Pioneer Trek

Nate and I had the opportunity to be a ma and pa on our stake's pioneer trek to Martin's Cove. I was a little (or a lot) nervous at first. I was worried about leaving the kids, the bus ride, how we'd do with the kids in our family and the actual trek. Well, I am so, so grateful that Nate wanted to go and wanted me to come with him. We had an incredible experience.

We got to have two young women from our ward in our "family" and they were both great! They both were such good sports and I enjoyed talking with both of them along the way.
The rest of our family we didn't know until we started getting ready for trek. I couldn't have asked for a better group of kids. The girls were so sweet and helpful and the boys were awesome. We had a great time with them! (And I found a few more babysitters for my kids.)
The bus ride was actually great. We were pretty spoiled. We had comfortable buses with great entertainment on the way up. When we got there, they had an orientation for us and then we got on our way.

I must have been putting hand sanitizer on my hands here.
I think everyone agreed that the walking was not nearly as hard as we thought it was going to be. But we weren't walking for days on end in the snow, without any food, and without warm clothes and shoes.

This was at the Sweetwater River. It was one of my favorite parts of Trek. The feelings I had here I will never forget. Nate got to carry me across... I think we were both a little nervous about that, but we made it and Nate did great!

These pictures are from the women's pull. This was also one of my favorite parts, mostly because of what our stake young women's president shared with us before we started.



Most of the camp jumped in the river when we got back, including Nate. It was one of Nate's favorite parts of trek.


These are the kids from our ward and one of the leaders, Kerri, who came as an "aunt" and is awesome! We were thrilled to have such a great turn out from our ward.
We didn't mean for this to be taken in sepia, but I like how it turned out. This is our "family" right before we left to head back to the busses. I will miss these guys. I hope they had as great of an experience as we did.
And finally, the highlight of trek for me was being able to share it with Nate. I was so grateful to be there with him. We not only had a lot of fun, but were able to spend a few days together without the distractions of everyday life. When our kids get older I want to take them back to Martin's Cove. While I will never understand what the pioneers went through at this sacred place, I have a greater appreciation for what they did and I will always be grateful for them and this experience.