Ward Family Trek

Yes, that's correct: Ward Family Trek.  About a year ago Jeff Dunford, who was our bishop at the time, had come up with this idea for the Kaysville 2nd Ward after going on a Stake Youth Trek.  Everybody loved the idea of our whole ward going on Trek but the difference was that we would be taking our own families, babies and all. This was a different experience for sure with ages ranging from 4 months old to 76!  We had a total of 187 people that came.  This felt like a true pioneer experience which we will never forget.  It took place August 3rd-6th. We actually didn't even know if we would be going for sure since we knew that Grandma Cottrell was drifting away a little more each day and we may have needed to go to California for her funeral instead.  We were happy to have had the chance to experience this with the entire family (almost-Clayton was still working at Aspen Ridge scout camp) which I felt brought us closer together and helped us all appreciate what the pioneers sacrificed on our behalf.  The photo above is our "family" which consisted of the Peels, Porters, Osbergs and the Walls.  We came up with a "chant" that was kinda funny, along the lines of boom chicka boom: "P.P.O.W."

 The first day of trekking we had to cross this mud stream-pretty sure everyone got muddy that day.  That's Eli in the foreground on the right and I'm on the front of the handcart on the left.

 Our trek was located at Deseret Land and Livestock just outside of Evanston, Wyoming.  The dust was at a minimum since there was a huge rain storm the night before we arrived.  The overall weather was perfect: 70s in the daytime and 50s at night-we were truly blessed.

 

 The air seemed so clean and the skies were so bright and clear. 

Here we are taking a much anticipated lunch break.  I think I may have even caught a power nap here.  One thing everyone worried about is how to entertain all of these kids for 4 days.  I was amazed to see that they didn't even complain of boredom or even walking so much.  The second day Kate walked for just under 10 miles!  She was tired of course, as were the rest of us but she didn't complain about it at all.  It was satisfying to do something like this that was hard and know that you CAN do it!  There was another day where the women and girls were given the option of doing the "women's pull" or not.  This is where there was a LONG steep hill where the women and girls had to push the handcarts to the top.  It was close to a mile long and it was hard!  Hard to watch all of these women suffer and hard for all of the men and boys to let them do it alone.  This activity is done to simulate the men and boys being called to the Mormon Batallion back in the day.  It was cool to see some of the women who made it to the top (Heather and some others), run back to help those who were struggling-truly unforgettable.  It was a testimony builder for all who were present that day. 

I brought my cell phone with me so that I could get a call, if necessary, from Mom if there was any news about Grandma.  On the 2nd day when we took a break for lunch, I checked my phone and noticed that Mom had called.  I called her back and through her tears she told me that Grandma had passed away peacefully that morming.  It was indeed very sad but we had a good conversation about how happy she must be now that she's reunited with Grandpa and free from pain. There was a special spirit about trek for our family because of Grandma's passing.  We couldn't help but think of what a woderful person she was and how worthy she was to be in Heavenly Father's presence again and back with Grandpa.

 I'm so glad that our ward was able to have this experience-I will always remember it.  Rumor has it that we will do it again in about 5 years...I'm looking forward to it. 

Where to start?

Wow.  It's been a while since I've posted anything so it's time to get caught up somewhat.  It's hard to know where to start.  Looks like we ended up talking about the "end of the year" program for Kate.  Well, a few months have past and school starts up again in 8 days!  Here's a wrap from the summer:

We own chickens!  Yep, I came home from a late meeting at church one Sunday and Heather and Clayton said "we're going to get chickens!"  Ever since H's mom got 6 of them, I could see that we were probably destined to get them too.  Well, we ended up with 4 which is plenty.  What you see next is the coop that we found online for a good deal.  I liked it a lot in that it was already built-BONUS!  So, on Memorial Day we loaded up the car with a flat bed trailer, headed down to American Fork and picked up the coop.  While passing through Salt Lake we stopped at the local IFA and picked up 4 buff orpington chicks.  They were cute little gals as you can see.

Of course we couldn't stop with just the coop like this.  Heather went to backyard chickens.com and got in her mind how she wanted this coop to look.  Eh voila!  Grandpa Will came into town and we already had a project lined up for him to help us with:  finishing the coop as you see below.

Yeah, that's Harley in there with the chickens.  He's a lover not a hater.  He kinda follows the chickens around like a sheep dog-following along beside them when they're cruising the yard and laying down by them when it's time to take a break.  It's pretty funny how much he likes them.  

Next we're on to our Priest Camp in Capitol Reef.  This was a bittersweet trip because both Matt (Priest Advisor) and I knew that we were being released from our callings within a few weeks and that this was our last hurrah with the gang.  We had a great time.  Here's a few pix to show what we did.

 We happened to be camping close by to a girls camp and we actually got "toilet papered" one morning.  

 Getting ready to go on a day hike

This was not a hike for the weak.  It was about 14 miles and it was about 103 degrees with not a lot of shade until we reached the slot canyons.  When we got back to the cars we enjoyed ice cold watermelon!    It was a good day.

Next we're on to the Lake Powell trip with the Bruses, Barnes and the Warrs.  We had a great time as usual.  Here's a few pix of the happenings there.

 The kids became artists and made this cool shell sculpture

Chloe had a talent for finding and catching little critters 

All of the kids making friendship bracelets

Mom and Dad invited Chloe to come stay with them in California.  Chloe still can't stop talking about how much fun she had there with them.

Next we visit Clayton's camp where he was working for the summer-Aspen Ridge in Idaho.  Eli was able to go for a couple of weeks to work on staff as well...with no pay, since he's only 14 (you get paid when you're 15).  Eli had some great experiences in that short time he was there and he was grateful he could go.  This is the trip where we were picking Eli up to bring him home after the 2 weeks were up.

 Here's the view that all of the campers get

 Hanging out around the campfire

Me and the girls

 This video clip is funny.  There was a water runoff area where there was a bathtub catching the water.  It was a dare for each scout to stay under the running water for 1 minute.  Here's Kate doing about 10 seconds which is about all any of us could do.

Kate fishing at dusk.

A few weeks later Chloe went to "Retreat For Girls" in Logan and had the time of her life.  She went with her two cousins Emma and Casey.  I should have Chloe writing about everything that they did but she tells me they had super fun activities, great speakers and had a ton of fun making new friends and having fun. 

 So, the night that Chloe's retreat was over, we decided to pick her up and head up to the cabin for a few days.  It was a fun trip with a big twist that I'll share below.

 Here the kids are painting wood dolls.  This was a hit and it kept them busy for hours.

 I decided to paint Harley for my wood doll.

 We had a talent night and the girls did a Harry Potter skit

 Kate did a magic show

 Fishing time

Ok, so here's the crazy part of the whole trip to Island Park this year.  Josh and I decided to take Sam and Liam fishing one day down at our favorite spot-Coffee Pot.  While we were heading from the parking lot to go to the fishing spot, Josh needed to hike up the mountain to take care of business.  He came down a few minutes later and said "dude,...come here I need to talk to you." He was talking a little strange and I went over to him.  He then went on to say "there's a dead guy up on that hill".  Of course I didn't believe him for a second because,...it's Josh who's saying this.  I decided to follow him and could tell the further we went, the more I was believing him.  He showed me where he was and as we came up to it, he was right.  Dead guy, right there.  We were both in shock and didn't know quite what to do.  We took a quick survey of the area and went and reported it to the county sheriff.  We basically spent the rest of the day with the sheriff, coroners & detectives filling out reports, etc.  It was CRAZY!  Turns out it was a missing man from Rexburg who had gone canoeing and camping by himself.  The story became even more sad when we found out he was a member of a bishopric and has 2 boys out on missions.  It was incredible that Josh had found him there in the middle of Island Park where search and rescue teams had been searching for 2 solid weeks prior.  It was quite the experience that hopefully never gets repeated.