Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Pioneer Trek

In January Brett and I were asked if we would be interested in being a Ma and Pa for the upcoming stake Pioneer Trek, and we were. Both of us were really excited to have this calling and knew that it would be a blast. Although I had gone on trek before as a youth (Brett never did), I knew that it would be a different experience since we were going to be the ones in charge.
Our Ma and Pa family
All the Mas and Pas

Two weeks prior to the official trek, just the Mas and Pas went on a mini trek. Since it had been raining for basically the whole month of June here in Utah, our mini trek was quite the adventure. Everything was so muddy that it was difficult to push and pull the handcart. Our shoes were caked with mud and weighed an extra 5lbs each. By the time we finished our mini trek (5 miles round trip), we were filthy. We knew that if the trails didn't dry up within the next couple of weeks that the kids would probably be miserable. Luckily our prayers were answered and the trails were dry come Thursday morning. In my opinion, the weather was perfect for our first day of trek. The sun was shinning and the temperature was in the high 80's.

To make a long story short, the trek went from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon. We had a great group of 8 kids, that worked hard and enjoyed themselves. We were family #5 and also the orange family. The kids decided to name our family the High 5's. Our family was the best! We never heard the kids complain and we could joke around with them and just have fun. We were all competitive too, which resulted in many first place finishes in the games that we played. The kids loved it!
Max, JP, and Scott playing their harmonicas

Overall, Brett and I really grew to love our "children" during our 3 days with them. We grew spiritually together as a family, and the kids learned things about themselves that they didn't know before. We all got a glimpse of what it was like for the pioneers who travelled in faith, for 1300 miles to build Zion. We are both very grateful for this opportunity that we had and hope that we can do it again sometime.

Our "family" (minus Scott and Michelle) after the post trek fireside

5 comments:

Hulberts said...

It looks like you guys had a blast!

The Lovells said...

That looked like a great trip. I really want Joe and I to do a trek. Maybe one day.

The Borlands said...

That's so awesome! I did a trek the summer before I went to SVU and loved it! I bet the kids loved yall!

MaryAnne and Thayne said...

Oh how fun!! I would love to do something like that with Thayne.

Kemp and Whitney said...

I haven't ever done a pioneer trek. Looks interesting and fun :)