Pioneer Trek 2017

About seven years ago in 2010, four of our older boys went on pioneer trek with our stake: Jan, Garrett, Lincoln, and Everett. The weather was quite challenging for them and things didn't work out quite as planned but it was still good. Because the trek is expensive and involves tons of planning, they didn't do it again until this year. This time my next three children went: Susanna, Talmage, and Mindy.

We got them all ready to go with appropriate pioneer clothing and buckets with the right gear. They were assigned to trek families and were excited to go! They all had a good experience--the weather was good--and they gained a greater appreciation of our pioneer forebears and how much they sacrificed to come across the plains.

Almost 400 youth went and almost 100 adults went with them. Scott and I were disappointed that we didn't get picked to go but as we realized what our summer plans were (two weddings and a big trip), we realized that there was no possible way we could have done it. As it was, our bishop and his wife brought our children home a few hours early so that we could leave to go to Garrett's wedding in Boise which was the following day.

Sadly, all my pictures but one are of Talmage and Mindy since their trek parents took a lot of pictures and shared them with us but Susanna's didn't. (Maybe they had a summer a little like ours.) But she still had a great experience even if I don't have any pictures to document it!

Talmage with his trek family. His ma and pa were the Van Wagenens.

Dropping them off at the church

Talmage with his trek family

Talmage sang in a quartet for part of one of the programs. Susanna had a speaking part.

The last night was a little chilly.

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