Trek; Stand Ye In Holy Places: Day One

Back in February Brent and I were asked to be Ma and Pa's for this summer's Stake Trek. I pretty much begged Brent to have us be a part of such an amazing experience.  He wasn't so sure, in fact, he really didn't want to go.  He knew how hard it was going to be.  I just knew I wanted to be apart of it.  After every Ma and Pa meeting I got more and more nervous and kept telling myself, "What did I get myself into."  I'm glad I insisted, it was just an amazing experience.  Difficult, but worth everything that was put into it.

Hannah, Jaren and Brent.

Still all smiles

Heritage Ward

We had about 45 youth from our Ward alone participate.

Brent announced the other Sunday that we have 110 youth in our Ward. 

The Views from Ephraim Canyon were Breath Taking!!

The Hand Carts.

We opted not to take one of these.  

They weighed about 75lbs heavier then the other ones.

Selfie

My Handsome Pioneer

I'm not sure what I would have done without him.

Nate and Jaren.

We played Missionary Tag while we waited for everyone to get up the Canyon.

And we're OFF!!

All the kids in the Stake were split up.  Each Company had 5 families.  Each family had between 7-9 kids.  In the beginning it was awkward to get to know each other.  Everyone was quiet and shy and not sure they wanted to be where they were.  I know that there was a lot of time spent on splitting up the families just so.  Brent and I were grateful for the youth that were placed in our care.  They were good, hard, strong workers.  We heard hardly any complaining.  They literally put their shoulders to the wheel and pushed along!

Our Family

Brian, Whitney, Hannah, Matthew, Makel, Ashton, and Eric

The boys pulled for the first part of the trail.  I thought it was hard to keep up with them.  Then the girls took over.  You'd think they had something to prove.  We had to pick up our pace even more just to keep up with them.

The Trail:

You have no idea how NOISY they were!

Brent kept assuring me that the kids wouldn't be going very fast.  Well, he was wrong wrong wrong.  We pretty much were in a race the whole first day.  A few of us had to stop to go to the bathroom. Our family didn't wait for us and it took us about 30-45 minutes to catch back up to them.  It was a bit chaotic that first day.  But the kids had fun and it wasn't too difficult.  Although I went to bed with sore feet and a sore back, I woke up in the morning ready to tackle the next day.  We had no idea how hard day 2 was going to be!

Dog Puke and Dry Heaves

We are always joking with my Father-in-law about how easily he dry heaves. All we have to do is re-tell some awful smelling story and we get Mike Dry Heaves.  This past weekend we got it all on film. This will probably be way more funny to our family, but I thought I'd just share it anyway.

Let me preface what's happening. Brent's family were over to play games and visit with his sister who was up from Vegas. Everyone was in the living room winding things down. I was in the kitchen attempting to clean up a bit. As I walked around the table I spotted the BIGGEST pile of dog puke I've ever seen in my whole life!! It was massive. I looked immediately at Brent and told him that he had a huge mess to clean up.   Everyone thought I was joking. The puke was not a joke, but what happened next had us all rolling in laughter! Of course Brent just couldn't pass up the opportunity to torture his Dad.