Me and the girls!
I'm glad I didn't have to walk through the poo water! Thanks Hon!
I'm glad I didn't have to walk through the poo water! Thanks Hon!
Yeah! We're tough. 
So I'ts been a few months. I've had a lot going on I guess...and I tend to distract easily...te he! Dustin had Scout Camp, then We had a fun time on the Handcart Trek. After that it was swim lessons for 3 weeks, etc. etc. You know how it is... Life gets nuts sometimes, but I thought I would post about the Trek because over the last few months, that by far has been the coolest!
I survived and it was an amazing experience! Dustin and I were a Ma and Pa to 9 youth. It was very well organized! Every detail was planned and done very well. I am in awe of those who are so detail oriented. There were many really cool moments, but the women's pull was by far my fav. I think that's the one thing that touched the kids the most.
So we had many reenactments from Indians dressed in full costume w/ guns who wouldn't let us go further so they took our brownies, to a woman digging a shallow grave on the side of the road with a spoon to bury her twins. So we got to this one point where militia men in full uniform came to recruit the men into the mormon batallion. They went on ahead and were spoken to by the Stake President about respect for women and children, and then we were left behind w/ Laura our Stake YW president who spoke to us about the strength of women especially if we use it collectively. The girls knew it would be hard so they started giving it their all from the beginning. I think they used up alot of their energy in the beginning so when we got to the hill it just seemed impossible. (Dustin told me later that as the men hiked that hill ahead of us they were asking if this was the hill we were pulling because it was tough for them w/o a handcart)I knew what was happening, but the girls didn't. When we got to the middle of the first hill the boys were standing single file up the side watching in silence. That about killed me even though I knew they would be there. I couldn't look at them because grown men including my husband were in tears. It was dang hard.(I depend on my husband far too much for the physical stuff) One of the YM from our ward (he has a single mom) had to be held back by the stake president cause he got mad that he couldn't help. About the middle of the second hill our cart just wouldn't move. I was shouting orders to the girls to push, and then we got stuck in a rut. I could feel my body overheating so I was getting scared. If I went down the cart would have taken the girls behind me out. The rock of a yw in the yoke with me shouted "Sister Townsend you can do it." Some girls behind us left their cart and helped and then they had "angels" men dressed in white robes who came out of the trees ahead to help us. The coolest part though was that when we got to the top, I was toast. I knew physically I couldn't go back down because I was overheating but there were some of our girls who ran down that hill 9 times to get the others up. The one girl that was helping me pull was one of them. She was awesome! There were others as well. One of which just lost her father to skin cancer suddenly this past year. It was so cool to watch those girls sacrifice for each other over and over.(Very symbolic of what we need to do for each other spiritually sometimes I think) After it was over and all three companies had finished we found out that there were 7 girls that went down from heat exaustion, and one that got her foot run over by the wheel of a cart and had to go to the hospital. Anyway! It was way cool! I hope the kids remember it. I know I will.
I survived and it was an amazing experience! Dustin and I were a Ma and Pa to 9 youth. It was very well organized! Every detail was planned and done very well. I am in awe of those who are so detail oriented. There were many really cool moments, but the women's pull was by far my fav. I think that's the one thing that touched the kids the most.
So we had many reenactments from Indians dressed in full costume w/ guns who wouldn't let us go further so they took our brownies, to a woman digging a shallow grave on the side of the road with a spoon to bury her twins. So we got to this one point where militia men in full uniform came to recruit the men into the mormon batallion. They went on ahead and were spoken to by the Stake President about respect for women and children, and then we were left behind w/ Laura our Stake YW president who spoke to us about the strength of women especially if we use it collectively. The girls knew it would be hard so they started giving it their all from the beginning. I think they used up alot of their energy in the beginning so when we got to the hill it just seemed impossible. (Dustin told me later that as the men hiked that hill ahead of us they were asking if this was the hill we were pulling because it was tough for them w/o a handcart)I knew what was happening, but the girls didn't. When we got to the middle of the first hill the boys were standing single file up the side watching in silence. That about killed me even though I knew they would be there. I couldn't look at them because grown men including my husband were in tears. It was dang hard.(I depend on my husband far too much for the physical stuff) One of the YM from our ward (he has a single mom) had to be held back by the stake president cause he got mad that he couldn't help. About the middle of the second hill our cart just wouldn't move. I was shouting orders to the girls to push, and then we got stuck in a rut. I could feel my body overheating so I was getting scared. If I went down the cart would have taken the girls behind me out. The rock of a yw in the yoke with me shouted "Sister Townsend you can do it." Some girls behind us left their cart and helped and then they had "angels" men dressed in white robes who came out of the trees ahead to help us. The coolest part though was that when we got to the top, I was toast. I knew physically I couldn't go back down because I was overheating but there were some of our girls who ran down that hill 9 times to get the others up. The one girl that was helping me pull was one of them. She was awesome! There were others as well. One of which just lost her father to skin cancer suddenly this past year. It was so cool to watch those girls sacrifice for each other over and over.(Very symbolic of what we need to do for each other spiritually sometimes I think) After it was over and all three companies had finished we found out that there were 7 girls that went down from heat exaustion, and one that got her foot run over by the wheel of a cart and had to go to the hospital. Anyway! It was way cool! I hope the kids remember it. I know I will.
wow! That sounds amazing and so intense. I would love to be able to do something like that with my own children one day just to experience a portion of what it was like. Good for you. How neat!
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