Top Trek Tales

Here it is! My Top Trek Tales :)

Here we are on the first day Square Dancing. Dust was everywhere!

1. Bus rides! ha ha Just kidding. The bus rides were so long and so much a part of my week I think I have to include the time that I spent on the bus . . . with no air conditioner and lots of happy kids :)

2. Our trek family: Our family was awesome! I wish I could put a picture up but as I was only a temp parent I better not :( They were so mature and respectful and overall awesome. We got so lucky!

This was our campsite on the first day.

3. Hiking: 15 miles on the first day and about 7 on the second day. My feet were so so so sore! But Dalan and I escaped without any blisters! The long hike was our favorite. Our group was probably the smallest group by numbers and by size and they did better than many of the other families. We rock. P.s. One of our family members may or may not have counted his steps, 10,500 of his steps to be exact. Just think about that.

4. Women's Pull: This part of the hike represented a time when the men were all called away and the women had to pull the carts and take care of the children all alone. We had a mini devotional before we did it and it was beautiful. We sang Sisters in Zion and then we began our pull through the sandy trail. It was hard. I have a lot of respect for the pioneer women.

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 This picture is of all the men standing in a line as we pulled the carts. I saw many, many tears drop as they had to stand and watch.

5. Jens and Elsie Neilson: After the Women's Pull our handcart was pulled to the side for an unexplained reason. A few minutes later Dalan and I were also pulled aside and we were asked to reenact the story of Jens and Elsie Neilson. The story is this. Jens had walked so far and his feet had become frozen and deformed. He couldn't walk no more. To him his only option was to have his wife leave him behind to die. She couldn't leave him behind and instead insisted that he ride in the handcart. She was 5 feet tall and he was a big man, yet she pulled him. I love this story of love and devotion. When they asked us to do this I just started crying. When we started acting Dalan had to have a limp and then fall, we were far enough away that no one could see out faces and we were laughing about our acting skills. When Dalan had to jump in the cart he felt so bad. And my heart broke. I started pulling and about a minute later the cart started moving. It was so hard. If I stopped we would go down hill backwards. Finally, kids that they had chosen to be angels came running to my rescue. The boys came to the front and pulled and the girls ran to the back to push. The boys lifted the handcart so that I could not push at all. I can only imagine that the angels ran when they helped Elsie and they run to help us too.

6. Devotional: We were lucky to have a speaker come after the first day and he had some of the greatest stories. His name was President Lorimer and he was in the middle of purchasing the Sun Ranch and Rocky Ridge. He had such great stories about our Prophets!! He was such a great balance of spiritual and humor and I loved it.

7. Martin's Cove: We had four of the Priests carry 12 of the Young Woman across Sweet Water. It was a really cool experience. Sitting in Martin's Cove was really a site to see also. I actually liked Dan Jone's Cove the best. I felt the spirit the very strongest there.

Sorry that this post is so long but this week was PACKED with exciting things! Believe it or not I left a lot of great stories out!

Thank your Ancestors today :)

Five Faves.

1. Family Time! Josie had a Dr.'s appointment on Monday so my family came to visit Sunday night and we started our Dr. Party by making cupcakes topped with frosting and sprinkles. Monday she got her cast and we took her to the Disney store. She was IN LOVE with the princess store.  We spoil her.

2. Bear Lake. Dalan and I waited behind and picked up the boat Wednesday morning and hauled it over to Bear Lake for Dal's family's reunion. I love this picture. We have so much fun. He makes me laugh.

 Here we are suited up and ready to ride in the boat!

3. Trek. Today has been a good day of preparing things for Trek. We found clothes for Dalan, got a first aid kit together and we got Dalan's bed roll in working order. It is coming up so fast. I am getting excited! I will be taking lots of pictures and I can't wait to show you! Monday we will look like Pioneers.

4. Aloe Vera. Bear Lake kicked my butt. I needed way more sunscreen than I used. After babying my burns today though I think I will survive. And don't laugh, my survival was in serious questioning this morning. Also, soaking towels in milk and placing them over my sensitive burns worked miracles! I would definitely recommend it.

5.Team USA! The Olympics are so great. I love watching all these sports that I would never usually take any interest in. My favorites are always swimming, beach volleyball & gymnastics. If I were an Olympic Athlete I would be a gymnast. But that ship has sailed. I am old as dirt compared to those Gold Medalists. But they are so cool.

7 Things

 1. Dalan: because he was disappointed that he was not number one last week ;) I will have you know there is no order to these.Just what pops into my head. Dalan is the best decision I have ever made and he continues to impress me. I love dating him and being with him 24/7. Maybe we can all have an understanding that he is always number 1 :) I would hate for you to get sick of my bragging and happiness surrounding me and Dalan.

2. Morning Walks. This week my sister-in-laws and I started walking in the mornings. It has been fun, it is so good to talk and walk :) Also a good jump start to the day. P.s. I have been loving Yoga lately. It really helps my back, which is always tight and twisted. literally.
3.  Ogden area - Saturday I went on a date with Dalan and it was so much fun. He wouldn't tell me where we were going and we ended up in Ogden. Now don't jump to conclusions. Ogden is starting to classy up a bit. We went to Five Guys and walked around the area and then we shared our favorite ice cream at SubZero. It was so much fun to be with Dalan and away from the farm for a minute.
4. Finding out our family for Trek. Big news. We now have 9 kids! Dalan and I are so excited to be Ma & Pa's on this trek and these kids seem like a lot of fun! 
5. Pepper is lost :( It is really sad. I don't really want to talk about it. Doing this 7 Things was good because this week has been one thing after another. Anyway. I hope she comes back.

6.  Elephants. Is that weird? I have had a love for elephants since forever! I have since given up my collection of glass elephants that I collected when I was 10 and now I just collect pictures of them on pinterest. Thanks pinterest for providing me that less "cat-lady" outlet. I just love this pictures of an baby elephant playing soccer . . . another love. I think I was friends with elephants in Heaven.

7. Envelope Budget Software: I am being such a nerd on this Top 7. But seriously, I am kinda loving this idea. I am a planner. I have mentioned this before but here I go again. This online little system is a Budget Plan. I really like this because I always feel guilty when I spend money on myself. This is the cycle. Usually I will do really good and not buy stuff for months and then {BAM} one month I realize it and I go crazy buying awesome stuff. So. I need a way to save money for super cute things that I want . . .  Rock47 Jeans or a table . . . . ya know cute stuff. So I think I am going to give this a try and see how it goes, so that I can buy things gradually and not all at once :)

Have a good week everyone. It you see our puppy, send her home.