Trek continued

Since Trek was such a big adventure for us, we thought we would post a little more.

The first day we found out who was in our family. We had 10 "kids" none of whom we knew, and we needed to become a family quickly. We needed to build and pack the handcart and get on our way. That night we pulled the handcart ~6miles. Dinner was PB sandwhiches.

In the AM, we had oatmeal and then pulled the handcarts again. We were at a meeting and the cart didn't get packed right so we needed to re-do it-that put us way behind the compnay. Another handcart family came back to help us. When we stopped the men left for the Mormon Battalion and then the women had to pull the carts up a 1/4 mile hill. Doesn't seem hard-but those things are HEAVY!! The boys had to watch without helping, and then at the end they were allowed to jump in. That night we had the best stew ever, went to a hoedown, and then crashed.

The 3rd day was pioneer fun. We went to different stations: leather work, pie-making, taffy-pull, Hair-washing, rifle shooting, family games, chicken BBQ. Later that night we learned about many handcart pioneers from "themselves" (others who acted their stories).

The last day we ate and packed up camp and pulled the cart another ~ 6 miles. Total we went 20+ miles. We are so glad that we don't have the physical hardships of the pioneers.

We really enjoyed Trek-it's a lot like a mission-hard, but worth it. Now we know that "We can do hard things."

"Some must push and some must pull."

These are Women's pull and "Rocky Ridge"-very steep. We were asked to record some of our experiences-Here is one:

One of the most profound experiences for us was the women's pull. Being married, we felt we had a slightly different take on it when compared with the youth. Amber was pushing the cart up the hill and loved seeing all the women come back to help, and even loved it when the boys jumped in. But when Travis came beside her and wrapped his arms around her, she felt complete again. And it was then, that she realized she wasn't whole before and how pushing side-by-side, or working side-by side is what' it's all about.

Travis had a similar realization. Heavenly Father's plan is that we do work side-by-side and are one. Now sometimes some are dealt a different hand and they have to push alone. He was very thankful that in his life he has a good companion that he is equally yoked with.

This was our "magic stew"-Travis was the master at dutch-ovening

Pioneer Games: Apple Pie, Hair washing, gunney sack races, infamous chicken.

We finished!

"O Be Wiser!"-that was our family call.