Trek (or Summer of the Tent - Part 3)

Ten days after returning from Teasdale, we left for a Pioneer Handcart Trek for our stake Youth Conference. Dave and I were asked to be a Ma and Pa for this year's trek. Our friends Brett and Mindy were in charge of the trek, so I'd heard a little bit about the planning process and was REALLY excited when we were asked to go and be a part of this amazing experience, and we were not disappointed. I'm so grateful to Brett and Mindy and all their crew for all the hard work that went into this trek. It was truly amazing, and so many lives were touched ... and changed for the better.

My doctor was okay with me going as long as I wasn't pushing or pulling, and thankfully we had a family of strong hard working kids, and I never touched the cart. Hiking 17 miles was plenty hard for me! And just in case you were wondering, at night, I slept in my tent. It was a different one of our tents, but a tent nonetheless.

We had the opportunity to literally walk away from our homes with our handcarts just as the early pioneers of the church did. The visual on that was so impactful for us and the kids in our family. As we walked farther and farther away, we felt a tiny part of what the pioneers felt leaving their homes and churches and everything they had worked to hard for. It was a very emotional experience.

(We were asked to not post pictures of the kids on our blogs, so these random shots are either unrecognizable kids from the back or adults ... hence the odd selection of photos.)

This is our stake president, President Draper. Dave and I and our family were in the Draper Company, and he was our fearless leader. He rode with us on his horse and cheered us on. And at one point he produced a stunning amount of candy from those saddlebags. I always thought cowboys carried "supplies" in there. Turns out, at least for this cowboy, they were full of Skittles and Starbursts ... and boy was I HAPPY about that! :)

We had our candy right before the women's pull. Our little family was down one woman right off the bat for the women's pull, and one of our "daughters" had a broken arm in a cast. So we had two healthy strong women to pull a heavy cart full of stuff. Thankfully, the three families around us were overloaded with girls and they all split up and put five on each cart. I hiked up with my girls and sat there and cried as I watched them put down our cart at the top after struggling up a VERY steep hill and run back to help other families. It was heartwarming to say the least.

These two ladies, Andy and Rheanna, were smart enough to wear their bonnets at least part of the time. I didn't wear my bonnet too much ... if you can tell. Ooops. You know me, I LOVE the sun, but even I have my limits. Serves me right getting my face FRIED with a really dumb sunglasses line. Ugh.

Awwww ... cute ma and pa holding hands. Love it Chelsea and Bryson! We had the opportunity to trek with a lot of the couples from our ward and youth from our ward. It was a great chance to spend time with them and really get to know them.

We were just goofing around in this picture, but since I only have a few pictures without kids in them ... here it is. Each family had a baby who was given the name of an actual baby on the handcart trek west. Our baby was carried by one of our family members for the entire three days. Thankfully, our baby survived, but several families in our company were not so lucky. On the last day, we shared the stories of our babies and several of them were left behind on the trail in a little graveyard. This was probably the most emotional part of trek for all of us. There was something about watching Jarom Becar and Bishop Hunt kneel down in the dirt and bury a tiny baby doll with their wives weeping by their side. When Jarom left his beat up straw hat he'd been wearing all week on their baby's grave, anyone who had previously not been crying could not hold back any longer. It was a life-changing experience for me as a mother ... I cannot even imaging losing a child, not to mention more than one child which many many handcart families did. The sacrifice made on our behalf is unimaginable really.
Dave and Jarom with their improvised baby carriers. Apparently this is a more favorable (and fashionable) arrangement for suspenders anyway. :)

So what I was saying before about not wearing the bonnet (not to mention not putting sunscreen on till about 6 hours into the first day) really came back to haunt me in the form of a ridiculously unnatural color on my face. It seriously looked so stupid. In my defense for the picture above, it's possible that Rheanna is just a tiny bit pale ... I'm just sayin. So the contraband came from a friend of mine who thought he could taunt me along the trail by showing me what he had in his cooler full of ice cold DRINKS. He knew darn well I'd be demanding "MY" drink as soon as I arrived in camp, and that's exactly what I did, but he got some work out of us for it. We rounded up kids for him to talk to about their experiences on trek, and we downed a 20-ounce bottle of ice cold Diet Coke behind his truck in approximately 90 seconds. Fair enough.

Love this picture. This is Bret Olsen and Bishop Hunt. We have an amazing Bishop in our ward. He loves and cares for each of us so much, especially the youth. He trekked right along side them and talked with them and taught them ... and they know that he cares. He set a great example for all of us and took every opportunity he could to share his testimony with us. I love that about him. Bret came up for dinner that night and shared his ice cold water bottle with me. We had long since run out of ice for our drinks, so that was such a nice treat. I'm amazed he was willing to come within five feet of any of us after all the dirt and heat and sweat and tears ... it wasn't pretty.

By that point, I was not feeling too well. After searching through food coolers, we finally found enough ice for an ice pack to wrap around my stomach. Even without pushing and pulling, apparently the 17 miles hiking was a little too much for post major surgery body, and I was definitely in pain and limping around like an old person with an ice pack strapped to me. To be honest, the trek was significantly harder than I had imagined it would be. There were a lot of steep hills and big rocks, and the kids pushing and pulling the carts worked very very hard. Thanks to my 14 babysitters (i.e., thoughtful, caring, concerned friends) and Dave putting his foot down a few times, I had ridden some of the trek time in an ATV and spent a lot of our evening time laying down on cots. I was actually really touched by the outpouring of concern and love I felt from people constantly checking on me to make sure I was okay. Like I've said before, I had NO idea how much recovery and just "slowing down" this surgery would entail, but I'm so grateful for the amazing friends around me who care and let me know that they care. I'm so so glad it didn't keep me from going on trek. I can't even imagine missing this experience. I'll always remember how it felt, and I'll always be grateful I was there.