Trek 2023

We left for Trek bright and early at 5:40, about 25 minutes later than we wanted to. 🤷‍♀️

Virginia, Lily, and Adi excited and ready!

We wouldn’t be this clean again till we got home. 😂

We drove into the craziest rainstorm that slowed us down so we were super late. Thankfully all the other adults ran late as well, so we were fine. 

Trek was so wonderful. We were so nervous. I haven’t worked with youth in 15 years and it’s been several years for Matt too, though he works with the primary boys activities. we had no reason to worry, it was so inspired and perfect. We had 7 boys and 5 girls in our family and they were so fun and accepting and strong. We had one girl that was majorly on the struggle bus on Wednesday. She complained and walked slooooowly all day. She eventually threw up and then pokied around so long in the porta potty that we couldn’t even see any other trekkers and had to have brother Naluai take us through a shortcut to catch up, but after that she got over herself and was glad she stayed. 

The adults met together before the challenge pull and every family was nervous their girls couldn’t do it. We had more boys than girls and it seemed every family had girls struggling. Then Elizabeth stood up and through the spirit really admonished us to trust our girls and believe they could do it. It was powerful and we all believed her, and they did it. It was left to the ma’s and pa’s to decide how much they helped their girls up the hill, and I knew I needed to jump in. I have to say it was easier with our girls then the week before with the adults. It was so special to see the relief and pride on their faces when we made it up. And they had some amazing gospel insights after. ❤️ 

We slept under the stars Wednesday night, a first for me. It was freezing and we woke up wet with dew, but it was still really awesome. The second day adi got stung by a bee. Seriously worst case scenario! but I think it was a trek miracle because for the first time ever, the swelling went down on its own. Matt and Micah gave her a blessing, and even though it was swollen the whole of trek, her symptoms were managed and she was ok. 

We did a blindfold pull that was tough and also kind of funny. Matt walked in front guiding them and I stayed in the back and watching 6 kids and trying to keep them away from cow pies proved to to be impossible. All 12 stepped in poo - and I really tried!

Thursday night we got word that it might rain. We had 2 huge tarps, one that we all slept on, and then a second one that we could use for shelter. We told our kids that we would help them, but wanted them to come up with an idea. And nothing happened. We encouraged all evening, and they would start, and then peter off. This happened 3 or 4 times, until finally we had a structure but the sides weren’t secure. We made dinner that night and were running behind for the hoedown, but 2 of our boys and one of their friends stayed once the hoedown had started and worked a system to tie down the tarp. #blessings

Around 3am we woke up to pouring rain. One of the girls sat up and I asked if she was ok, then whoosh! The girls side of our structure flipped up with a huge gust of wind, and every girl got wet! We all bolted up, I grabbed the flashlight, Matt and some of our older boys grabbed their shoes and we got to work. By this point the boys side had flapped up as well and kids were holding them down to keep the tarps secure. 

The kids had borrowed another families wagon and had secured our tarp with the wagons on either side, but it was so windy and crazy that I had to stand with my shoulder wedged under the yoke to keep the wagon from falling and then held the flashlight for the guys to see what they were doing, so I was getting wet too. The guys finally whittled some square poles Sam had given us into stakes and used our little shovel to hammer them in to secure our tarp. Our families camp was the first one in the line, and as I held the flashlight I could see all the families up and down both sides working with their tarps to secure them. It was a crazy little storm! We finally got everything secure and moved everyone in close. I had the 5 girls cuddled together with their heads up against my side, then the boys fanned out like wheel spikes on Matt’s side. They were cuddled pretty close together (the girls with the girls and the boys with the boys), but we all got back to sleep and stayed dry the rest of the night. Many families got drenched and some never even went back to sleep. 😬

On Friday the kids had time with the stake leaders, solo time, whole group testimony meeting, and then family testimony meeting. the kids had packed up most of their things that morning, since everything was dry it was easy. While they were gone Matt and I got the rest of our camp all put away and the chili and scones cooked. One of the pa’s set up a shade structure so several of the ma’s sat under it and cut veg. That was a tasty meal! Our family - the Mountain G.O.A.T.’s had been the very last family a few times, so we pep talked our crew into being ready so we could be first for the last pull. Since we were last in, it made sense for us to be first out, and we managed to do it. 💪🏻 

Our family testimony meeting was one of my favorite times the whole trek. We didn’t get much time to just be with our family, but I loved the times we did have. Thursday night we had a family night that was amazing, and then testimony meeting was beautiful. I’ll never forget the way the kids looked at Matt and I as we testified of Christ - they want to know, they are seeking truth and pure doctrine. This rising generation, we are in good hands. ❤️

After our testimony meeting, we played games and goofed around. Our kids were seriously so funny! They taught us serval new phrases and a new dance and game. And then we were on our final pull. It went so fast! Matt and I walked behind our wagon so the parents could see the kids being awesome. Colleen took a ton of pictures and shared them. There was a professional photographer there the whole trek and I can’t wait to see his pictures!

Sam sent this cute picture. It was so fun to be with Matt on Trek. I always wanted 12 kids - cheaper by the dozen, and now I know we could do it. 😂

Our handcart was kind of busted and we had to wait for special tools to take it apart. 🤦‍♀️ But we got it done and finally everything was loaded. 

Adi was a trooper with her painful swollen arm. Lots of Benadryl, cortisone cream, Claritin, ice, and prayers. 

We all took off our shoes in the car and made a pact that we wouldn’t complain because we were all stinky and all of our smells combined. 🤣 🤢 That was a stinky ride home!

I couldn’t pass up Cafe Rio, and there were like 5 other trek families there. 😂 We Mormons love our Cafe Rio! It was fun to chug horchata and chat for awhile.  

And our Patuxent trekkers. Minus a few - including Matt who was bringing our car down. 

It was such a wonderful experience - we really loved it and would for sure go back. We sent notes to each of our kids and can’t wait for clean hugs at the reunion dance! ❤️