YIP Week 22 and Trek

Monday, June 11th

We are getting ready for our stake trek this week.  Bump is trying on his Nauvoo shirt and vest to make sure he can tuck all the extra fabric into his pants.  :)

Tuesday, June 12th

Today Gabby and Quincy had their yearly check up's with Dr. Allred.  Gabby earned a new camera by helping me to clean the house really well yesterday and was excited to take some pictures while we were in Salt Lake.  Here she is snapping a picture of the clinic as we were leaving.  Quincy got all of her Kindergarten shots and wasn't too happy about that even though she knew they were coming.  Both girls checked out well.  Gabby is in the 6% for her height and 4% for her weight, she's always been a tiny thing.  Quincy is in the 3% for her height and 15% for her weight.  We just like to grow them small in our family.

Wednesday, June 13th

Today I woke up in the morning to find a horrific scene.  The prince lay face down motionless in the pool.  We don't know if it was a terrible accident or something terribly sinister.  Gabby fished him out and we finished getting ourselves and the kids ready to take off over the next few days.  The kids and dog went to Jeremy and Jen's house.  The kitten went to our neighbors, the Lowery's.

Thursday, June 14th - Saturday, June 16th

TREK!!

I will try to summarize quickly an amazing few days.  We met at the Stake Center at 6:30 am and organized kids and leaders and then took off towards the desert.  We were around the Terra, Dugway area in Utah.  Day one was warm, but there was a nice constant breeze that made it bearable.  The trek was slow moving and we seemed to stop a lot for breaks.  Still we made it to our first camp by 2:00 ( a few hours earlier than anyone had planned).  We hung out with our family group and took off our shoes to rest our feet.  Luckily we were in some trees and hung up our tarp to help keep the sun off of us for awhile.  We had a lot of visitors from other families come to our camp.  It seemed to be the place to hang out.  That night after a yummy hamburger/hot dog dinner we played pioneer games and had a square dance.

Our family from left to right:  Courtney, Ehlana, Brandon, Bradley, Allen, Korban, Bump and Colton.  Such great kids!!

Some of Bump's young men came for a visit to our camp.  Here's Lance and Riley.

Day 2 - we cleaned up our camp and reloaded the handcart after a breakfast of pancakes, scrambled eggs and ham.  My sister Tracy joined us this morning on the medical staff.  It was fun to see her throughout the day.  This day was hotter and without the nice breezes that we had on the first day.  We had a lot farther to go, but the kids had loads of energy still.  I wish I could siphon some of their energy once in awhile.  We had a lot of hills to climb and a large descent before coming to the ranch where we would spend the night.  Our kids wouldn't be stopped and were third in line and kept on going with or without us with them.  We didn't see them the whole second part of the day they were so far ahead of us.  I had to stay back and walk with one of our boys who couldn't keep up either.

Partway through day 2 they pulled the men out of our group and gave us girls a little talk about all the women who came across the plains with the help of other women.  We then had a women's pull for awhile.  It was very touching when we came around a bend and the men were all standing there watching us with their hats off in respect as we went by.  Then they jumped in and helped us the rest of the way.  It was a neat experience that touched everyone.

Our second campsite had no shade and the wind was blowing hard.  We teamed up with a few other handcarts to tie our tarps to so that they didn't blow away.  We were so dusty and dirty and hot and tired we were just excited to have some kind of shade finally.  A neat thing happened that night as they gathered everyone for a devotional and testimony meeting.  President Lawrence asked for the faith and prayers of everyone there to calm the wind so that voices could be heard and people could be comfortable.  Within 5 minutes of him talking the wind stopped, clouds came over and covered the hot sun and we had a beautiful evening of testimonies and a fabulous sunset to watch.  It could not have been more perfect and a testimony builder for all of those in attendance.

Day 3 we woke up to a hot day with no breezes.  They allowed girls to wear pj bottoms or shorts and bloomers for the service project.  We fixed fencing at the church owned ranch for a few hours before loading up our cars and heading out to our nice air conditioning and showers.

We had a wonderful experience and can't wait to do it again the next time.  It was a learning trek for all the stake leaders involved because it was Grantsville's very first trek.  The next ones will be even better for everyone involved!