There's a reason I haven't been blogging. Last October, I had a feeling the we might get called to be Ma and Pa on the upcoming Trek, and sure enough we got called! I was excited at first and then REALLY nervous. My back goes out A LOT, and my feet always have trouble, so I was worried.
And, would I be spiritual enough, strong enough, etc. Well, I got my feet all figured out with the Foot Dr. and when I started walking to prepare, my back improved like crazy! Blessings!!! Lots of blessings getting ready with times of peace and time to get ready and practice meals, and finances allowing us to get what we needed. Here's the pictures:
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| First Morning - Sunrise (it's bright!) Right after an awesome breakfast they fed us. |
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| Just starting out with the handcarts - notice our cool "Zion or Bust" sign on the back! Erin made it for us at school so we could put it on our cart - ended up being VERY handy to find it again, as ALL the carts looked the same. (With Audrey and Kyle) |
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| Pulling the cart - Travis, Kyle, Madelyne, Steven, Taylor, Jeffrey |
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| LOVE this picture - that's me in the back; they didn't want the Ma and Pa helping much, so I walked, and walked, and walked....... |
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| The Women's Pull - a really hard hill where the men and boys were not allowed to help us. I only had 2 1/2 (one medical and had to drop out half way) girls with me, so a couple Stake Women jumped in to help us. |
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| Kyle was there for his second time, so he got called on a "mission" and taken from our family - we missed him! It was his second mission call in a week since his real call came the week before - to AFRICA!!! |
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| Camp the first night under the stars - which was actually really great except the ground is really hard/ rocky. I actually was really warm hunkered down in there and loved listening to the wind because I wasn't cold. |
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| Erin's family was in our company and happened to be camped right next to us and she was on the edge, so we were sleeping 4 feet from each other. |
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| Ethan greeting the morning :) |
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| Our camp for the second and third nights - not easy to set up, but it did withstand the windy day!!! |
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| Erin kept finding us :) I think we were making dinner while the kids were doing activities. |
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| Ethan at his family tent. |
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| Pioneer Lafe aka Pa Carroll |
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| Pioneer LeAnn aka Ma Carroll |
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| Ethan found us - didn't see him as often |
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| Our whole ward - we had a meeting where we got to be together as a ward on our "Sabbath" - so fun to see all of them. |
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| Kind of fuzzy, but these are all the tents - 35 families out there plus 2 missionary camps. |
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| The Ma's and Pa's from our ward - Stubbarts, Warners, us, Herrings |
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| Snake someone found at our "Sacrament Mtg" - fast little guy! |
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| Our whole family!!! Our family changed over and over because we had a couple medical kids and one that joined us late. L-R: Ebony, Audrey, Travis, Steven, Lafe, Nick, Taylor, Jeffrey, Kendon, Me, Madalyne, McKenna |
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| Silly kids! |
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| Ethan trekking |
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| At the end there was one last long hill and this is what greeted us at the top! Brought tears and our two kids that had to leave us joined us again to we could all be together as a Trek Family. |
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| Our real family at the Temple |
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| The engraved EVERYBODIES names in their families on the Temple - so wonderful! |
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What greeted us when we got home!!!!!! They're wearing the shirts they made and they made us run through the sign. Jamie did an incredible job watching the kids during the day.
Such an INCREDIBLE experience!!! So glad we were able to be involved. |
