I have finally decided to start my own family blog. So hello world!
We had a very adventerous week. Harrison and Jackson spent the week with Nonna and Papa (Donna and Danny) and Damon and I went up to Heber for our stake's pioneer trek. Damon was part of the back up camp and I went as a big sister. It was an amazing experience. I don't have any pictures because we weren't allowed to bring our cameras, or deoderant or toothpast, etc. But they did have a camera crew that I lovingly called "the Paparazzi". We started early Wednesday morning, the kids had to meet at the church to ride buses to Heber at 3:30 am. Lucky for me I went up Tuesday afternoon and stayed in our motor home and had a good night's sleep. After everyone ate breakfast, which was really our only meal of the day, we were put into families and then we had to pack our handcarts and get to know each other. When our handcarts were packed we lined them up then sat in front of the replica of the Navoo Temple. After hearing a talk we were startled by gunshots. The "mob" came and drove us out. It was kind of funny because I knew most of the mob, including Damon. But it also made it sad to think that there were pioneers who were disowned by their families. And then the trek began. We started pulling our handcarts and didn't stop until late that night. After walking for several hours we stopped for a water break and then our Stake President asked us to take a code of silence. As we started again we could see that we were going to be going uphill. Just as we were ascending our Pa stopped us and told us that our Big Brother "died" and was no longer allowed to pull the handcart or help in anyway. That was really challenging to me because I recently lost my big brother. Our family readjusted and started up the hill again when our Pa stopped us and again pulled away another brother. He did this untill none of the boys were able to help and it was left to the women to pull the handcart uphill and through switchbacks. It was really hard, physically and emotionally. After going quite awhile we were to the point where we could only go a few steps at a time before having to stop and rest. We were given oranges for lunch but I hadn't eaten mine yet. At one point we were all fatigued, including our Ma who was allowed to help. So I shared my orange but even with that we still struggled. Finally we looked up and saw men riding down on horses. They said Brigham Young sent them but they had to keep going to assess the sitution and they gave us candy saying it was all they had. Shortly after that a group of men came down saying Brigham Young sent them and they were here to help. One man stopped to help our handcart. At first he was a huge help but the switchbacks were so challenging even with his help we weren't going very far. With a lot of stopping, a horse pulling us out of a rut, and finally some more men coming to help we made it through the women's pull. We were given a chance to rest and to process what happened with our families before starting again. Right before we started it began to rain, shortly after that it got dark. And it rained for about 5 hours! That was scary. We could barely walk without slipping. Our shoes and socks were soaking wet and it was dark and hard to see. We finally got to a small hill that stopped us. It took so long and so many extra hands just to get one cart to the top of the hill our Stake President finally said that's enough. We turned around and went a mile to a big open field where we were hoping to sleep. But when we got there the field was buried in water. This is where the second rescue took place. Pres. Hayes told us to leave our carts and start walking. The men in the back up camp who had helped us through the women's pull came with trucks and trailers and took us to back up camp. Then they had to go back again to bring us our handcarts. Thankfully by the time everyone got to back up camp it had stopped raining and they had big fires and hot broth and rolls for us to eat. By the time we got our handcarts and made our beds for the night it was about 1 am. It was a long, hard day. But it's awesome to look back and say, "I can't believe we did that!" It was also really neat comparing our experience to the pioneers. We kept asking, "what did they do when it rained like this?" And, "how did they do this day after day for months?" We also tried to imagine if it were snow instead of rain.
The next morning we only had a short walk to base camp. But before we left we found our flour sack baby had died. We had to bury our baby Matilda who we carried all through the women's pull and the rain. (During the women's pull I finally tied her up in my apron so I could use two hands to help push the handcart.) That was another emotional experience.
After reaching base camp we stayed until Saturday. And then we had fun. We played Pioneer games, had hillarious firesides, we even had a "hodown".
This was my third trek and it was the best. I had an amazing family. I am so gratefull to have made new friends with my Ma and Pa and big brother. The kids in my family were so strong. They were spiritual and just strong! Our family had fun together. One night all the kids went to bed and us adults stayed up and talked. We were quite entertained because the boys kept giggling and laughing, it sounded like we were at girl's camp.
The best word I can think of to describe this trek is "powerful." I feel strong for what I went through physically and how I grew spiritually.
We went camping! We had a great time, especially Harrison and Jackson. We went to Sedona on our ward campout. It rained the first night but that didn't stop the boys from having fun. They loved everything about it, even setting up and taking down the tent. They had fun catching frogs, throwing rocks in the creek and hiking. We learned that Harrison is quite the rock climber. The boys got totally muddy climbing up a hill then sliding down on their butts! It was a fun camping trip.
