Aaron and I had the opportunity to go on our four stake youth pioneer trek. From the time we first got the call we were so excited to be able to go. We did all the prep work to our best ability, and off we went. When we got there the first morning we gathered all of our stuff and found all of our 11 children. The Sunday before we were given a list of the kids we would have, so that we could call them and make sure that they had all that they needed and also to make sure that they were going to bring a big sack lunch for the first day, we were told that it would be an important thing to have.
Day 1- Gather children, play get to know you games, eat lunch, build handcart, pack all buckets and sleeping bags in cart, wait in an extremely long line for the potties, and start walking.........
Ma and Pa Rogers (aka Sassy Mama and Big Daddy, the nick name that our kids gave us)
Family games: this one is Ninja
Building a handcart
Cool tree that we passed on the trail, I never saw any others like this through the rest of the trek so I was glad that I got a picture.
We called it the tree of life
All through the trek we saw lots of cool little lakes.
It was so beautiful! We actually were able to look down on the cone of the mountain to the left from our base camp.
Our family
This was also a cool tree we saw. It was kind of hidden, but one of our boys spotted it, and we agreed that it looked like it could be Santa's Christmas Tree
This was part of the pull that we broke our own trail
One of our cute girls, Hilari
Paul, Alex, Justin, Jordan and Kate
The Sewell Family going down a steep hill in front of us.
This next picture is of our family while we were waiting in the valley to have our turn going up the big hill. It was getting late, and everyone was getting tired and hungry, as a family we really had to be patient. We didn't end up making it up to the first nights camp until 12:30ish that night (the sun-dial wasn't working so we don't really know what time it was). All the kids ate and then crashed from being so tired.
Day 2- This day we woke up to every thing covered in frost, so we had to lay everything out in the sun to dry. We had breakfast and packed everything back in the cart so we could hit the trail again. This days pull was going to be different than the day before. We had to pull the whole thing in silence. The quiet gave us an opportunity to reflect on the sacrifices the early Mormon pioneers made for us. We got a little ways up the trail and then a man came in on horse back and asked that all men join the army. So basically the boys all left except for the Pa's and then just us girls had to pull the rest of the way. This is similar to what happened when Johnston's army asked for soldiers from among the pioneers during the Mexican American war.The company commanders wife's talked to the girls about how important it is for them to maintain and cherish virtue in our lives so when worthy young men come off of their mission they will be ready to marry in the temple.
Morning after our first night, this is the lake that we camped right next to.
Our four girls that did the women's pull;
Kate, Breanna, Hillari, Myself and Anna. The women's pull was tough both emotionally and physically tough. These are 4 amazing young women, who when they had nothing left to give were able to dig a little deeper and never complained.
When we finally got to base camp we had lunch, set up our little house for the next couple days. They had a place for old pioneer games and getting hair washed, until they ran out of water. We all got cleaned up and were able to change our clothes for the Hoe-Down that they had that night. Our kids were fun to hangout with. I think everyone had a great time, and got along well. We also had to cook our own meals after breakfast that morning so that added more to the whole experience. Our kids were all so awesome and always helped out. They got the food, prepared it, cooked it and all helped with the clean up with each meal. It's a good thing they did or they would have gotten very hungry.
Day 3- This day was fun because we had lots of free time to just spend time visiting as a family and playing games like, the stick pull and leg wrestling, steal the bacon and a fun new game that the kids taught us about clapping and looking. One of our boys caught a horny toad that became our family pet for the day and we named it Koko. After we had lunch we went up on a hill side and had a little solo time were every one (meaning all youth and leaders), over 450 of us spread out and had time to read, pray and think, this lasted about 2 hours. Later that afternoon we had a great fireside by Elder Perry Webb. The last thing we did before bed was have a family testimony meeting and I think most of the kids had something to say about a story from the fireside and also seemed to have had a great experience during their solo time.
Morning after the second night
This evening we were able to prepare a feast, Our meal was fried potatoes, caramelized carrots, fry bread, homemade butter, honey and a yummy turkey that we ate almost all of, and we also got root beer. It was so delicious! Our girls thought that it would be fun to build a table out of our buckets and a tarp, and the boys picked us some flowers for the center of the table.
These are the pictures of our family feast.
Hilari, Levi, Justin, Jordan, Jessica, Anna, and Breanna
Paul, Alex, Hilari, Levi and Justin
Paul, Alex, Levi Justin, Jessica, Hilari and Kate
Jessica, Anna, Breanna, Manuel, Kate and Hilari
Day 4-
The morning after the third night we walked up to the top of the hill by our camp so that we could watch the sunrise, it was so beautiful and peaceful.
After our little sunrise service we went back to camp, made breakfast, started cleaning up all of our stuff and breaking camp so we could all go home. It was so funny in some ways it seemed like we had been together for much longer than just four days, but in a good way.
The next few pictures are of our last pull. Everyone worked together so well.
Jordan had been working on this hair-do for 4 days. I think he did a good job.
This next picture is one of my favorite pictures. It is of our girl Jessica that wasn't able to pull very much, but the last stretch Justin and Jordan let Jessica have a turn pulling next to them. Once again we had such a great family that made everyone feel so comfortable.
Two of our fun kids
This is our family. Despite not having the modern comforts of life for 4 days, and having to work extremely hard, everyone is still smiling. This is an awesome group of young men and women.
Back row:Ma (Kassie), Pa (Aaron), Justin, Jordan, Paul
Middle row: Jessica, Alex, Anna, Hilari, Levi, Manuel
Front row: Brianna, Kate
Aaron and I
What a great experience we had. We both really enjoy being outdoors and camping so it was lots of fun to go and be a part of this. It was also great to build a relationship with our family. They really are amazing youth and I know that they are strong and can do anything that they put their mind to. A thanks to my parents and sister for keeping our two boys so that we could have this week to spend with the youth.
Is Aaron's beard darker, or just full of dirt?
Is Aaron's beard darker, or just full of dirt?
One of our friends little girl Ryan
Adam getting Sam after the wind took him across the lake
