Trek

Bryce and I had the most amazing experiences on Trek. We had wonderful "children" that we were in charge of. We were an Aunt and Uncle to 20 kids-2 families. And, Bryce was a Captain over 40, or 4 families. Everything went really well. We came home physically and emotionally exhausted, but it was worth it!

Our first stop at a rest area in Lyman Wyoming, still looking fresh!

Day 1- We started at the Willie Center. Everyone was so excited to get going!

We went 4 miles and had 5 river crossings. It was so hot that they were refreshing.
We had to keep remembering that the pioneers in the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies did this in freezing temps with little or no food and sparse clothing.
It was humbling.

Beautiful Sunset

Day 2- Rocky Ridge- This is the actual Rocky Ridge

The whole trail was 15 miles, but this part was the hardest. I can only say that there had to have been angels pushing and pulling with those pioneers. There was a blizzard blowing and 12-18 inches of snow on the ground for them. Again, very humbling....

Our fearless leader! He got to give an impromptu speech at the marker for Rocky Ridge.
He did a great job!

There were quite a few mud bogs to cross! Bryce dug in and helped!

This cute boy helped his family and then a bunch more get across so not everyone had to get muddy. He was so happy and cheerful all the time!

Day 3- Martin's Cove

The actual cove was nothing like I expected. This is part of it. This is where the Martin Company hunkered down to wait out the storm. This was before they met the large rescue party, so there were quite a few deaths. They estimate around 56 people died here.

This is a few from farther out. The spirit was very strong in all of these places.

They have a few statues in honor of the rescuers that came and helped the companies across the Sweetwater. They truly saved many lives by carrying many across.

The Women's Pull. This is where only the girls are allowed to pull the handcart. It was a very sandy hill and very difficult. We had one of our families that only had 4 girls and one was sick so she had to be pulled. The one in front couldn't do it alone so halfway up a girl from another family jumped ahead and helped finish.
It was so hard to watch them struggle and not be able to help!

Near the end of Day 3. We don't look too bad I guess for all we had been through!

Family 1

Family 2

We are so grateful for all the experiences we were able to share with these amazing youth!

Summertime and the Living is Easy!!

We have been having a Blast this summer! Time is passing too quickly however! I thought I would show a bit of the fun things we have been doing!

McKay got his Wolf!

Bryce's Summer Work Party was at Park City Mountain Resort. We had so much fun riding the Alpine Slide, Alpine Coaster, the Ski Lift to the top, the zipline, and doing tricks on the tramp!

Alyssa

McKay

Libby

Libby's Dance Recital

Our good friends the Binghams were in town from Arkansas and wanted to hike the Y. We haven't seen them in 4 years, so I agreed! I had never done it and didn't realize how steep it was. I ended up carrying Libby on my back for about 1 mile with about a 1000 ft. elevation gain! Needless to say I was sweating buckets by the time we made it to the top! I still can't believe I agreed to hike to the Y, but I had to let my true colors show with my finger U!! (Go Utes!)

We made it! My boys were SO excited to be sitting on the Y! They are such BYU fans, it isn't even funny!

This is all of us, minus husbands! Mine was at work and Scott was taking the picture! We met in a BYU ward before either of us had any kids! Crazy we now have 10 between us! There is an extra nephew in there somewhere! It is so great to have good friends that you can pick right back up with even with a 4 year span between visits!

Libby learned to ride a two wheeler! We don't do training wheels, so the stick is for us to help her steer and balance. She got it within about 20 minutes! She was so cute- she giggled and giggled all around the park!

Alyssa, McKay and Ty were in American Fork's Children's Choir Camp and got to walk and perform in the Steel Days Parade!

We have been enjoying the boat!

McKay Waterskiing!
Allison Wakeboarding!
Bryce Wakeboarding!
McKay got his Advanced Orange Belt in Karate!
Check out that kick!
Hopefully there are more good times to come in the last month of Summer!!!

Lake Powell

I just realized I never posted about Lake Powell. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures!

Kids Enjoying the Sand and Water!

We took a drive up Moki Canyon

Moqui Steps- If you look closely you can see steps carved into the rock!

I loved this floating restroom! It was the weirdest feeling rocking while using it though!
McKay waterskiing!!

Poor Bryce spent hours in the boat driving everyone while they had fun! Luckily his brother Blake let him have a break occasionally!

The water was rising 1 foot a day! We had to move our tent after the 2nd night! I'm standing where it was right before we moved it.

Alyssa is representing where our tent was- this was the day after we moved it!

This was the morning we left!
Good thing we left when we did or we would have had to move it again!
The kids in the water are marking where our shoreline was each night!
Bryson is by the 1st night, Audrey by the 2nd night, and Alyssa the 3rd night and then you can see the shoreline for the 4th.
We had a HUGE windstorm pick up the last night. Sand was EVERYWHERE! It was hard to sleep with it grinding in your teeth!

It was such a fun trip! We all had a blast!