Trek and Walking

Our stake is doing a pioneer trek this summer in lieu of Youth Conference. Jim and I were asked to be on the Activities Committee for Trek months ago and have been meeting and planning and meeting some more for quite a while. Last Sunday, though, we were asked to step in as a Ma and Pa as several couples had to back out. We were thrilled to help out. We will have a family of 101-12 children as we trek about 25 miles over 3 1/2 days. Yesterday we went to a Ma and Pa Training in the area where we will be going with trek and got to pull the handcarts about 2 1/2 miles and made dutch oven stew and rolls--nothing beats cooking in the outdoors, but this was exceptional! Pulling the cart wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be--except when we had to go down a hill, over logs and rocks, and then back up again. I made a pioneer skirt that I wore and it was great, except for when we were trying to push the cart up the hill. I kept stepping on my skirt! I'll have to think of some ways to remedy that before we get to the real deal. We also played games(my part of the planning :) and were well taught and instructed on our duties as Mas and Pas. We had a wonderful time with the other Mas and Pas and are really looking forward to Trek in July!

Not only was it a wonderful day of training, but right after we got there, Tanner actually took his first few steps all on his own! Since then, we have been prompting him to walk more and more on his own and he is doing great! He's such a happy kid, except when he squeals (it's high-pitched and loud!) and when four teeth are all trying to cut through at the same time (right now!)--poor kiddo! Here are his walking efforts from today.