17 posts in 3 days! I'm sure I've broken some sort of record! Or at least I deserve some sort of prize. And now for my last one....TREK!
If I'm being honest, my excitement about going on trek wore off as the summer wore on. The timing just seemed to be horrible with everything that was going on for us. Mostly with our rental, and John had a huge trial starting the Monday after we would be getting back. For a while it seemed like trek was just adding stress. We had a lot of gear to round up, ended up spending a lot of money to get ready, and spent a lot of time planning devotionals etc. I felt like I was kind of done before it started. And then all that changed....
Monday the 6th we had our trek kids over to practice setting up the tents. After setting up the tents and playing an intense game of spoons we realized that we were going to have a lot of fun. Tuesday night we met the kids back at the church for the equipment check in. And then Wednesday morning John and I were at the church at 3:45. I can honestly say I slept for about 1 hour the night before. I was exhausted. At 5:00 that morning we were loaded onto a charter but and on our way to Wyoming. We had a 6 hour ride ahead of us and we were spending it with 9 kids we were still trying to get to know. The bus ride started out quiet and I slept for another 30 minutes or so, and then the kids started waking up. We chatted, played would you rather, played sticks, and slowly started getting to know this new temporary family of ours. (For my record...our kids were Megan Briscoe, Amantha Morgan , Mckenna Venche, Alexa, Isaac Demars, Tiloi Nawahine, Cody Cheney, Zach Kinzel, and Taggart Cluff)
By noon we were at our destination (the DLL, a cattle ranch on the Utah Wyoming border) we had loaded up our carts and we were on our way. The walking had begun. And that's what we did. We walked and walked and walked.
It was a long and wonderful day. We laughed, sang our peanut butter cup chant, and talked. I was learning that our kids were amazing. Slowly they started calling me Ma and John Papa John :) It didn't take long for our family to form.
Towards the end of our first day the rain hit. And it poured. John and I pulled on a poncho after getting slightly soaked, but our kids wanted to keep going. They refused to let us push and before long they were soaked. Completely soaked. But what was most amazing to me was that not one person complained or griped about the situation at all. We walked 11 miles that day, the last few miles soaking wet, had been up since 3:00 in the morning, and there was no complaining! It was at this point that I knew we had incredible kids. They even wanted to go faster. We trekked a lot near a family who had named themselves the Ligers. They became our rivals and they didn't even realize it. They were soooo slow! We even passed them once on the trail. John and I allowed it and then pretended to be mad when our kids darted around them. Our entire trek was full of Liger Jokes.
Miraculously the rain cleared that night long enough for us to set up our tents and make dinner. I gave a devotional that night about being a finisher. I used president Monson's finisher talk. Before we left for trek my plan had been to talk to them about working hard and finishing what they start, but that day they proved that they already were finishers.
That night everyone went to bed slightly wet. And then then during the night we got hit with an intense storm. The rain came down vertically, the wind was strong, and there was tons of lightening. Someone later told me that they timed it and the storm lasted 2 hours.
When we woke up that next morning we learned that our girls' tent had a zipper malfunction and the rain had been pouring in on them all night. Most of the kids had wet sleeping bags and their clothes were still soaking that next morning. John and I had stayed dry for the most part. Our shoes were still soaked and my skirt and apron were wet from the knee down but other than that I was fine. Others didn't fare so well. After our kids wandered about camp they came back and reported that even thought we were all wet, a lot of others were way worse off than we were. They were grateful. So that morning we got everything as dry as we could and then ultimately packed up our wet camp and headed out.
Our second morning there we had our women's pull. This is where the men all leave and the women pull the handcart for a while by themselves. Before trek I thought this would be lame. But my girls were tough. And for them it was empowering. I loved seeing them empowered! They wanted to do hard things. A few of them were even annoyed when the boys eventually jumped on and started helping because they wanted to do it by themselves. I loved the experience just because it was a reminder to me of what women can accomplish when we work together.
We had a good day walking our second day. Although dark clouds were lurking and the winds were picking up. By the time we got to camp the wind was insane! We were trying to set up our tents and the wind was making it very difficult. After trying to fix our girls tent with no luck we went to the supply trailer. As luck would have it they had 2 tents. One that was too small and one that was too big. We took the one that was too big. Trying to set up a monstrous 10 man tent in high winds was almost comical. It took over 10 people! The tents eventually got set up (although they were trying to blow away) and since we now had the party tent John and I took our kids into the huge tent to play a game of spoons and eat jolly ranchers. That afternoon I laughed so hard I cried. Our family just laughed and laughed and laughed. I loved every minute of it.
Eventually the winds died down a bit and we were able to play some pioneer games with the stake. Our family was the best of course. We had a blast. And then we had our favorite dinner of trek (pulled pork sandwiches, salad, and brownies, yum. The stake provided food but we had to cook everything ourselves. So we were never completely sure how our meals were going to turn out!)
And while we were eating I laughed so hard that I shot water out of my nose. But Taggart ^ had a similar issue. Our family seriously laughed a lot.
That night we had a group devotional on a hill and I was able to look around and notice the gorgeous scenery. We could see the entire valley. Wyoming is beautiful.
Our second night we dealt with horrible wind again. I literally woke up to my tent hitting me in the face. But we all survived. And while I'm sure we were all pretty tired by this point we got up and loaded up camp again for more trekking. Our walk this day was short...only about 5 miles. We set up camp this time in a cow pasture. And there was everything you would imagine would be in a cow pasture. Mostly lots of cow poop! Nice! It just made the experience more real I suppose. While we dealt with a little rain and wind that afternoon again, I was able to take a little nap before our dancing that night. Dancing, dinner, and then a stake devotional.
This was also the night I had a little heart to heart with my 2 oldest boys, Zach and Cody. Of all my kids they were the hardest for me. Mostly because they were so concerned with being with friends and girls. And they were at the age where they thought they were in charge. I literally laughed one time when they told me their plan for pulling the carts that day....they had no idea they were not in charge at all. I told them that I was worried their priorities were in the wrong place. They were missing out on getting to know the awesome kids in our family because they could only think of their friends. They were work horses while pulling the cart but would dart off every chance they got to be with their friends. I think it was a reflection of their priorities in life too. They both do what has to be done and show up to church etc, but neither is sure of their testimonies or serving a mission. We chatted for a while about this and our last night and day went better. Whether or not they make long term changes...only time will tell.
On our last night before we went to bed I had our kids each share their favorite and least favorite part of trek. Their worst parts were pretty minor, I don't even remember what they said, but I do remember the laughter and tears that ensued as they shared their favorites. The most shocking to me was that even John was effected. John was quite the cynic where trek was concerned. But on our last night there even he had tears in his eyes. I feel I can safely say that John is now a fan of trek. We had both been touched by the spirit and personality of these kids. And I know that my eyes were opened as I got a small taste of the pioneer spirit.
We woke up Saturday morning and realized we had had a calm night! No wind and no rain! It was amazing! By this point we were all dried out and ready to trek our last 6 miles before getting on the buses and heading home.
If you look at the tiny spot on the top of the hill ^ you will see my little free spirit Taggart. He would spend his time running off in the hills whenever there was a chance. Doing his Little House on the Prairie run. We all loved Taggart.
After a gorgeous day of walking on Saturday we unloaded our carts, packed the buses, and got ready for our 6 hour ride home. The ride home was different. This time we were comfortable and we were family. We knew each others personalities so well. We knew what each of our kids were dealing with at home. Stepmoms they didn't like, inactive parents, shyness, etc. These kids have some really tough trials, and they are handling them beautifully. We spent the entire 7 hours (there was breakdown along the way) talking and laughing together.
On Sunday I could hardly think about trek without crying. I'm sad that I won't get to see these kids often anymore. We do have an awesome reunion planned in a few weeks, but I'll miss them dearly. In a weird way, I now consider them my kids.
