Obnoxiously Long Post about Trek!

Last week I got the opportunity to go on trek. I was so totally NOT excited about it at all. No showers for a week (and there's guys there!!! I kinda wanted to look decent..), dressing like a pioneer, hiking in 100+ weather, and pushing/pulling a handcart. 

Yeah... sounds fun right? I didn't think so.. not at all.. but my mom was making me go and I had no choice in the matter. I had seriously considered having Tayler(my bro) break my leg or something. Anyways... trek snuck up on me. One day I had a month to prepare and then suddenly I was leaving the next day. I didn't fall asleep Sunday night (the night before trek) until like... 2 a.m. Then I got up at 3:40-ish a.m. to shower and get ready. My mom then drove us to the Stake Center so we could get on the buses and go. When we got there, we were told what "company" (company = 4 or 5 families) we were going to be in so that we could get on the right bus. I was in company 3 and Tayler was in company 5. By now I was getting a little nervous.. and by a little nervous I mean kangaroos were jumping around in my stomach.. not the normal gentle butterflies. It got a lot better once I found out that my amazing friend Rachel Kang was in my company too! Thank goodness I didn't have to sit by some weirdo on the bus for like 5 hours ( no joke.. the bus ride was seriously almost 5 hours long!) Tried to sleep on the bus, but that just didn't work. Even though we had amazingly awesome buses (I think their called charter buses?) I just could sleep. So me and Rachel talked...a lot! :) When we got off the buses we were put into our families, and I was super super nervous about not knowing anyone in my family or not getting along with them. Once I found out I was in Ma and Pa Long's family, I felt like a huge boulder was lifted off my back! I already knew them, and I knew that they are AMAZING, so this  week was gonna be fun, even if I didn't like my brothers or sisters.  

Ma (in the pigtails), Pa (white shirt), and my brother Hayden Brewer (blue shirt)

 I was in Blue Company, and our family color was (is?) red. My family all got red bandanna's which turned out to be a life saver. The day started off great, the clouds were keeping us cool, and the temperature was in like the 70's or 80's which was way better compared to the 108 degree weather that morning before we had arrived.

Hayden and Adam Heyen

But as soon as we stopped for lunch and some activities, the clouds disappeared and the temperature went WAY up. They told us later that day that it had gotten up to 112!! After lunch we started trekking again, and boy was it tough. We just got hill after hill, and two of the guys (Jacob and Adam) got heat exhaustion so they had to stop, and the rest of my family had to continue without them. The Wagon Pull was the last hill of the day. Luckily it was a Company effort, not just a family effort. What happened was everybody but two people in your family (so there's two people per wagon) would walk up the hill and grab hold of the rope up on top. Everybody would pull on the rope (which was attached to the wagon) to help pull it up. Kinda reminded me of "tug-of- war"The two people that stayed with the wagon steer the wagon so that it doesn't go off the trail. 

See that steep hill in the background? That's the Wagon Pull hill..
Yeah we went up that...in 112 degree weather.

First Camp set-up of trek! For dinner I think we got sloppy joes and watermelon :)

Family hike :) There was super cool lighting storm that night! I wish I had gotten pictures but it
was seriously breath-taking. 

 Day 2: On this day, we got up bright and early and ate breakfast, took all our tarps and tent down, and did all our trekking in the morning. This way, we weren't trekking at 2 or 3 which is when it's hottest. There were a lot less heat exhaustion and dehydration problems. When we got to camp, we did a lot of activities such as water fights, stilts, pellet guns, learning to lasso a "cow", throwing tomahawks, making rope, and making rag-dolls. It was a ton of fun! :) This was the day where we had like 20 people under our tarp, just hanging out :) It was a lot of fun! We had gotten harmonica's the first day and I heard someone, I think it was CassiDee Clement playing Love Me Do by the Beatles on her harmonica! My mind was totally blown :) There was also a dance that night, but I didn't dance 'cause I didn't feel very good :( Totally wish I had danced anyways though. Didn't get any pictures of Day 2 :(

Day 3: Did all our trekking in the morning again, which was very nice. When we got to camp, we set up our tarps for shade and then we all just hung out and relaxed. Family bonding :) Today was the day we got to wash our hair too! Oh my gosh it felt soooo good!! I don't think I had ever appreciated clean hair as much as I do now. All the guys wanted their hair washed too and I think we were all appreciative, we all smelled much better ;)

Ma and my brother Caleb Stewart :)

Crop Circles! Definitely a topic that came up a lot in our converstions... haha :)

My sisters! (Left to right) Annalise Child, Izzy Troccoli, and Aurora  Jensen
Izzy is making a hemp bracelet and I think Aurora had just gotten her bandanna wet to keep cool. (like i said, Bandannas were totally life savers! They kept us cool all week :) )

Jacob Perry (in the white) and Adam Heyen (red plaid)

Brian Enriqez

Spray Bottles were also life savers :) 

Caleb Stewart

Company captain Brother Nelson! Totally the cool guy :)
and Adam Heyen again :)

Adam's shoes totally failed him the first day :( The soles just kinda slipped off so he had to duct tap
them back together!

I got to be in Trek Choir! I am on the very end in the purple shirt with the
red bandanna and the rainbow plaid skirt :)

Trek Choir again :) Here I am again in my pioneer garb :)

 Day 4: Final day of trekking! We were all excited about camping in Zion that night :) What we didn't expect was for it to be so hard getting there. It was supposed to be an easy day that day but it turned out to be one of the hardest. In the morning after we were all packed and ready to go, we had a devotional, as a stake. Trek Choir sang and our Stake President talked to us. Definitely felt the spirit. They gave us lot's of choices, we could take the easy route to Zion or go the hard way (the "Rocky Ridge") and we also got to choose whether we wanted to do the Women's Pull or not. Well my family, being the amazing people we are, chose to do the Rocky Ridge, and the Women's Pull. 

Adam being Rocky Balboa :) Izzy getting hyped up for the Women's Pull and
Annalise i think is putting on sunscreen :)

Annalise, Pa, and Jacob

My brothers all talked me and my sisters into doing the women's pull. I think they wanted us to respect all the hard work they had been doing all week. The young men all helped us bring some of the handcarts down a hill and then went back up to camp for a devotional. The women in my family teamed up with the women from Rachel's family and then Ma McLaughlin helped us too. Before we started the young women then had a devotional about the importance of the priesthood and the men. It was a really good devotional but I didn't really take it too seriously until we started up the hill with our handcart. I was in the front pulling the handcart with a bunch of other girls and I could tell, after about 1 minute, that this was going to be tough. Whenever we started to slow down I would yell something about a hot guy like Channing Tatum and all the sudden we would all get a burst of energy and start going faster. I'm not even joking :) When we got close to the top you could see all the young men up at the top waiting for us and they were singing! When we got to a certain point, all my brothers ran down the hill to help us to the top, tear jerker moment for sure. It was seriously amazing how much faster we went with the guys helping!! Jacob (my bro for the week) told me how the leaders told them that they couldn't help until we reached the fence post on the hill. He said that all the guys wanted to help so bad, but they couldn't.. and i was touched. This definitely strengthened my testimony about the priesthood, and the guys. 

This post is getting way to long so i'm cutting it short now... :) 

CassiDee Clement, Izzy, Annalise, Rachel Kang, Me and Rachel's sister
I think this is right before the women's pull :)

After the women's pull we started the trekking the Rocky Ridge. This was supposed to be hard but it totally wasn't. This day was turning out to be easy until we got to this steep down-hill part. We had to wait for the handcarts in front of us to be all the way down before we could start down. My company was in the back so we were ontop of that hill for almost an hour. We sang and had fun though. After we made it down the hill the hard part came. Our company starting running out of water, big time. This was not something that anyone had planned on happening. We still had a mile or so to Zion. The trail was super bumpy and covered in super soft sand stuff that made it hard to push through. Plus it was super super HOT, because it was like 1 or 2 in the afternoon. Long story short we barely made it to Zion, and it was scary seeing how exhausted our company was. 

But we made it to Zion, which was seriously amazing and beautiful! There were trees, and grass, and SPRINKLERS!!! Yup that's right, we got sprinklers in Zion. As soon as we parked our handcart, our shoes were off, and me and Rachel ran for the sprinklers! Talk about a major boost of energy :) I will never hate on sprinklers ever again.

My sisters and my Ma and I walking into Zion :)

There was another dance, and I actually danced at this one! It was lot's of fun! I got asked to dance by my brother Adam :) He's hilarious and totally one of my favorite brothers :) I also danced with Ammon (can't remember his last name :( ), and Dillon Long, and Preston Harris.

Me, Izzy and Annalise with Adam in the back 

ZION!!

more Zion 

Isn't it beautiful?? I totally thought i was dreaming for the first hour i was here.

Which do you prefer: handcart or van?? lol
Ma packing up :)

Ma and daughter picture :)

with Caleb!

Annalise, Pa, Izzy, Me with Adam in the back 

Aurora, Izzy, Annalise and me.. again :)

Brother's and Ma
(Hayden, Brian, Ma, Caleb, Adam and Jacob in the back)

Brother's and Pa + Stake President Richards

Pa + Daughter's picture :)

All together 

At Girls Camp, when your a fourth year, you get a sweatshirt and a camp name. I was gonna be a fourth year at camp this year but since we're having trek instead of Girls Camp, our camp director, Sister Wynkoop, promised us that she would give us our sweatshirt and name on trek. I love Sister Wynkoop !! :) Before camp (or in my case trek) my parents got a form to fill out asking things about me, and then Sister Wynkoop uses that info to give us a trek name. Part of mine said "Emma admires the bravery of Esther and strives to set the same kind of example for those around her. Emma is faithful- she understands that answers may not come quickly, but our Father in Heaven will provide them. Because of her courage and faithfulness Emma is a wonderful example to all youth and adults of how to live a life close to God. Emma's camp name is Hebrew for follower of God. Her name is Isabeau." 

puttin' on my sweatshirt

Trek was an amazing experience and I loved almost every minute of it ;). I developed an amazing and strong relationship with the members of my trek family and I love every one of them! I also definitely appreciate the day and age we live in more than I ever have before. I think I would totally go on trek again as a Ma! :)

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