Pioneer Trek 2010

Jim, Jacquie, Riley and I just got back home after a fun filled, hard, and awesome TREK! Jim had many jobs during the experience. One of them was toting the potties. All were grateful for these :)
Here we are! These pictures are not necessarily in order-- but oh well. I'm pretty tired as I'm posting these! Can you tell we had fun? We all had very different roles on the trek, but we got see each other once in awhile! Jacquie was the YW chairman on the Trek Youth Committee. She was quite the worker. She did an awesome job.

Here are the trekkers that 'died' on the trek. Yes, you can see Riley right in the front. He was an angel for the rest of the trek. My job during the trek was to instruct those who had died. These trekkers couldn't help during most the trek. They couldn't talk either. They could smile and sing. At certain times they were able to help. It was hard for most of them to not help their families. Especially when the tasks were hard. Each trekker represented a real person from the Martin or Willie Handcart companies.

This is random... but on my first trip up to the trek site we named this rock "butt crack" rock. Sorry, but I laugh every time I see it.

Poor, poor Sister Sirman. Somehow some lovely fresh cowpie happened upon her leg. If only I had a picture of the fresh cowpie that ended up all over Sister Okerland!! Good thing I brought baby wipes :)

I love this hand off. Sister Okerland, a great "Ma", handing a delicious treat to Jacquie! :)

I caught this picture during the women's pull. All the boys left for the mormon battalion. The girls were all alone and they had quite the trail to climb. Jacquie was amazing. Since I have a broken foot, I was very limited during the trek. It did however, give me the opportunity to watch my amazing daughter push not just her cart up the hill, but to run back and help every other cart make it up the hill. She then did the same on the next hard part. She was truly a pioneer woman with a heart of gold. Her actions were awesome.

This was at the start of another very, very difficult part. Even with the men, a single family could not do it alone. It was inspiring to watch the youth who would get one cart up the steep hill and then run down to push the next cart up. Things go from impossible to possible when we help each other.

And here we are. Tired, stinky, and ready to get home. Every moment was great. It was a wonderful experience. We learned many lessons. We are most importantly grateful for the sacrifices our ancestors made to follow the prophet and come out west where they could serve the Lord how they knew they should. They sacrificed so much for us. We owe it to them to remember them and continue to do the same for those who will come after us.