Pioneer Trek!

So here they are! These are just a few pictures of the pioneer trek our stake did the week after school got out. This of course is the "before" picture. :)We started on Wednesday morning at 5:30am and got home around 1:30pm on Saturday. We were up until 1am Tuesday night packing and getting ready so we had about 3 hours of sleep and then hiked the next day for 11 hours! Thats right 11. Pushing a loaded handcart. Trying to be leaders when we felt like kids. Seriously, words don't describe how hard it was.

The boys did most of the pulling, while the girls pushed from behind. There was one part where the girls pulled by themselves while the boys were on the "Mormon Battalion". Again, words don't describe how hard it was. We were going up a steep incline and there were times that we counted to three and lunged with everything we had and still didn't budge the cart. I was breathing so hard I could taste blood. The first day we hiked 16 miles and didn't get to camp until after 11pm. We were given an apple, granola bar, and a stick of jerky for the day. I reached a point that I didn't think I could keep going, and then we hiked several more hours. When we stumbled into camp, they gave us chicken broth for dinner. My mind seriously can't comprehend all that the Saints went through. I am SO grateful for the pioneers!!
We had four girls and five boys in our "family". One girl was from Mozambique, Africa and just came to the states four months ago. They were an awesome group of kids and I can truly say that I loved them after our experience together.
There was some time for fun and games. One night we had a hoe down complete with pig calling, pie eating contests, and skits (our family sang a revised version of the "Brady Bunch" theme song, woo hoo!). We even learned to dance the Virgina Reel!
On Friday morning, each family assembled their own handcart as a service for an Eagle Scout project. I"ll be honest, it was horrible! It was blazing hot, the kits weren't drilled right and the instructions were less than desirable. Oh well, all for a good cause!
It was the hardest week of my life, but also one of the most memorable. As for killing a live chicken.. I hope that's the first and last time I witness that!