Brooks and I were a Ma and Pa for our stake pioneer trek at the beginning of June. It was our stake and the Topeka, Kansas stake combined. We had a great experience and learned so much from it! It was extremely hard to leave Spencer, but he was well taken care of and we are so thankful for Tiffani and her boys!
Here is our family at the very beginning, as you can see they were all still clean and healthy. Half of our family was from Omaha, and the other half from Topeka.
Here we are on the second day. The mud was miserable. Brooks and I were wise on the second day to put on our ponchos before it started raining too hard. We were very lucky though to have clear skies at night so we didn't have to sleep and cook in the rain. Both days it quit raining as soon as we came into camp.
This is our "Hurray! We're done picture!" Notice all the wet shoes and socks. It felt good to get those off!
The last night we had some square dancing and then some modern line dancing.
This is a dance off between the two stakes with the line dance "Foot Loose" They have different versions of the dance so they split up to have a dance off. Apparently I should live in Topeka because I know their version of the dance. 
Here's the whole crew again and a picture of our tent. The guys did a great job making a tent out of our cart and tarps.
I learned a lot about being a parent and realized I have a lot to learn before I have teenagers. It actually made me really nervous to have teenagers, but I guess I have plenty of time to prepare. I also realized that you have to teach those kids with the spirit because several times I wondered if they were hearing anything I was saying, and I knew that the only way they were going to get anything out of it was if the Spirit spoke to them, not me! It seemed like they had a great experience though. Brooks and I also learned that we need a bit more practice with our dutch oven cooking! We had a few meals that were quite disappointing. The cobbler didn't cook thoroughly and our eggs, hash brown breakfast didn't turn out at all. Poor kids, but we made through without starving.
Here is our family at the very beginning, as you can see they were all still clean and healthy. Half of our family was from Omaha, and the other half from Topeka.
Here we are on the second day. The mud was miserable. Brooks and I were wise on the second day to put on our ponchos before it started raining too hard. We were very lucky though to have clear skies at night so we didn't have to sleep and cook in the rain. Both days it quit raining as soon as we came into camp.
This is our "Hurray! We're done picture!" Notice all the wet shoes and socks. It felt good to get those off!
The last night we had some square dancing and then some modern line dancing.
This is a dance off between the two stakes with the line dance "Foot Loose" They have different versions of the dance so they split up to have a dance off. Apparently I should live in Topeka because I know their version of the dance. Here's the whole crew again and a picture of our tent. The guys did a great job making a tent out of our cart and tarps.
I learned a lot about being a parent and realized I have a lot to learn before I have teenagers. It actually made me really nervous to have teenagers, but I guess I have plenty of time to prepare. I also realized that you have to teach those kids with the spirit because several times I wondered if they were hearing anything I was saying, and I knew that the only way they were going to get anything out of it was if the Spirit spoke to them, not me! It seemed like they had a great experience though. Brooks and I also learned that we need a bit more practice with our dutch oven cooking! We had a few meals that were quite disappointing. The cobbler didn't cook thoroughly and our eggs, hash brown breakfast didn't turn out at all. Poor kids, but we made through without starving. 
4 comments:
How fun! I have always wanted to do that. Our stake went a couple of years ago, but I was expecting a baby or just had a new baby, so I didn't get to go. Steven went though and it sounded like a really GREAT experience. He suggested we go with the family sometime. That sounds like fun when the kids are older. I wouldn't want to purposely suffer through the storms with a little baby! I'm glad you had a good time.
Sounds like you had a good experience. I'm with you on the teenagers! Having a 3 1/2 year old is hard sometimes. I hope I learn a thing or two in the next 10 years!
Wow...that sounds like quite the experience! Aren't you glad that you had the option of leaving your baby behind!!! I can't imagine what it would have been like to do that with little ones or to have a baby ON the trek. Good for you guys to go!
Yay! You made it back safely!
Post a Comment