Trek

Paul and I were asked to participate in Trek this year with the youth of our stake.  Trek is a youth activity that our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) does to help us to remember the pioneers of our faith who moved their lives and their families across the United States to end up in Utah during our church's beginning.  Many sacrifices were made by these people, some of which are our ancestors, so that we could benefit by being able to worship as we please.  It's a good experience to turn our minds to their experiences and to think of the many things we have to be grateful for.    

 

We were asked to be a "Ma and Pa" of a "family" of 10 kids that we had never met before.  I decided to make a flag for our family...and yes...it is AWESOME! 

 

Since we had never met these kids before, we were encouraged to use the time on the bus ride out to our wilderness area to build rapport, set family rules and generally have a good time setting the tone for the trip.  Our kids were all about it.

There were over 200 kids that participated and a bunch of grown-ups.  These are replicas of the handcarts that a few of the early pioneers used when they couldn't afford the covered wagons and teams of oxen that most of them crossed with.  A lot of the early saints were immigrants from other countries and had sold all of their belongings and used all their money just to get to America.  New York was not the end of their journey though, so they had to figure out a way to cross a continent and decided to use their feet. 

This is our family early on.  The kids did all the pushing.  You can tell it is early on because of all the smiles. 

This is one of the water crossings that I was so sure would end up with hypothermic kids.  Instead it was nearly 80 degrees and everyone enjoyed a nice dip. 

Here we are enjoying the awesomeness of our flag.  Did I mention that I made it?  With a sewing machine?  Who knew I had it in me?

Eating breakfast.

This is a picture of the women's pull.  There was a point when all the young men were pulled away, symbolizing the times when women and children were left on their own to move and build their new lives.  There was a really powerful feeling of strength as we pulled through the young men who were quietly supporting us even though they couldn't help push. 

We enjoyed camping that night with our kids, the best rock skippers I have ever met.  You can see Knick glacier at the end of the valley. 

Our little campsite.

Paul, brushing his teeth in the morning.  Notice the continual blue skies in all these pictures.  We are having the most amazing weather this summer.  Hot hot hot. 

And finally, celebrating at the end of our journey. 

It was a really good experience for us.  We learned we are not nearly as patient as we thought.  Our family really came together by the end of the trip, which was really cool to be a part of.  It was also a good experience to reflect a little bit on the awesome heritage that our family members who came before us have left us. 

And it was great to spend time outside in the most beautiful place on earth with this guy.