There's No Place Like Home!!

This is exactly why I never had a journal....I'm terrible at keeping up with it. The kids were all over for dinner the other night and I overheard them bashing me cuz I'm bad at updating my blog. BRATS!!!! I'm not going to tell them I've updated it....I'll just wait to see how long it takes them to realize it.

In my defense...it has been an extremely busy month. Alex and I were in charge of the 4th year girls for girls camp this summer. That was June 20th - 24th. We camped at a KOA in Flagstaff, my kind of camping with showers and flushing toilets nearby..hiked into Fossil Springs and then ended up at Camp LoMia in Pine. It was a good trip and we did have a lot of fun.

We then had a Scout Conference in Cimarron New Mexico June 28th - July 4th. We left on the 27th and made the 10 hour drive with an overnight stop in Gallup. The conference was great...the weather was awesome....and once again....we camped. Showers and flushing toilets once again...tho not quite as close as they were at the KOA. We got back home on the 5th of July and immediately resumed our preparations for our Stake Pioneer Trek coming up on the 16th. Before we knew it the 16th was here and we were headed to Heber...wearing our Pioneer garb...i.e...bonnets....skirts...aprons....suspenders...and hats.

Alex was the trail boss and I was one of the photographers. Stormy went as well as videographer. There were approximately 78 youth that attended. They were all dressed in Pioneer era clothing and were only allowed 17lbs of gear per person. They were divided into "Families", and each family pulled all of their own gear in a handcart. They walked 15 1/2 miles the first day , 3 1/2 miles the second day where they then set up camp and stayed for two days until walking the final 2 miles to the end where they were met by their 'real' families. It was really an awesome experience. At one point the boys and men were all called away to battle and the women and girls were left to pull the handcarts on their own. THey had a brutal hill to climb and it was a very spiritual and awesome experience to watch. I was so overcome by emotion that it was difficult to take photos.

Day Two...each family had a baby (made from a flour sack)...they carried it the first day and it was part of their family. During the night the babies all died and the burials were held the next morning. Once again a very emotional event to photograph...but what an awesome experience for everyone.

Seth and Tara were on the Trek as well. They were a big brother and big sister in one of the familys. It was so fun to have them there and be able to see them each day and visit with them. It was hard for me the first day knowing they had to walk so far pulling a handcart and have no food while doing it. I was so tempted to sneak food to them, so very tempted!Are'nt we just the cutest little pioneer family you've ever seen? I thought so. Did I mention that nowhere did this Trek include showers and flushing toilets? Nope!!! No showers for 4 days....and Port-A-Pottys. Ick!!! Be it ever so humble there's no place like home ;)

Well now the pressure is really on. Stormy leaves on WEdnesday for Ecuador (I'm going to miss her like crazy) and she has to have the video of the Pioneer Trek put together by Tuesday night. It's a huge job but I'm so excited about it because she's so amazing at it. I'm so glad she went on the Trek with us. I had such a good time with her. We laughed constantly. The other photographer was a lady from my ward, Sharilyn. I'm sure she'll never be the same after that experience. She was such a nice sweet person and i'm afraid Stormy and I corrupted her. But we had a lot of fun doing it! The three of us were driven around by our own personal chauffer for the duration of the Trek. WE had to be in several places so he was assigned to get us where we needed to go. We instantly nick-named him Jeffrey...sounds like a good name for a chauffer right? We thought so. He was a ton of fun and took such good care of us.

Jeffrey waiting for us at a Potty stop.....What a guy!!!