It Is DONE!!!!

Yes! We did it! Walked 18 miles while pulling a handcart with a bunch of kids dressed as pioneers!!!! Everyone survived. The girls had a great time with their aunties & babysitters. I'll tell you all about it, but first you have to look at these pictures of Ella at her friend's birthday party. (Her friend has now set the bar oh-so-high for all future birthday parties. They went to the salon school and got styled. It was fabulous.)

Here is Ella getting her hair washed in the big sink.



The lineup (they're all so serious! And blond!):



Hmmm, what would you like done today? Oh, princess curls? What a surprise! (PS - it took Ella's poor stylist about 45 extra minutes to blow dry ALL HER HAIR.)



Pretty Pretty nails:



You can't see it, but she's got lavender makeup, nail polish and pretty lip gloss on.



SO PRETTY!


And then, on the completely opposite side of the spectrum, here's us on our pioneer journey. We were at the back of the 2nd company for two of the three days. The first day was exhausting. We had to be up at 4am to get to the church at 5am to leave the church at 6am to get to the trek site by 9am and didn't end up going to bed till 10pm. (Did you follow that? It involved many cranky people and lots of sitting around and waiting.) We finally started pulling our carts at around 11am, then stopped again after about a mile to be "raided". The sheriff took all the contraband (cell phones with no service, unauthorized snacks, makeup, etc.) We pulled 7 miles the first day (I say "we", but really I mostly just walked behind and "supervised". I was really good at it. The kids were supposed to do most the pulling so they could "learn though sacrifice". Ha ha, suckers!)

So pretty!


We had 8 kids in our "family". Four boys and four girls. They were all superior and awesome. I loved all of them.




Our trail boss/former Bishop/Awesome Boot Wearing Cowboy.


On the second day we had some "Alone Time" after lunch. We all spread out over a beautiful meadow and read pioneer stories and wrote in our Trek Journals. One of my favorite fake daughters here:

Pondering under a tree:

Seriously pondering how awesome he is:


I think this is my favorite picture from the whole experience:


They organized lots of stops for everyone to take a break, move their position around the cart and drink water. Some of the kids were getting "Pioneer Road Rage" (in the words of Matt S.) because they thought there were a little too many stops. They wanted to GO GO GO. They also had these little "vignettes" along the side of the trail. The vignettes were there to remind the kids what the pioneers went through on their journey. Most were so sweet they brought tears to my eyes (the trail-side burial of a mother and baby, when the "angels" came and helped us pull the cart up Rocky Ridge). Others were...not as successful. We tried to keep the spirit of the activity, but sometimes.... it just doesn't work. We were asked to bring someone's baby to Zion, since the baby's family was "struck with fever". Our baby started out as a floppy little doll named "Sarah" filled with wheat kernals. The kids were supposed to treat her like a real baby and take turns carrying her the whole way. It didn't quite work out. (How did we know it was filled with wheat kernels? Because it was accidentally sort of tossed around, and then kind of got run over by the cart. Baby did not make it to Zion. Here you can see the attempt at surgery to repair a serious head wound. Wheat-brains were leaking out everywhere...)


Being at the end of the company, we got a lot of dust. It looks pretty here though, right? Not so pretty when you brush your teeth and blow your nose later. (TMI, I know. But IT WAS NASTY.)


Aren't they cute pioneers? I know!


Our pioneer family.


We were supposed to start each day with scripture study and end with a devotional. But there was so much going at the beginning of every day that it was hard to fit in (Ma & Pa meetings, family prayer, breakfast, break camp, get on the road....) We took advantage of some of the longer break-stops to try to fit some spiritual stuff in.


But other times we just goofed off. Here's a rad picture of Stick Ball in action. Who knew sticks and pine cones could be so fun???


We haven't showered for three days and have walked 16 miles so far. Awwwwww, cute!


It was a spectacular and unique experience. I'm very glad to be home, grateful for hot showers and washing machines, and glad to be with my crabby, whining children again (I think Gretchen is punishing us for our absence.) I would totally do it again.

Next week: 10 hour drive to SoCal, sailing trip to Catalina and a family visit. Dude, we are crazy.

xoxo