TREK

Tony and I were asked to be a 'Ma and Pa' on our ward's pioneer trek a few months ago.  For the past several months, we have been preparing and half dreading/half looking forward to the day of Trek.  We found out about a month ago who would be in our family.  We had 7 children, 3 girls and 4 boys.  We got together and came up with our family theme.  We decided on Elder Worthlin's "Come what may and love it!" which I thought was perfect for our family.  Our kids were so awesome; they had such great attitudes and were so much fun.  Jaxson was assigned to the Bingham's family which was also a great experience for him.  Here is our handcart's "bumper sticker":

As we left early last Wednesday morning, we were clean and excited and couldn't wait to get started!  Boy were we naive! :)  Most of the kids boarded a charter bus for the 4.5 hour drive to Bing County, Washington.  Tony and I were lucky enough to join a few other ma's and pa's in the Bartholomew's nice RV.

Me, Kim, and Amy.

Still nice and clean! :)  I am so thankful for these sweet, strong friends!

This is Jaxson's fun family:  Bennett, Brian, Shane, Kalie, Brigham, Annelise, Grace, and Jaxson.  He came back with lots of good stories and lots of "Nacho Libre" quotes  (thanks a lot Brian)!

Here is our cute family:  Kody, Logan, Aubrey, Carter, Tyler, Jordyn, and Samantha.  We ended up with 4 fifteen year olds, which made for some pretty fun times.  They all got along so well though.

We didn't waste much time at all hitting the trail.  We each had a bucket to put all our belongings in.  It also came in handy as a seat too!  Our boys were so tough!  They almost never took a break from pulling our cart and I was so impressed by how little anyone complained, especially since that first day was really HOT and the trail was so dusty and we ended up with cheatgrass stuck all over our socks and skirts.  I hate cheatgrass!

The boys did let us girls take a turn pulling the cart for a little while.  We thought it was really easy so they decided to make it a little harder for us.  Our girls were really tough though!

At the end of our first day we had walked more than 7 miles since getting off the bus.  We had kept a pretty fast pace of about 3 miles per hour.  The missionaries said we should be doing 2 miles per hour but apparently we have a ward full of competitive people and I doubt we were ever close to that pace.

Just before camp, we found ourselves at the bottom of a very steep hill titled "Devil's Gate".

We had to attach a rope to the handcarts and pull them up this hill.  It was not easy but with everyone working together, we managed really well.  In fact, the missionaries said ours was the fastest rope pull they had seen.  I was so proud of Jaxson.  He ran up and down this hill so many times hooking up wagons and then running back up to pull without anyone asking him.  Especially since they had these giant otter pops and he was one of the last to get one.  An otter pop has never ever tasted that good.

We pitched our tents at the top of the hill and had a great devotional that evening.  The kids stayed up late playing night games and we all had a great time.  We didn't realize this would be by far our easiest night…

The next morning we woke up early to beautiful sunshine!  We were only given one biscuit for breakfast but they kids still kept a good attitude.  At that morning devotional we had talked about how little the pioneers had to survive on for nourishment and we felt pretty thankful for that biscuit!  About 3 miles down the road though we came to a stand of trees and discovered a full (huge) breakfast prepared for us.  I guess we wouldn't have to go without!  I think this may be the only Trek where we all gained weight - we ate really well!!  Our girls even took a little nap!

At our lunch stop, we decided to have some handcart races with a girl and boy from each family competing running down a hill turning and running back up.  Jordyn and Kody from our family won with a time of 55 seconds.  Then the ma's and pa's decided to try.  Tony and I ended up with 58 seconds - way better than I expected!  It was really hard and I was so afraid I would trip on my skirt and be ran over by the cart! 

Next we crossed the Sweet water River and many of the boys carried the girls across.  Tony carried my over and we had another great devotional about the priesthood.  You might think we had too many devotionals, but each one was just so good that I actually looked forward to the next one.   Later that day the wind started picking up and -wow- did it get windy.  We had 40 mile per hour winds and our camping spot for the night was on a barren bluff.  We had dirt in our eyes, noses, ears, teeth…. yuck.  It was the first time in my life I actually took my time in the port-a-potty because it was preferable to being outside!  Here is my handsome husband:

We debated about trying to go on to Zion that night or going back to somewhere more protected, but we ended up pitching our tents really close to each other behind the protection of the trailer.  We had 5 tents break that night and many could not put the rain fly on because it would flatten the tent.  It was a very rough night but proved there is safety in numbers and that we are stronger when we stick close together!  It was so great to see everyone pull together and help one another through this really difficult time! I woke up many times during the night to brush the sand/dirt off my face and pillow - it was awesome.

Then around 4:30 am, it started to rain.  Unbelievable!  It was not supposed to rain!  Many of the tents still had no cover on them so we ended up with lots of mud.  But we did see a beautiful rainbow!

 The rain stopped long enough for us to have breakfast and for Tony and I to do our part.  Each Ma and Pa were given a topic to speak on, but Tony and I were assigned the names of Jens and Elsie Nielson and were supposed to act out their story.  It was probably one of the most powerfully spiritual things I have had to do.  And I really didn't expect that!  We started out by talking about he Nielson's and telling their conversion story and how they sold their farm and had enough money for a wagon and team but gave it all to the church except enough for a handcart and 15 pounds of belongings each.  We went on to tell them how their only chid at the time, 6 year old Niels, died on the trail as well as the little girl that was in their care.  Jens, who stool taller than 6 feet felt he couldn't go any further and fell to the side of the trail.  His strong little wife (only 5 feet tall!) then put him in the cart and pulled him the rest of the way to their rescue.  It is an amazing story of amazing people and it was an honor to be a part of the reenactment.

Next we had the women's pull which was also just awesome.  I will always remember singing "Sisters in Zion" all huddled together before we started pulling.

It continued to pour on us throughout the women's pull.  It was very moving to see all the men and boys standing with their hats off and being so reverent.  Jaxson later said that watching the women's pull was his favorite "spiritual' part because the spirit was so strong.

I guess Kody wanted to make up for it, because after lunch he pulled the girls for quite a while!

Our after shot!  We made it to Zion!

We had to do an after shot too!

In the end, I would not have imagined all the trials and hardships we would face in just 4 days!  And to know it was only a sliver of what the pioneers had to endure was humbling.  At times it was pure misery but mostly it was pure wonderful.  We would do it again in a heartbeat!