Desert Trekkers

SO, how did you spend your New Year's? We had a rather quiet New Year's Eve because we went on our stake pioneer trek on January 1, 2009. What a way to start off the New Year right! We got invited along with the other Bishops and their wives in the stake to be a "Ma" and a "Pa". They also asked other couples to come as well--I think there was something like 13 "families." Ours had ten awesome kids in it--5 boys and 5 girls. It was amazing to see how close we all became in the space of a few short days--such a great experience!

The one picture on top is actually of the kids in our car on the way back--POOPED!

This was the "womens pull" where the men had to let us go alone. We pulled through and were tough!

One night after dinner we had to repack our carts and go off in the dark to a different camp site to help learn obedience. That probably happened sometimes to some pioneers. The neat thing for me was to really think what it would have been like DAY after DAY and how this was really their LIFE. I also loved the look of the trek--seeing all the campsites, all the groups getting ready, all the groups reading scriptures. It was stunning really, and just awesome to feel a part of it.

All of our beautiful daughters--including "Baby Margaret." Each family was given a bean bag baby that had the name of a real baby who had been on the pioneer trek. Then we found out what had happened to our baby. Unfortunately, out little baby Margaret had died on the trail, so we actually had to stop, bury her, and then move on. It was VERY hard, mostly because I thought about that poor mother's experience and what it would have felt like to bury our OWN baby--I cannot imagine the pain--that was a special experience.

Here we are all showered and clean at the beginning of the trail. We were the "Whiting Warriors."

This is a shot of us leaving our real family behind for a few days in the care of wonderful grandparents. They had lots of fun without us...sniff sniff. However, when we got back in the house, Ella looked at us for a good five minutes with suspision in her beautiful blue eyes. Then I think she finally figured out that we had COME BACK and the other people were leaving. YEAH! Then she was supremely happy and just kept hitting us with her cute little hands to make sure we were really there. The other kids were like, "Cool to see you guys! How much longer will Grandma and Grandpa stay?"