Day one of the Apen Stake 2008 Trek
Our families met at the Stake Center in Orem and drove down to Mosida Lodge (near the church's farm land south of Utah Lake). Our Family was in the Davis Company, so we were assigned to be last on the trail. While we waited we taught our family the "Dip" Game - just a little ice breaker. We had 8 children in our Family: Brenton Henrie, Dennison Conger, Braydon Pack, Ale Cano, Josh Van Dyke, Hilary Lay, & Brittani Robinson
That morning it was raining and it was cold. We started pulling our handcarts on the Muddy Trail - slipping and sliding every which way.
When we stopped for lunch that day - they gave us a roll & beef jerky. The kids thought they were going to die!
About a mile down the road - they gave us real lunch.. PB&J Sandwiches, fruit, cookies... YUM! The kids got the song "Pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked and walked!" in their head and sang it over and over as we walked and walked. Then the trail boss came by and explained that some of the pioneers had such severe ilnesses, that it made them go blind. He then selected a few members of each family to walk blindly through the remainder of that day.
That night - we pulled into camp and had a devotional and served dinner. We ate like royalty on this trip. That first night we had pulled pork, mashed potatoes, apples, oranges & sting beans. Mitch loved the oranges so much that he bet one of our sons (Dennison) that if he could do a 3 push ups over the jump-rope, he would give him his orange. Dennison not only did 3 - he did about 6! Mitch tried and fell flat on his face!! We played stick pull, don't hit the bucket, leg wrestling, arm wrestling and whatever else the kids could come up with. We had a blast!
Each person was to bring the name of an ancestor and their story. They had a rock engraved with that ancestor's name and each night at family devotional - we shared our stories. Mitch's Ancestor was Irvine Rencher (his dad) and Haley's ancestor was Hosea Stout - one of the pioneers that crossed the plains.
Day 2
After a sleepless night (because it was FREEZING!! and Haley was sick (not only physically, but mentally since Mitch was sleeping out in the open), we woke up and packed up camp. Mitch told all the boys that they needed to be the first ones with our stuff packed up so that we could go help the stake leaders get their things packed up. The stake leaders were so surprised and grateful. Mitch was an AWESOME pa!! We were scheduled to be first on the trail today, so we were very excited. Once breakfast was served, we headed out on the trail... We had no idea what was in store for us. We started the day out in the mud...
Mitch played the "Thimble" Game with the kids, where they had to guess what he was thinking in a certain category and if they repeated anyone else's answer, they got a squirt of water in the face. They loved it because it was a little warmer today. We walked for about 3 miles and the "Angels" came to deliver a baby to each Family. The Ma's had to be carried in the hand cart. They later told us that the hand-carts often broke down, so they made us carry the entire handcart for about 200 yards.
We stopped for lunch and they made us wait for about 2 hours while the trail boss decided if we could actually make it through the mile of mud we had up ahead... The kids got really tired of waiting and voted to get moving... Bring on the mud!
We went through one entire mile of this muddy river... It was gross!! But surprisingly, it was the favorite part of trek for most of the kids. That night we pulled into camp exhausted. They tried to get us to play games, but everyone was just beat. We had dinner and they split us into families to have testimony meetings around some camp fires. We talked about what they had felt during this trek and if they were glad they came. All of them were extremely glad they came. It was the hardes thing most of them had been through physically, but they had learned a lot. It was a really good experience for everyone that went.
Day 3
That night was absolutely miserable. We had set out our stuff to dry from the muddy river we just went through and it ended up pouring rain all night long and the wind was blowing like crazy. Haley kept getting up to make sure Mitch was still alive all through the night. It was so cold. In the morning, because of the rain, we were 2 or 3 hours late getting started on the trail. They had the women's pull first then they had a silent pull. During this pull they came through the company and said took away a few people from each family and said they had died. They let them to another place while we pulled our handcarts. At the end of the trail, we had to cross a small river. After the river, we were greeted by our family members who had "died" on the trail. They had white hanky's and waved us into Zion.
Haley is also working down-town and she enjoys reading, Grey's Anatomy, and Running in the Race for the Rabbid.