The last couple of months have been spent preparing for the youth pioneer trek, that Mike and I got to go on as a Ma and Pa! It was so much fun. Very hot, very dirty, and very hard! But still so fun! Not really how I wanted to spend our families Spring Break, but so glad we went!
We MADE two outfits each (for four days!! Yes, we wore the same dirty, smelly clothes twice!)
We each made trek buckets too. All of our belongings had to fit in here, and then we also used this as a chair to sit on.
This is our ward who went with the stake.
Livia was in our same company (so close by) but she was put in a different family as us. She's holding their baby, (flour baby) which every family had to take care of the whole 4 days. One family even had twins. lol
This was mine and Mike's family. We had a very good family. Everyone was helpful and contributed, except the boy on the far left, who had never done anything like this at all! So he had a rough time! :)
Ma and Pa Dean :) The kids would actually call us Ma and Pa all week.
So there were 5 companies, which represent the five colors on the flags. The middle flag color showed what company you belonged to. Each company consisted of 4-5 carts. We belonged to the blue company.
Everyone arrived to our first resting area, where we were only allowed to give the kids broth for lunch (to show that while the pioneers were starving, they didn't always have food to eat.) Then we got run out by "Mormon hating" men on horses and guns!
Everyone ate very well that night! :)
Every morning started with gun shots at 6am! We had one hour to get ready, make breakfast, eat, and clean up the dishes, and take down the tents. We had morning devotionals at 7 sharp!
One night we got to set up camp early and play games and they had a dance that night.
Prior to trek, the stake had a youth activity where they taught the kids some pioneer dances. Everyone loved it.
Me and my friend, Michelle Ellington.
(Her and her husband, David, were also a Ma and Pa.)
(Her and her husband, David, were also a Ma and Pa.)
Our Trek was a very hard one. We had several areas that were muddy and most of the trail was VERY ROCKY! Which made it difficult to pull a wagon over them. This was the deepest muddy part that we had to pull through! It wasn't planned but it made for a very powerful message; how everyone worked together.
It was very hot and humid! Poor Livia got sunburned on her face and chest!
This is what most of the trails looked like. Although several spots on the trail were very steep, up and down, and if I'm being honest, a little scary. We all definitely had to work together.
This is the top of "Rocky Ridge" which was a very steep hike! So steep that we left our wagons at the bottom.
After that we were surprised with dinner! We were so glad we didn't have to cook and we were all starving when we came into camp, so it was very well appreciated! This last night we had a big testimony meeting.
Our final night started getting very cold! And we even got woken up an hour early to start breaking down camp early because the temperature was dropping so quick! With the cold humidity and the wind it was very cold! Temperatures into the 30's! So we left slightly early and were glad to get out of there!
We were all so happy to see a Whataburger that we all stopped and ate, inside! With our smelly, dirty pioneer clothes and all! HAHA! Some of the looks we got were pretty funny!
While we were on our Trek, Tara and Tamara were nice enough to come and stay at the house with Brooke and Sydney. It was fun to have a couple days with them afterwards, before they had to head home!
Tamara was showing us how to throw the shot put. :)
We took them to a new ice cream place in town, (Sub Zero) that makes the ice cream right in front of you using liquid nitrogen!
It was so good seeing them again!
We dyed Easter eggs for Easter.
Brooke got to go to the wards Easter Egg Hunt.
Livia helped B ;)
Then Easter morning. :)
My beautiful girls in their new Easter dresses.
Easter dinner.
It was a beautiful Easter day!
We also got to have some visitors from Idaho! Rick and Rosetta Beebe came to say hi and go to dinner with us. It was good seeing them again. (I used to train them while in Moscow.)
Here's a few random pics of our Spring; which is comparable to an Idaho summer. ;)
LOL
Brooke's class picture. (She's the 2nd to the right in the front row)
Sydney's class picture.
Love this kid! ;)
Sydney kept begging to give Kendra a bath. After she ended up in the tub with her and she was completely soaked and scratched! She realized why cats bathe themselves! HAHAHA!
Love this cute black and white picture of B
I got to go with Brooke on a school trip to an Oil Ranch.
It was pretty fun and she loved riding a horse!
