Last spring, Trevor and I were asked to be a Pa and Ma on our stake's youth trek. We said yes, because we say yes to everything (who wants to look bad in front of a member of the high council), especially callings, but we were more than a touch apprehensive about actually going. Trevor, because he hates taking time off work and me, because I would have to sleep outside, no tent, no shelter, with wild animals (insert rattlesnakes, bears, mountain lions, spiders, mice...) running amok all around me. *Shudder*
I wish I would've been more excited to go. I'm not kidding when I say that this was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Seriously. Even if one of those wild animals/insects (I'm still telling myself it was a spider not a mouse) woke me up the second night by crawling on my hand. Trev and I had 9 kids to look after and I know it sound cheesy but I'm so homesick for them right now. They were all so different and all so very awesome. Let's start the travel log shall we?
Wednesday night: Meet your family night/Make Family Banner/Drop off personal bucket. The list was posted on a random room in the Stake Center. I knew 2 of my kids and knew OF 3 more. The other 4 were complete strangers. When one of our daughters came to the door, looked through the list and promptly told her friends who in our family she didn't like, we started to get nervous. Everyone was really quiet, with the exception of muah. Typical of me to get louder as the situation gets more uncomfortable. On a side note, my heart was aching because I had just dropped off my 4 real children and it was William's birthday AND we hadn't even had an opportunity (or didn't make an opportunity) to sing to him. My baby was 3 and I was with a bunch of teenagers that didn't particularly like each other or us for that matter.
~Trevor, Devon, Kim, & Alina~
Thursday dawned bright and early. We had stayed up too late (NOT because we had procrastinated packing all the equipment our family would be needing and therefore having to make late-night runs to Home Depot and Target for supplies) and still being riddled with apprehension, I think I got 2 hours of sleep. We met at the Stake Center and all caravaned up the mountain to Riley Farms. I did make Trevor drive through Jack-in-the-box for one last Diet Coke. That was probably 90% of my apprehension, being cut off caffeine for 2 days.
~Trevor, Daniel, Me, Kim, and Alina in the back. Josh, Steven and Paula up front.~
~Trev, me, Daniel, Kim and Alina.~
~Ana, Steven and Paula in front. Devon, Alina, Me, Trev, Brooke pushing and Josh in back.~
We started the trek with a vignette of "Joseph Smith" (aka Matt Tesimale) being "tarred and feathered" (with chocolate syrup and marshmallows) by a "mob" (all the Pa's, including Trevor). I'll not lie, it started out more comical than dramatic, but we all did our best to imagine what it must have felt like. Then we started to walk. And walk. And walk. And walk. It was by far the longest walking day and most of it was done in silence. Awkward silence. If it wasn't for my Ana, we might have fallen apart then. But she would occasionally crack a joke about Kim having a model body or about reaching ZI-ON where there was root beer. She managed to get most of us giggling and smiling. Five minutes into the walking, the sole on Josh's boot started to desert the rest of it. By the way, duct tape fixes everything.
~Paula, Steven and Ana. Devon, Brooke, Kim and Daniel in back.~
There were other vignette's along the way and we heard real stories about real pioneers and real trials. We each had been given the name of a pioneer in the Martin or Willie handcart company that we would be representing, so to speak. My lady was awesome. Amy Loader. Mother of 8 girls. Six on the trek. She lost her husband and a granddaughter on the trek to Utah. One day, all her daughters had collapsed and refused to get up. She knew if she didn't get them moving again, they would die where they lied. She pulled her weary self to her feet and started to sway back and forth. Then started to twirl until she was full on dancing. She got her daughters smiling but they still wouldn't get up. Just then, she slipped and fell on some ice. All six daughters rushed to her aid. With a grin she told them she had fallen on purpose, knowing that they would all scramble up to help her. Clever mama.
Trevor's guy might have a cooler story than mine. Jens Peterson was crossing the plains when a member of his company sat down on a rock and out of sheer exhaustion, refused to go any further. Many people stopped to talk to this man, including Jens's father. But he refused to budge. Jens asked permission to talk to him. Everyone told him it was pointless but he wanted to anyway. He tried to reason with the man, tried to persuade him to no avail. Finally, he said, "Well, I'm not going to go without giving you a good whipping". He hit the man across the face and sprinted away to catch up with the rest of the handcart company. The man was so indignant that he ran after Jens. He never caught up to him on the trail, but later found him in Salt Lake City and thanked him for giving him the whipping that saved his life. Awesome right?
~Steven, Josh and Trevor resting after day 1.~
We walked for 7 miles that first day. we started warming up to each other and were fairly friendly by the time we reached camp. Dinner was stew in the dutch oven and then a sing-a-long. Lights out at 10 (and I couldn't sleep by Trevor, he had to be on the "boy side" of camp). I woke up to this view between the buckets (I took this picture with my banned iPhone).
A rooster woke me up at 3am and I swore I would have him for lunch, but other than that, the night passed by without event.
Friday
~Trev and I loading up Friday morning.~
We had yummy (read: bland) oatmeal for breakfast and we were off. The kids really started to talk more and joke more and stick together more. We crossed rivers with rafts (super fun for all) and the boys got to carry the girls across the "lakes" (fun for the girls...and the boys felt super tough). This part of the trek was a little more...hilly. It was harder but shorter. We stopped midday to sharpen our pioneer skills (sawing logs, shooting rifles, making rope, ropin' cattle, bow-hunting, etc.).
~Kim and Devon steading the handcart.~
~Josh carrying Devon across the water. He was always touched by the Valley Boy stories and this moved him a lot. Then his real mom mentioned it in her letter to him. The kids' parents were so inspired when writing those letters!~
~Part of the fam chillin'.~
~Devon, Kim, Brooke, me, Josh, Trevor, Steven and Paula sawing logs.~
~My favorite of us. I was so exhausted.~
That night after we got to camp and had dinner (chicken and rice and peach cobbler for dessert) we had a special Family Home Evening with our kids. We talked about the attributes of Christ and then had each of our youngun's go their separate ways to take a self evaluation of themselves as measured to Christ's attributes. Then we gave them each a letter from their parents. Steven lost his mother in October (stinking cancer!) and the wound is still healing. His dad just remarried and there is the tiniest bit of a chip in his shoulder about that. It didn't take him longer than a few sentences into his dad's letter before the flood came. It broke our hearts in two. We sat next to him and rubbed his back offering physical comfort, but not knowing what to say to him. After a few minutes, he collected himself enough to finish the exercise. There's more to this story, but I'll get to that in a minute.
~Paula during solo time.~
We had a hoe-down that night and my fancy footed husband (go on and laugh) even favored me in a dance. We slept in outdoor bunks that night, and sometime around 2:30am something woke me up. It was tickling my hand. I tried to shake it off but it clung to me. I flicked it off with my other hand and whatever it was, was so big, I heard it land several feet away (*shudder*).
Saturday
We woke and had another delish breakfast of bland oatmeal. Then we had an unwelcome surprise. All our men folk were taken away to "fight" for the Mormon Battalion. What the what? The ladies were on our own! It really made us appreciate all they had done physically throughout the trek. At the end of our little jaunt, we had a little hill to traverse. At little hill with a 70% grade to it. Man we have awesome girls! It was so hard but they all pulled together and got all 10 handcarts to the top. Waiting, at the top were our menfolk. There was a line drawn in the dirt that they couldn't cross. It was so moving to see the anguish on their faces when they saw their sisters struggling and there was nothing they could do to help. Quite emotional too.
~The Miles Ladies.~
~The start of the girls' hill.~
~This doesn't do the hill justice. It was so steep!~
~I love this picture of Devon. This really shows what we were all feeling.~
All that pulling took it's toll on our girls. There were several girls suffering from heat, hyperventilation, panic attacks, and sheer exhaustion. Those awesome men stepped in and our kids were able to witness the priesthood in action. One of my "sons" was able to give his first and second blessing. What an experience. The Spirit was so strong in that little grove of trees!
~While the girls were pulling the carts alone, the boys were practically repelling (without ropes) down this hill. Scary!~
Then our last and final push to Zion, testimony hill. It wasn't as steep as the girls hill, but it. Was. Long. Trevor helped 6 of the 10 carts up the hill (I managed 3), but our boys were stellar and did all but one. As we were pulling our own cart up, I happened to be by Steven. He had done so much already and I could tell he was exhausted. 20 feet from the top he collapsed on the side of the mountain. The rest of our group couldn't stop, otherwise we would've lost the cart over the side of the cliff face. I did stop, however and sat there trying to get him to slow his breathing to match mine, offering what comfort I could. I told him I was right by his side and I wasn't ever going to leave him. Just then he popped up, and sprinted to the top of the hill with me right behind him. I don't know where he found the strength but it was amazing to watch. He was able to go back down the hill and help with all the remaining carts and without having any other issues.
~The last cart up Testimony Hill.~
The walk in to camp was awesome. We each had our families with us, kids in the front of the carts pulling with the Ma's and Pa's behind. Each of them had their own parents waiting for them in camp and there were plenty of hugs and tears all around. We had one last family prayer, and Trevor told them how they were the elect of God, sent here at this time and place because they truly were strong enough to handle these last days. He doesn't get emotional very (if ever) often, but he was struggling then. Again, such a strong spirit.
~Our family pulling into "Zion". Paula, Josh, Steven, Ana, Daniel, Devon, Brooke, Kim, Alina.~
~Our family with Trev and I bringing up the rear.~
We had a great BBQ with the whole of the group and their families. I'll admit to feeling a little homesick for them as we walked away, back to our car and reality. On a side note, Josh's boots completely betrayed him in the end and he ended up walking on nothing but socks and didn't get so much as a blister, miracles much?
~Sole-less Josh (with Alex Matheson on the left)!~
~Last family prayer.~
It was fantastic to get back home to a hot shower, diet coke and our four own babies. We slept like the dead that night!
~Home.~
Sunday night we had a fireside testimony meeting for all the kids and their ma's and pa's. All my "kid's" testimonies were awesome but one will stick in my brain forever. My Steven. He talked about how hard his mom's death has been on him. On the night we gave them their parents letters and Steven had broken down, it had been because his father had written that his mother was watching over him through the veil. She was beside him and she would never leave him. Then, when he collapsed on that last day, he thought he could go no further, that his body had been pushed beyond what it was capable of, there was someone next to him, telling him that she was there beside him and that she wasn't going to leave him. He said he knew it was his Ma, but in that moment it was like I was his real mom. He found that inner strength and was able to finish the trek stronger than he could have imagined. I was hysterical. We're talking ugly crying here. What a sacred experience to be a part of. I'll never, ever forget it.
