I am going out of order on my blog which I never do because of my OCD, but I have to write about trek while it is fresh and I am on a spiritual high! I have to start back in March when the bishopric called Keith and I in to ask if we would be able and willing to go on trek. A month or so before that I got a bee in my bonnet and decided Keith and I should take a vacation together, which we never do. I was looking into different options for trips and people to watch the kids. Right before they asked us to go on trek I had given up on the trip because nothing was coming together. While we were sitting in the bishops office a peace came over me and I knew this was our trip and because I had been considering the trip I felt prepared to leave the kids, which is one of our biggest obstacles. I knew we were supposed to go. They told us to take some time and think about it. We came home and prayed together and we both knew this is something we were supposed to do. I called my parents and they both readily agreed to keep the kids. I was surprisingly excited for this opportunity. I have never been on trek and I have never wanted to. I hate camping, I hate dirt, I hate being hot and I hate bugs, but for some reason I was excited. I told Keith to remind me about that excitement and peace I felt later because I knew I would question it. I questioned it a lot! Getting ready for trek was a lot more time and work than I was planning on. We had family meetings every month, ma and pa meetings and it took a lot of time and money to buy and gather all of the supplies. I got frustrated because we couldn't get all of the kids out to our family meetings, but we had fun getting to know the ones that did come. I was thrilled that Nadia was in our group and after camp I made sure she made it to every meeting! Keith and I prepared physically by doing lots of hikes and walks. It was so hard to fit everything in. We had so many demands on our time, but I was really worried about the physical so we really tried to fit that in as much as possible. The best thing we did to prepare was go to the temple the week before. That gave us the spiritual strength and blessings we needed to make it through trek. We both received priesthood blessings before we left which gave us a lot of comfort and strength. During our preparation time Keith's job went from bad to worse. We were both so stressed and worried about his job that going on trek didn't seem like the best idea, but we both held on to the fact that we knew we were supposed to go and Heavenly Father knew what was ahead for us even if we didn't at the time. Keith getting his new job the week before we left was nothing short of a miracle and a huge blessing that we are so grateful for. The other trial of my Faith was my feet. My plantar fasciitis started acting up worse than ever right after we committed to go. Luckily it got better as trek got closer, but that was a big obstacle on trek. The stopping and starting and walking on the uneven ground was extremely painful for me. I was blessed to make it through though. Every morning my feet felt better, which usually my feet are the worst in the morning. The other thing that was very hard was leaving on Wyatt's birthday. Birthdays are a huge deal to me so this was hard. We celebrated a lot before and my mom made the day so special for Wyatt and it ended up being fine, but I hated leaving my boy on his birthday!
Last Wednesday morning we met at the church at 6 AM. It was nice to have the stress and the work of the preparation behind us and be ready to go. I was nervous but excited. We took charter buses to Wyoming. It was a long bus ride, but it went by quickly because we visited with the other Ma's and Pa's in our ward. We also had Bishop Beesley and his wife, David Shultz, and Jen Stemmons and Megan Schultz were there as nurses. Timmy Schultz came along with Megan as well, we loved talking to them as we walked. They were so nice and kept telling us they were so happy we came and Timmy was so helpful with our family.
We thought we would have a smaller family, but at the last minute all of our kids ended up coming. We had Bryant, Luke, Carsen, Caleb, Kameron, Nadia, Bree, Siara and Kate. I love these kids and I loved getting to know them. They are all amazing and were willing to do whatever we asked them, especially the boys. I loved to see the hard working boys who would do extra to make things easier on the girls. These boys are going to make great husbands and fathers!
Here is our ward group. We had Tasha and Jared from the Stake Presidency there too. We really do have a great ward! The buses took us straight to sixth crossing. We went to the visitors center and had some presentations. All of the pioneer stories were so touching. It is humbling to try and put yourself in their shoes and really understand what they went through. After that we went to our camp and set up. Keith and I brought our own tent (which was wonderful) and we had our boys in one and our girls in one. We helped them get their tents set up and right when everything was set up we had a huge rainstorm. We all sat in our tents while it passed. It was a hard rain storm that lasted close to an hour. When it finally passed we went and had dinner and then they had square dancing that night. Kate had a break down that night so we sat out with her. I knew Kate would struggle so I tried to be ready to help her. She had a headache and really bad anxiety. Her anxiety got better as the week went on. She was overwhelmed because it was only the first day and she felt like it was going slowly and she was nervous about the rest of the week, I can relate to that anxiety. Every time she got upset I tried to talk her down and tell her to just take it day by day, sometimes hour by hour. She usually was able to pull out of it pretty quickly, her friends were a big help. That night we had a family meeting for an hour where we played a game and then spent the time sharing our ancestors stories. We had a fun family, they are all great kids and they have fun sense of humors so we had fun together. After that we were ready for bed, at least Keith and I were, it had been a long day. It took a while to get all of the kids in their tents, but finally we were able to go to bed. I didn't sleep well, which I figured I wouldn't, I was nervous about the next day.
Thursday we got up early and got ready for our long day. We were walking ten miles that day (which ended up being more like twelve miles). We went very slow at first and stopped a lot. We did have quite a few big hills that day. Our first stop was the most touching for me. We pushed our handcarts up a very big hill and then we parked them all and gathered for a pioneer story. They told us about a couple where the husband got such bad frost bite that he couldn't walk anymore. He told his wife to leave him behind to die (I think they had already lost two kids at this point). She said something like, "I don't have the strength to leave you, but I do have the strength to pull you." She helped her husband into the cart and pulled him the rest of the way. After they told the story they told us to look down the hill and there was Bishop Beesley and his wife acting it out for us. Angie kneeled down and said a prayer and then put bishop in the cart and started to pull him up this huge hill. She was struggling and after a minute their daughter Ceciley went down and started pushing from the back. They talked about the angels that were sent to help the pioneers and then two more girls from our ward went running down the hill to help push from the back. It was so powerful to see a reenactment. Bishop and Angie talked to us after and it was powerful, they are amazing. Later we did the women's pull. I had heard a lot about this and was looking forward to it. The Stake President talked to all of the girls and his wife talked to all of the boys before we started. The hill really wasn't too bad and the girls and I didn't have too hard a time pulling it up the hill. It was nice to see all the men lined up with their hats off while we passed them. When we shared our testimonies in our family Caleb talked about how impactful this was for him because he thought about his mom (his parents are divorced and they don't see his dad much) and how she has to do so much on her own and how much he loves and admires her. It was so touching, he is a great kid. His sister Alisha is just as amazing! We were all prepared for a hard day on Thursday so we all did pretty well with all of the walking. We crossed three rivers. The first one felt so good, it was so hot! It caused some serious chaffing for Keith and I . We were walking like 100-year-old people by the end of the night. At the second river I was pushing the hand cart and the girls pulling it went really fast and I didn't realize there was a big drop off and I fell into mud that went up to my knee, I did the splits and stretched my legs in a way I haven't in years! Nadia waited to see that I was okay and then laughed hysterically. It didn't hurt, but it was sure gross! They let the kids go play in the water for a while. Keith and I went and sat by the cart. While we were sitting there I saw someone fall over behind us, I was so sad and scared to see it was Caroline (one of my beehives that just turned 14) and she had passed out. She was laying on the ground completely unresponsive and then she started having a seizure. We immediately radioed for the nurses and Jen came running. She was so sad to see it was Caroline and I was so happy that Jen and Megan were helping her since Caroline knows them. They got her on her side and she threw up a lot. We found out later that she had a stomach bug, but she didn't tell anyone that she had been having diarrhea. Alissa (her Ma) knew she wasn't feeling good, but we didn't know how bad it was. She was drinking a ton, but we found out later that she wasn't absorbing it because of her stomach bug. She had been riding in the cart and saying her stomach hurt, I should have known it was bad because Caroline is not a complainer and wouldn't do that unless it was bad. Everyone was terrified, they had the whole medical staff with her and our bishop and Tasha and Jared Peterson. They told us we needed to move on while they took care of her. None of the kids wanted to move. Our ward was the last to move on, but we finally reluctantly did. Some of the kids said they wanted to have a ward prayer for her. At the exact moment that Sean finished the prayer we heard that Caroline was okay over the walkie talkie. The kids were thrilled! They took her to the hospital and she ended up having one more seizure, but she has made a full recovery. Bishop, Jared and Tasha took her to the hospital and after they knew she was okay Bishop and Jared came back and Tasha stayed over night with her. I'm so grateful that there were so many people that know and love Caroline that were there to help. I'm so grateful she is okay. We finally made it back to camp after about 11 hours of walking. We were all so tired! We had dinner and then we had ward time that night. Since Bishop was at the hospital Brother Schultz took over and did a great job. We spent the first little while talking about Caroline and letting the kids ask questions and talk about how scary it was. Caroline was asking to come back to trek by that point. David talked a lot about perseverance that night. We had all had a long hard day and it was great to talk about how we can keep going and do hard things.
Friday morning we packed up camp and got on the bus for an hour to go to Martin's cove. We started out with some videos and presentations that were very touching. It is overwhelming to think what the pioneers went through. After that we started trekking. We were all mentally prepared for a much easier day than the day before because we were only trekking 6 miles that day. It was hot from the beginning, like relentlessly hot! The first little while wasn't too bad except for the heat. We stopped a few times for stories and it was nice to rest. After lunch we left our carts and trekked into Martin's Cove. I don't think anyone was prepared for how hot and hard that was. It was a huge incline and it was blazing hot and we were all tired. We went fast because we didn't have our carts. We kept thinking that we were almost there and then there would be another hill to climb. At one point I thought I was going to just sit down and quit. I said a silent prayer and at that moment the sun went behind the clouds for just a minute and I knew that Heavenly Father was aware of me and that I was going to make it. I also noticed a butterfly that hovered around us for a few minutes and landed on Kate's dress. Later I was telling Keith about my prayer and the cloud cover and he told me that he said a prayer and right after he saw a butterfly and that was his answer. It was so amazing to realize that we had prayed at the exact same time and both got answers and the strength we needed to keep going. When we got to the cove the Stake President talked to us for a minute, but he had us go back down to the pavilion for the activity he had planned because it was so hot and people were struggling so much. Two women from our ward got heat exhaustion on this walk and were taken back to camp. I loved seeing the bishop and Alex Mitchell running to take care of them and make sure they made it back safely. The cove was a special place with a special spirit, but honestly it was hard to focus on it because of how miserable we all were. While we were walking up there I was having really negative thoughts. I was thinking that this was the dumbest thing we had ever done and wondering why they even have trek. It is amazing how my perspective has changed once we made it out of that tough part. I really felt for the pioneers at that moment, that is when it hit me how incredibly hard it would be to keep going day after day. After we rested a little while and did an activity after the cove we headed out again. Luckily, the rest of the day wasn't as hard, but we were all exhausted after our long day and we still had to set up camp. After dinner President Campbell gathered us and we sang songs and he spoke to us for a while. He talked about thinking about our experience and thinking about what it meant for us spiritually and then committing to let it change us. His question was, "now what?" I love that, we can have all of these amazing experiences, but if we don't use them to make changes and become better then we are missing out on a huge opportunity for growth. After that he had us split into families for testimony meetings. This was my favorite part. Hearing the kids talk about their experiences made everything worth it and gave me the strength and spiritual boost I needed after such a long, hard day. I was so tired that night and my feet were killing me, but we had to stay up late until all of our kids were in their tents. They let the kids stay up because they made peach cobbler and it took longer than they were planning. I was so happy to go to bed that night. I slept much better the second and third nights.
Saturday morning we woke up and took down camp. It started raining when we were almost finished. We got everything packed up and ate breakfast and then we walked three miles back to the buses. We didn't have the missionaries with us so we were walking really fast. My thighs were burning and it was hard to keep up, but I did it. Timmy was so nice and tried to get me to ride in the cart when another woman was riding, but I told him that I set a goal to walk every step at trek and I wanted to reach that goal and I did! Keith was amazing and worked so hard and helped everyone even when he was exhausted. We didn't know if we could do it, but we walked every mile on that trek! We stopped for a story on the way back and then met together for a closing devotional. We heard more great messages and watched a video of trek that amazing people had already put together! It was a great way to end an amazing experience. We were all excited to get on the bus until we realized that the air conditioning wasn't working. It was such a long, hot ride. I slept a little and then Keith and I had fun playing games with the people around us. The kids had been singing a song called "shaboo yaa role call" all throughout trek. All of the adults got together and came up with our own and sang it for the kids on the way home. They got a kick out of that. Each couple came up with one. I hope the video never surfaces, but we had fun doing it. Keith and I said, "We are the Loosli Crew, some say we are a zoo, now go wash yourself, cause you smell like poo." The kids thought that was funny. I heard one of our boys yell, "that's my ma and pa." After the long, hot bus ride we had to get our stuff and go over to the church and put up the tents and clean them out. We didn't get home until after 8 PM. Luckily my mom brought the kids down so we didn't have to go pick them up (she was amazing with the kids and we are so grateful, more on that in another post). I was sad that we didn't have time with the kids that night. By the time we showered we needed to get the kids to bed. It was so great to see them and be able to talk to them a little bit before we put them to bed.
Yesterday Sacrament Meeting was all about trek. They asked Keith to share his testimony and he did amazing. He is an amazing, hard working, spiritual, loving and helpful man and I'm so glad we got to have this experience together. Having him there calmed all of my anxieties! This was an experience that strengthened our marriage and our love and respect for each other in a very unique way. While I was walking up to the cove that day I never thought I would say this, but I'm so grateful that we were able to go on trek. It was an amazing experience that keeps getting better as I think about it and process all of the wonderful things that we saw and did. The bishop and David Schultz told us that they felt very inspired to ask Keith and I to go on trek, I am glad they listened and I'm glad we did too! God is good!
