Trek

 For most people, Trek in Wyoming at Martins Cove is a once in a lifetime opportunity if it even presents itself.  I am SO THANKFUL that I was able to go on trek, and consider it a complete privilege to have been on such hallowed ground.  Our first day of trek, June 30th, we left Fairview in the morning and arrived in Wyoming around 6 pm.  We set up camp(at 6th crossing, sweetwater campground) and had a wonderful dinner and devotional. 

 July 1st.  We did a day trip to Martins Cove.  That day we walked 7 miles.  Martins Cove was AWESOME!  We got to do a river crossing and go up into the Cove.  The missionaries were great, they brought the spirit with them.  I loved the statues representing the men who carried the pioneer women and children across the sweetwater river.  Martins Cove is definitely a sacred place. 

 July 2nd We walked 10 miles that day.  We were able to go to the Willie meadow, where the willie rescue happened.  We were able to pull our handcarts on the actual trail that the pioneers were on.  As we were on the trail, Kade leaned over to pick something up. It was a handmade nail.  We think it was one that came from a handcart or something from back in the day. We also got to do 3 river crossings where we got to play and swim in the 3rd river.  (pictured above are my beautiful young women!  I love them so much!  I'm so lucky to get to spend so much time with them!  They make my testimony grow because of their goodness.  This picture was after we completed the womens pull.  I love how the pioneer stories compare directly to our everyday lives.  The womens pull taught me that we can do hard things!  And we will be required to do many hard things throughout our lives. Ours are just different from the pioneers but we can draw strength from them.)

 My nephew Trevon was able to come on the trek with us.  I'm SO glad he made that choice to come.  He is a tough kid!  He pulled the handcart almost the entire 32 miles of the trek! We grew so close to him as we were on trek.  

 July 3rd was our last day in Wyoming.  We walked 15 miles that day. We got up at 4:30 in the morning to clean up camp to be ready to leave by 6.  It was a long long day.  The last mile and a half, the wind was blowing so hard, directly in our faces, the dust was so thick that you couldn't see 50 feet in front of you.  we tried not to talk to each other because our mouths would fill with dirt.  It was interesting how that happened the last mile and a half of our trek.  Again, it compares directly to our lives.  When we are almost there, but we feel like its just getting too hard, often the Lord wants us to just endure a little longer, and he will reward us. There is something he wants us to learn. And maybe we endure to the end of our mortal lives before we get what we seek, but always for a greater purpose.  So often we just need to keep pushing through the hard times and we'll make it....and it will be more than worth it!

I have so many pictures and so many experiences that I could share, but there are just too many, so I'll keep it short and sweet.  When we reach Rock Creek Hollow, which was the end of our 15 miles, the end of our 32 mile trek, I could definitely feel the spirit.  We had some dinner, sat down for  a bit to get refreshed from our long walk, and then we headed over to where we would have our testimony meeting.  We were tired, we were dirty, we were humble, ready to be taught.  Rock Creek Hollow was where I really felt the spirit.  So many people died in that very place.  People who wanted so badly to make it to the Salt Lake Valley but just could go no more.  Little Bodel was a little girl whos family sent her to come to the Salt Lake Valley alone because they didn't have enough money to all go together. Going to Salt Lake was a privledge to them even if you had to go alone.  They sent her first, with plans to come later on.  She never made it to Salt Lake.  She is burried there in Rock Creek Hollow. She was the little girl who was frozen, sitting by a wagon wheel with an armful of sagebrush ready to make a fire.  If you have ever seen the movie 17 Miracles, she is in it.  The testimony meeting was indescribable.  I have never felt the spirit like that in any other testimony in my life.  It was powerful.  I have reflected on that so many times since the trek happened, and have decided upon a few things.  When we go on trek(in our modern day) we often go with sort of an attitude of "this is going to be so hard, I wish I could shower, I can't wait to get home, why am I here, I'm so tired".  Its because we have it so good, we've never had to face hard times like these.  When the pioneers came across the plains, all they cared about was getting to the Salt Lake Valley so they could go to the temple to receive their covenants.  That's all they thought about.  They knew it would be hard, but that was not their focus, they just had to reach the valley so they could enjoy those blessings of the temple.  I also feel when we go on trek today, and make our modern day sacrifices to be there, sacrifices of driving 7 hrs, not being able to shower or have our nice conviences, turning off all of our technology, I feel like the pioneers recognize our efforts and appreciate that we have come and taken time to learn more about them and what they did for us.  THAT IS WHY THE TESIMONY MEETING WAS SO STRONG.  The pioneers visited us in spirit because we gave of our time to honor them.  I will never forget that experience, I will treasure it forever.

Boulder Mountain and Girls Camp

 The past 3 weeks have been BUSY!  Busy in a good way.  I like to keep my mind busy and going these days.  Back in June we were able to go to the much anticipated Boulder mountain get together with Kade's family.  We were so excited because it  has been 5 years since we have been there with everyone.  It was a lot of fun and it was just as we remembered it being.  We got to take our new old camper down and use it too.  It worked great! 

 Daisy and Elsa loved their lives for that week!  They got to eat everyone's scraps and do whatever they wanted!  We often found them sitting outside our camper door begging with their big brown eyes to come in :)

 We fished upper bowns reservoir and Daisy had to keep checking on me when I got too far away from the others! 

 There was a bit of a contest going on at upper bowns between Kade and his dad to see who could catch the most fish, and this contest started as we were packing up to leave!...... that's what happens when the fishing gets good right when its time to go!

 Kade did end up winning the contest with the most fish :) 

 I even caught 3 with my new pole!

 Took a little drive with Dennis and Rhonda and liked this spot to take their pic. One thing I loved this year about the boulder was the testimonies that were shared on Sunday as we all presented our scriptures that we came up with to combat Satan. I love that the family does a theme each year.  I feel like when we all share our feelings of the gospel together that we grow close. I loved everyone's scriptures and presentations!

 Elsa loves Kade.  She sat by him most of the time while he fished!  What a sweet dog!......it may have been because she was about to have puppies and didn't want to move! ;)

 Dennis, Dallas and Kade fishing lower bowns

 Kade was teaching Dallas and Lacey how to fly fish. 

 One of my most favorite things to do at lower bowns is walk around the lake and try to capture scenic shots, which is not hard to do.  This lake is so pretty, and very diverse.  There are red rocks on one side, a sandy beach on another and a meadow on another along with cedar trees on the hillside. 

 I really enjoyed girls camp this year.  To be honest, I've never been a fan of girls camp....but this year, I feel like that all changed! I loved the theme (Boot Camp) and I loved that it was very patriotic!  I learned some new fun things about our country that I didn't know before.  I learned that the 21 gun salute came from the sum of the numbers of 1776.  I thought that was so cool!  It was so awesome to see the girls folding the flag and learning things that they don't teach in schools anymore.  It was fun singing patriotic songs and saying the pledge of allegiance. And it was fun having DOWN TIME! We got to just hang out at our camp a lot more this year which was so nice!.....Victoria taught Alexis how to play nertz.

 The girls were constantly doing each others hair and my hair, which just puts me right to sleep! I love it.  One of the nights we got toilet papered by another ward, which was kinda funny.  One of the girls from the ward that did it to us, dropped a flashlight, so we made a plan to find our who it was!  We decided to gather up all the toilet paper and put it in a big garbabe bag(because it filled one up-there was a ton) and take it to our next devotional at the amphitheater along with the flashlight.  We made up a cheer where the girls echoed what the leaders yelled out, it went like this:

"We got TP'd in the night, It was quite a frightful sight! We're too nice to get you back, but we'll give you back your stack!"  And we went and dumped the toilet paper in the middle of the cement:)  We also set the flashlight by it, pretty soon they came to clean it up, which told us who did it! What a perfect way to get them back :)  fun times!

 We painted nails forever! It was relaxing.

 These pictures are kinda random, but I had to throw this one in here.  Brynlee has this frog that they caught up at the cabin, and she named it Freckles.  She LOVES it so much! 

 We went fishing up at the Cleavland Res and the Schlappis came up separate but brought their dogs too.  So there is Daisy on the left and her dad Bronco in the middle and her half brother Jimmer on the right.  Pretty dogs!

 Elsa had her puppies while we were on trek! 9 of them!  They are so cute.  We did lose one last night which was sad.  I actually had revived it with some goat milk and it was doing awesome so I thought it would make it, but then it just kept getting weak after that :(  But the others are SO fat and keep eating like crazy! They are going to be so chubby!  We have 6 females and 2 males.  I love their color! I wanted that pretty creamy color with the dark faces.  We do have one pure white one too. 

 About a month ago, me, my bro, and my dad went on a long horse ride up the mountain from milburn.  We went up the Dry Creek trail where my dad used to heard sheep on.  It was so fun seeing my dad ride again, since he doesn't very often. He carved our names in a tree, and left our mark! 

 A little 4th of July fishing!  We decided to get out of the heat after the parade and head up on the mountain, which was a perfect idea.

 We took Trent and Cass with us and made them :) use our float tubes since they hadn't ever done it before.  They loved it.

Horrible picture of me, beautiful picture of Daisy!  This was the day after trek and I was TIRED!  I will have to do a post all about the trek since there will be a ton of pics.  But I love this dog.  She is such a nut!  She makes me so happy and the best is, she just loves to hang out with me, which makes life so much better.  So thankful for her!