000 times easier than their challenges.

Especially since we knew no matter what happened... it would only last 3 days. :)

Thanks to my momma and my awesome Saige for taking care of the little ones so Shane and I could attend as a "Ma and Pa."

We arrived bright and early to the church where we found out our awesome family.  It consisted of... Tayler, KD, Kaitlin, Ethan, Collin, Trevor, Kyler and Auntie Raquel :)

The bus ride was super long...

But we all had quite a great time.

Our "big boy" Collin somehow chose the midget seat... he was totally comfortable. :)

We stopped for a leader meeting and did some square dancing.

Then we "finally" arrived at Sage Creek and setup camp.

Such a calm, beautiful evening.  The kids all had fun playing together as a ward and as a "company".

no words... hahaha

We had a delicious dutch oven dinner, a great FHE lesson with our family, and a Bishops Fireside, followed by treats... and cans of whipped cream that quickly turned into a majorly messy cream war...

Not the best idea with little water around to clean up with!

Shane and I headed for our tent and climbed onto our nice comfortable cots and I said to Shane...  "This has been so perfect!  Perfect weather, "almost" perfect kids :), really no problems to speak of and we don't have to be up for 7 hours...  we never get 7 hours!!"  We both laughed about that and then... almost immediately...

the wind started...

And I'm not talking about a little wind...

We are talking whipping wind, the tents were beating, the girls were screaming, everything INSIDE the tents was COVERED in a not so thin layer of dirt.  I buried my head under my sleeping bag because it was getting in my eyes and I could hardly breathe!

Then people were taking down our tent (and the rest of the ward's tents) because the poles were going to break.

Shane and I ventured out to find all the kids having a blast running and screaming in the wind.

I kind of look like a jerk here for not sharing my blanket...

but he could have brought his out of the tent, right??

It was crazy.

And it was fairly clear we would NOT be getting those 7 hours of sleep.

I ended up curling up on the cot on the outside of the tent and then finally we just got in under the tent and slept the best we could with the tent and poles beating us.

We were awakened in the wee hours by the cute boys in our family who said the wind had stopped and they were going to set our tent up for us again.

They did that for the entire ward.

We raised our sons well. :)

We woke up groggy and dirt coated.

Ate a great breakfast (all prepared by the food committee who did an AMAZING job, it was awesome to not have to cook or prepare anything...  just have it all done for us 3 times a day!)

And then we headed out for our 15 miler over rocky ridge.

The weather conditions couldn't have been better.

There was a great breeze and I was surprised that no one seemed to have any problems (besides Ethan who got a little heat exhaustion by the time we made it to camp).

I will say the bathroom stops were crazy!

It took FOREVER to get through the line...

so long that some got back in line before we left because it had been an hour!

Tayler played her ukulele for us along the way.

Until at one stop it wasn't all the way in the cart...

and it got caught in the wheel and snapped right in half.

That was a sad moment for her. :(

Not to worry...

Rachel and James were heading to Hawaii and they already picked her up a new one that she is eagerly waiting for!

This was our family flag...

Which has a whole bunch of stuff on it.  Our theme (written in Chinese) that means, "When a family sticks together, anything is possible."

Our "GOPHER IT" slogan... which we used when ever there was complaining... and yes we used it a few times... followed by the gopher face and click that Tayler has totally perfected. :)

The most moving moment of trek for me was the "women's pull".

It's hard to describe actually but I think of what it would have been like to be a pioneer.

As a women I think I could have done it.

I could have walked and walked and been tired and cold and hungry.

But then I think about it as a mother.

I couldn't have done that.

I couldn't have seen my children suffer, and have to go through all that they did, and bury them along the trail, or see them starving and freezing.

The "women's pull" represents when the men were asked to join the Mormon Battalion and so many women were left to carry the weight.

The men and boys are asked to only quietly watch... not help us.

But every time a cart struggled you could see those teenage boys wanting to jump in to help.  To perform their duty.  Many were sniffling and wiping away embarrassed tears.  But as a mother of daughters it was a moving moment for me.

I saw those sometimes crazy boys as more than that.  I saw them as men who will one day protect and love my girls.

It was pretty quiet at the top as all the boys walked by telling the girls good job and how hard that was to watch.

I thanked Shane for being the leader of our family.

It was a few minutes that taught more than the 3 days combined for some of us.

After what I considered a pretty "fun" day we made it to Rocky Ridge...  setup camp and rested for a bit.

Then off to see the memorials.

Such a great feeling there.

Deon and I

More fun in our ward.

A funeral is being performed for Garrett by "his family".  He was leaving early to see his brother off to the MTC. :)

More good food, a talk about the second rescue (which was great, but long and everyone was o so tired, I could hear snoring all around me...  some... including our Tayler won't have vivid memories of this moment.)

That night no wind, but it was exceptionally cold.  When we woke up Shane asked what all the clothes in the bag were doing all over me.  I just kept grabbing stuff out of the bag all night to put over me.  There was frost on the chairs the next morning so I wasn't just making the coldness up.

We drove for a bit to Martin's cove and walked again.

This day was much hotter... the high was to be 97 I was told by the bus driver, so we were glad we only had 6 miles this day!

We were so excited to run into another group from Logan doing trek.

And we knew that cute Paige would be in that group so we searched the people we were passing and then we saw her!

She was so surprised she almost got run over by her own cart as she dropped to the ground to get out to see us!

We all had to run to catch up with our families but it was totally worth it to get a couple pictures. :)

Here's a whole family shot before going into Martin's Cove.

 

There were a lot of good times, memories and friendships made.

The kids were all really excited to get in the Sweetwater River, so were a little disappointed when they were told to walk through "silently".

Then we were off on a VERY long bus ride.

That once again ended up being lots of fun.

We made it back after midnight.

And were anxious for a nice long shower.

I was altogether a little anxious.

I expected to get home earlier and I wanted long snuggles with my girls.

I woke them up, but only Lydia aknowledged me by wrapping her little arms around me and playing with my hair.

I did a couple loads of laundry.

slept for MAYBE 30 minutes.

And then Tayler, Saige and I left with Lisa A. @ 4:30 AM to catch a flight to NYC for an entire week of serious girl fun!!

... to be continued. :)