we walked and walked and walked

...and had an experience unlike anything I've done as an adult. I didn't bring a camera to trek, so I got these from facebook. I hope to get my hands on more later. I can't begin to describe all of the experiences--laughter, tears, some great conversations along the trail, a SUPER fun hoedown (the funnest, dustiest workout I've ever had), silliness, sheer exhaustion, great new friendships, stronger old friendships, and some real personal growth. Now that the blisters are healed and the exhaustion has lifted, I wish we could go back and do it again. Some of the moments, in no particular order:

We assembled this picture of the entire stake to give to the trek masters. My goodness, they did an AMAZING job. They were inspired and we had miracles.

My ward family (there's me front row, left)--I spent way more time with them than I thought I'd be able to. I'm SO glad. Those are where the lasting relationships are. I will never forget the women's pull with a few of these young women.

Our presidency and some cows. Deseret Land & Livestock is a working ranch so there were plenty of cows (and remnants of cows passing through) to see and hear.

LOVE these women!!

Part of the wagon train...somewhere along the trail

Our presidency--TOTALLY BEAT. This was Day 3, we'd done the women's pull followed by endless hills in 95-degree blazing sun. We are trying to rally to practice our dance for the fireside we headed up about an hour later. Hard to do when you feel like you gave birth earlier that day.

The Stake YM and YW presidencies. This was Day 2. Don't we look fresh? That's when everyone still had clean clothes to put on and our blistered feet only had 15 miles under them. We'd trekked ahead of the companies to meet them halfway along the trail that day. We sang to each ward as they came through, passed out treats, and encouraged them!

The four of us got to speak to the women before the women's pull. What followed was a singular experience. I could write so much about it. I'm told it was the hardest pull out of the previous four treks our stake has done. After breakfast and devotional that morning, we started the day trekking in silence. It was a solemn and powerful feeling. Our ward had the privilege of leading out the companies and the image of 25 handcarts and hundreds of people following us was beautiful.

After about a mile, the bishops got the cue to quietly take the men ahead while the women parked the handcarts and spent some time in this meadow, nestled into the hills. We spoke of the pioneer women--they were amazing because of how they dealt with what they were given. They weren't so different than us. I thought of my 17-year old great great grandmother who crossed the plains without shoes. We bore testimony and spoke of strength and faith and sang together. Then we prayed and started up the long, steep hill. Personally for me, it was humbling. Humbling to feel like it required more of me than I was capable of. It was so hard. The men told us later how somber it was as they hiked the hill with difficulty without handcarts and their concern for us. It was humbling for me to think of the Savior all the way up that hill and the hill He trod for me. Humbling to only be able to pray desperate prayers all the way to the top. Humbling to somehow make it there.

As we neared what we thought was the top, the men had lined the trail with their hats over their hearts and were singing The Spirit of God. They were emotional and we felt strength. We kept going and going. So many stops along the way, but we finally made it to the end. I was amazed (as we were the very first handcart) that as we finally stopped our cart and prayed an emotional prayer of gratitude, that our girls immediately ran back to help those still struggling up the hill. I was beyond exhausted but couldn't help but follow them back to help and encourage too...those girls were amazing. There are so many stories from so many handcarts that day. It was physically and spiritually exhausting. And miraculous. I will never forget it.

I thought the itinerary was perfectly planned by the trek masters: Day 1, hard push, long miles, roll into the first camp. Everyone dropped. Day 2, fun day--shorter trek to the second camp, pioneer games that afternoon and a hoedown that night. Day 3, spiritual day--silent trek, women's pull, solo time, up & down trekking to the third camp, stake fireside, ward testimony meetings. Day 4, head 'em up and move 'em out after trekking 6 or 7 more miles, that is. The best part of this day (aside from seeing those buses waiting to take us HOME) was a surprise frozen juice box treat from the food committee. It was sooo blaring hot and cold & icy never tasted so good.

Here we are at the evening fireside on Day 3, doing the Happy Hands Club dance for everyone during our stake skit (the one we were rallying for earlier.) Summer (Shari, our president with the braids) had just given a speech about how we needed to turn back and she could promise showers and no blisters and no more walking, etc. Then we danced to Backstreet Boys' Larger Than Life. I'll never hear that song without dancing and song-signing again. If you don't know what this is, check out Napolean Dynamite. We looked JUST like those girls.

Stake YM President Pedro telling everyone they should follow their leaders and finish the trek and "all their wildest dreams will come true."

Our Stake Presidency doing the Napolean dance. They were 100% committed. I wish this were on YouTube.

After the skit, we sang a hymn to the setting sun and the mooing cows before the stake president spoke and sent everyone to their ward testimony meetings.

One of our ward handcarts getting ready to lead out the company on women's pull day. The entire stake is pulled up behind them and it is powerfully quiet at this moment.

The l-a-s-t huge hill on the eternal last day--Day 4. We had three companies totaling 390 people and we weren't even halfway there yet, but eventually we finished. The GPS total was 33 long, hard miles. So hard, yet completely amazing. It was a privilege to be part of it.