Pioneer Trekking

This year Dustin and I were asked to be Ma and Pa again for our Stake Pioneer Trek.  We did this four years ago when our Stake went to Martin's Cove.  I was a little more nervous this time around. The total miles on that trek were somewhere around 13.  This year's trek was right around 30 miles.  I kept hearing stories of Ma's and Pa's dying on pioneer treks, and I really didn't want to have a real life pioneer experience like that.  But, all is well!  I didn't die! (Dustin and I weren't really worried about him dying, because out of the two of us, you know I'm the bigger wimp.)  Avery was going this year, and that made it even more exciting and fun!  Isn't she a cute pioneer!   

 One of my best friends was also going.  And she was the medic, so her job was to keep me from dying of heat exhaustion!  Good job, Jenn!

This was the picture we sent to Avery when she rejected us and went on a totally different bus for the drive up.

 This is our Trek family.  They were an eclectic group of kids, but we made it work.

 On the first day the weather was ideal, overcast and beautiful.  It stayed fairly nice the rest of the week, but it definitely got hotter as the week went on.

 A hoedown on the second night was a highlight.  The kids loved it!

 Keeping ourselves entertained with a bubble gum blowing contest.

 We had one of Avery's friends in our family, which may have contributed to how much time she wanted to spend with us.  But we didn't care!  It was so fun to have her around!

 Pictures from Avery's Ma's facebook page.

It was SO dusty while we walked!  I got wise after the first day and ended up wearing a scarf around my face the rest of the time.  Avery and I were both dealing with a pretty bad cold, and all that dust in the air cause a serious runny nose problem for me.  It wasn't very fun.

 The women's pull on the Day 3.  Our girls were amazing and almost ran up the hill!

 Avery's family did a musical number for everyone.

 On the last night we played a bunch of teamwork style games.  Our family was awful at them!  It was so funny!  We lost every one of them except the tug of war, and that was a one man Ethan show (which was why we won).  As I said, we had a very eclectic group.  

 This child had such a hard time getting up in the mornings, so on the last day, the boys just pulled him out and left him there so that they could put up their tent.

The final day of trekking and then we headed home (and down to meet my dad halfway to pick up the rest of our kids).  It was a great, pioneer experience and I'm grateful we had the opportunity to be a part of it!

 It's funny because we had been praying for a long time that we would get kids that we would be effective for, and that they would all have the experience that they needed.  We really did have a pretty unique group, and we had some interesting experiences and conversations because of it.  We had a kid with autism, one with anxiety, one who wasn't a member of our church, a couple that were best friends, and the rest didn't even know each other.  But, they had some good experiences, and in the end, I do feel like we had the right group of kids for us, and I hope that they all did have the experience that they needed.