Our Weekend Trip Part 2

The second part of our weekend, after visiting the Salt Lake Temple, was to prepare for and go on our Pioneer Trek...

Prior to going, we toured the Pioneer Village at "This is the Place" in Salt Lake City.

This little house was home to a family with 7 children! That hit me as we have 7 children and this little house would fit right into my living and dining rooms!!!






They did tell us that the boys would have slept outdoors when it was warm or in a barn area during colder times, but still!!!


Love these photos!


I had a couple of thoughts (well, many more than that, but a couple of very strong thoughts) while we were there...


I love the simplicity of life back then...
Not so much "stuff" ~ just the necessetities of life and they were satisfied...somewhere along the way we've all lost the ability to be happy with less.

I am in awe at the physical struggle life would have been and the strength and ability to endure that these people possessed...

After actually making a "Trek" -- pulling a handcart up hills that were actually difficult to just walk up and working together in a trek family...my heart ached for the mothers. (probably because I am one! And I found time and again that I put myself in their shoes...as we experienced such a small part of what they went through...after the physical exhaustion that I felt with this Trek, I couldn't even imagine it going on day after day, week after week, month after month)

I couldn't help but constantly think of the many Mothers who struggled to carry and protect their
children as they moved West, Mothers who lost their babies and children, their husbands, sometimes their entire families, Mothers who had to watch their children starve and know that there was nothing they could do...but simply pray and have faith and keep putting one foot in front of the other...




As I stood and looked at this statue, all I could think of was my little children...

I imagine this little one was looking up...searching for answers from Heavenly Father...relying on Him and believing in Him that He would protect her and her family.


The Spiritual experience this weekend provided for me and for so many others was just an amazing blessing...

I worried so much that I would never be able to make the whole Trek, it was very hard, but I was determined that I would do it, I would not quit! There were times that it really did take all that I had to keep moving, at one point I laid my body down on dirt and rocks with bugs wandering all over the place... I didn't even care (and I DO NOT LIKE BUGS AT ALL!) but the exhaustion was so very real that I just didn't have a choice. I've never worked to a point that I was so sick I couldn't even drink water for fear it wouldn't stay down. But after our break, we kept on and I made it the whole way!

I would like to believe that I would have had the faith and the ability to make the incredible sacrfices that were made so many years ago...

But with that being said, I know that I was meant to be here at this time and in this place and to go through the things that are placed before me. And all I can do is to strive to always have the faith and the strength to joyfully make it through the trials that will come my way...