This year Scott and I were asked to be "Ma and Pa" for our stake's pioneer trek. It was an amazing experience both physically and spiritually. I have a whole new appreciation of our pioneer heritage! We reenacted our trek in the mountains east of Heber. It was so beautiful! It was also challenging as the 21 miles were steep and very rocky. I felt such a reverence to be immersed in God's creations. I learned so many things from the great youth in our family and the other adult leaders. Most of all I learned that we can all do hard things.
This is a picture of Ryan's trek family. His ma and pa were Piper and Rod Riddle. Ryan had a great experience. He made some great new friends and learned he can push and pull longer than he (or we) thought possible! Ryan completed the entire trek with no problems which is surprising considering the issues he has had with his feet.
We encountered some snow and then sleet on our second day.
One of the highlights of the trek was summiting at the top of our mountain. We could see both Deer Creek and Strawberry reservoirs. It was awe inspiring! We spent a long time enjoying the view (plus we really needed the rest at that point...).
These are some of our "sons". We had great kids! They worked hard and were almost always happy to do it. They all were physically prepared and really wanted to push/pull the handcart. I had a hard time getting them to take a break and give me a turn. I was concerned that they would overdo it and then we would have to carry them which then would be really hard! Our boys and girls had a rivalry going which was fun to watch. Hopefully they learned that we all need each other. The hardest moment for me personally was at the end of a steep, rainy seven mile hike. The kids were exhausted and the food committee handed me the supplies for foil dinners and basically said "here's your dinner" (they had cooked for us to this point.) By that time the kids really didn't want to do anything much less make dinner. It was threatening rain so Scott was putting up our tent. I had eight hungry but otherwise unresponsive teenagers, no table and lots of dirt. It doesn't seem like such a big deal now but at the time I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around it. Somehow we made it and I learned (again) that being kind and patient it not easy when you're tired.
More of our great kids. We had five boys and three girls in our family. I wish I would have taken more pictures but really that was just beyond me. We had lots of fun in addition to working hard. We had bonfires, a dance, played drums on our buckets with sticks, played games and had a concert/fireside with Michael McClane.
