Ten on Tuesday

Last week Matt and I were finally able to go on our Pioneer Trek last week.  

I found a link that sums up what a Pioneer Trek is HERE. 

Pioneer Trek is, by definition, an opportunity to experience a similar "leaving behind", to serve our ancestors, to get to know ourselves, new friends, and our Father in Heaven.

Our trek was from June 22-25... and it is one of the top 5 memories of my life!

We had so much fun.

 1~ This is our ward family that went on the Trek.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, though none of us wound up in a family together.  We all had the opportunity to meet new people from various wards in the Stake.

 

2~ After we loaded everything up on the trailers, we rode three buses down to Temple Square.  We went into this giant theater where the Salt Lake Temple President spoke to us about the pioneers and sacrifice.

  After the Temple President was done speaking to us, we watched a movie called The Stonecutter

This is just a short clip of it, but the message is still amazing.We also went and looked more closely at the Temple, for symbolism on the outside.  I learned some new things that day:)

3~ After a leaving Salt Lake, and after a LOOOONNNGGG bus ride... we arrived at our destination.

Matt and I were introduced to our family of eight kids.  We chose a handcart, chose a family name, and started getting to know each other.

4~ We were the Tumbleweeds.  We had three sons... Sterling, Ryan, and Riker & we had five daughters... Amber, Amber, Chantel, Megan, Natalie.

These kids were AMAZING!  They really were meant to be with us.  We had so much fun, and worked together really well.  I could not have asked for a better group.

 5~ On the second day, the militia came and had all of the men sign up for the militia, and took them away from us.  The women were left in a grassy meadow to talk about the Priesthood and also about being a Daughter of God.  After a Spirit of Peace was felt, each family of girls said a prayer together.  I LOVED this moment.  We knew what was coming and we prayed for strength.  After we finished, we got to our handcarts, and prepared to pull without the help of the men.  The path was steep and difficult.  Our cart was stuck behind another handcart that kept stopping.  We wanted to keep going.  We had two two steep inclines left when the men started to show up, but they weren't allowed to help.  At this point the cart in front of us stopped again, and my asthma kicked in.  I couldn't get enough air, so Matt pulled me away and told our boys to help.  I think it was hard for him to see.  I decided that people with asthma were at a serious disadvantage in 1856.It was a unique and moving experience.

 6~ Chantel came on the Trek with a stress fracture from this season of track.  She was doing okay with it until the end of the women's pull.  They set the handcart down and it rolled back just a little bit.  It rolled into Chantel, right at her stress fracture.  The next day, instead of having Chantel ride in a vehicle or with the adult handcart... we made a family decision and decided to keep our family together.Matt used the line from Lilo and Stitch and said, "Ohana means FAMILY, family means no one gets left behind or forgotten!"  Not only was Chantel in our handcart, but one of our other daughters had to leave early to go home and work.  We here now short TWO pushers/pullers and had extra weight in the cart.  The amazing thing is... the handcart never felt heavier.

 7~ Matt did the stick pull and wore himself out:) It was fun to cheer everybody on as they competed.  We had a lot of kids that came to our campsite regularly on the trek, so we said that they were our adopted children.  Matt is competing against one of them in the picture.

 8~ There were so many games and activities for people to participate in.  There was square dancing (which was a huge hit), fill the bucket, tug of war, sack race, ring toss, marble game, sitting in the river... it was fun to clap and cheer for all of the people you had grown to care about:)

 9~ Each family had to do a skit.  Sterling is in his third year of working at a Boy Scout Camp, so he has quite the repertoire of skits.  He came up with ours, called Quick Draw McGraw.  It was funny and silly and made Matt jump like a frog:)  All of the skits were goofy and made people laugh.  Matt and Sterling also stood up for an obnoxious duet of singing, "The horn.  The horn.  The horn sounds so forlorn."  It was stuck in our heads all day:) 

 10~ There were so many experiences up there... like staying up late every night and laughing as we made fun and teased each other, listening to a mountain man, quilting blankets to donate to those in need, the Pony Express arriving with letters from all of the kids' parents... even our parents wrote to us. My favorite moment of the Pioneer Trek was as way came to the end.  We started to see parents and family members that had driven up, lined along the trail to clap and cheer as the handcarts passed.Our family made the goal to always be first after the women's pull, and so we got to enter "the Salt Lake Valley" first.  Matt and I hadn't spoken our feelings to each other, but found out later that both of us were hoping that Asher and Abbie were going to be up there waiting for us.  Both of us kept suppressing the feeling so that we didn't get our hopes up.  At this point I saw the Bishop's wife and she said, "I saw your kids!" and I just started to bawl.  We came over a small hill and I saw Abbie's little body a hundred yards away.  I made sure the girls were okay, then I ran as fast as I could to get to Abbie.  When I turned around Matt was right behind me with Asher in his arms.  Both of us had tears streaming down our faces.  We took the kids and caught up to our hand carts to help pull the rest of the trek.
That had to have been how it was!  Families who had to come across the plains at different times had to have had that sense of anticipation and JOY of seeing their loved ones again.  My heart was so happy and full that day.   I now have a greater appreciation for the sacrifice that was made to come to a place far across the American Continent for Religious Freedom.
I actually miss the trek, and wish we were still on it, but I know that there will be another time that we will get to go.