Our Bishop had a great idea a year ago..... 
Many, Many miles of walking. We had an incredible company of people and we truly became a family during those couple of days. I think we walked about four miles the first day. I think we made it to our camp around 4:00 p.m. There were so many things I learned on this trek. One of them was that we just had to keep going. One foot in front of the other and one step at a time. And I think everything I learned was so comparable to our day and age. Through this life, regardless of the tough things we are given, we need to continue one step at a time. We all drank a lot of water and were constantly reminding each other (out of love) to DRINK! In the above picture, we had stopped for a minute to drink and take a breather. It was very hot at this time and we were so blessed to have a cloud drift right over our heads. It gave such relief to the heat. We reflected the entire time as we experienced different things as to how the pioneers would have felt. We knew, no matter what that our trek would end after two days. We knew that there was a Rhino (ATV) right behind us just in case.... and it was used!! Those dear Saints didn't have that.
When we got to our camp ground we all just sat for a while. Drinking and eating was a must!! We were divided into three companies. We were company #1 and had a great group of people. We all jumped right in helping eachother. Pitching tents was necessary and as soon as we got them up... it began raining. It was humid, hot and dirty and it was incredible. Eric and I cooked dinner for our company. It was a wonderful Dutch Oven dinner with chicken, potatoes, carrots and was DELICIOUS! While we were preparing our meal, we noticed many men on horses circling around our camp. Our camp had many ideas of what was happening, but didn't find out until the end of the trek. (I will tell later) After dinner we had a fireside with music and speakers. Eric played the guitar with two of our great friends and sang a song he wrote for the trek. It was great! After the fireside, they excused us to go back to our camps for a testimony meeting. It was so spiritual and touching to hear everyones feelings about the experiences we had already had in such a short time. Now by this time I was getting really nervous. My dear friend (who was in charge) had prepared us for the next day by telling us it would be very hard! Much harder than the first day and we would also be doing a woman's pull. For some reason I felt weak and very afraid of my physical ability. I don't think I have ever felt that before. I prayed that night before going to sleep that the spirit would help me to feel confident and not afraid. My prayer really helped calm my nerves. We started the next morning with a Wonderful Breakfast and the with the teardown of our camp. Then we were off. This picture below is a picture of the Women's pull. As we were walking along the trail, two men on horses came and asked all the men 12 and older to follow them. The US Government needed them for the war. We had minutes to say goodbye and we watched them walk away. As the man was telling the men they needed to leave, tears just ran down my face. It was so easy to put myself in the shoes of these dear sisters who crossed the plains many years ago. In a matter on minutes, their husbands and sons were taken. And who knows if they would have seen them again. We also had many children on this trek with us. We had an extra four children who were walking with us. Their mother couldn't make it on the trek so they came with their dad. When they took him and their older brother... they became our children and they were so good. - I kept tripping on my skirt, so finally I just tucked it in the front. I had my really cute swim shorts on underneath. WootWooh!
I was part of the first handcart that walked the women's pull first. It was exhausting. There were four women and two kids. Ghavan was one of them. I remember looking him in the eyes and telling him we needed all the help he could give. And he gave all he had. The idea was that after we made it to the top, we would continue down the hill helping all the other carts behind us. I was able to help with one more, but that was all I could do. We had two amazing sisters that were in our company who were able to push 4 and 5 carts up the hill. It was Awesome! This doens't look too hard at this point, but this was the easy part! There were so many HILLS!
We were very concerned with Eric's health. His back disease has been getting worse and he lives with a great deal of pain every day. But we have decided to give all we have to our family and the Lord will bless us. We knew this would be an amazing experience for our family.... and it was! Eric surprised himself and me. He did an incredible job and I was so grateful we were there together. This is a picture of Eric and the boys pulling the handcart. Our great friends Mark and Linda Perkes were in our handcart with us. Mark was awesome! It is hard to see him, but he is pushing in the back. His wife (on the side of Ghavan) was one of the sisters who helped push several carts up the Women's pull hill. They both just ran in the RAGNAR race and boy, were we grateful they were with us. 
Chloee was so good! As I watched her during this trek, it was so easy to imagine what the little children did while crossing the plains. She picked flowers and played with sticks. She cried because she was exhausted and didn't want to walk any more. She wanted to be carried and wanted to know when we could go home. I can't help but imagine how hard that was for the mothers then. What did they tell their children? How far did they carry them when they could barly walk themselves? This experience truly changed my life.... for the good.
While on this trek we had three people become very sick. Two Moms and one Dad. It made things very real to us. Several families had babies under the age of one. It wasn't uncommon to hear babies crying while we were walking and it made it all so REAL! When we got toward the end of the trek we came to another large hill. On this hill were several men on horses blocking our path. Our bishop told us they were the men from the night before. They were spirits (acting) from the other side that had come to watch over us and protect us. They began taking some of our friends. They walked up quietly and took them with us. After they left, the bishop told us that each of those people who left, represented people who died along the way. We continued on our way and as we reached the end of the trek, there were our friends who left. They were with others from our ward who could not make the trek. They were in two seperate lines along the path we were walking on all dressed in white temple clothes and singing. They were there to welcome us! It is hard for me to tell this story, because unless you were there I am sure it is hard to imagine what it was like. Please let me tell you how amazing it was. Our family was so blessed to go on this trek together.
I almost felt guilty when I got into my suburban and drove home. I jumped into a wonderful shower, put all our filthy clothes into the washing machine and made a wonderful spaghetti dinner. I had all the food right there in the pantry. And then I made Chocolate Chip cookies..... just because I could. It is the simple things in life that truly are blessings. Happy 24th to everyone..... and please remember those who came before us. They truly truly were amazing and very precious children of God!
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