August 21, 2016

We were blessed this week by the Evanston Stake.

They did another service project for us at the Ranch.

They are the best Stake to do things for the trek.

We love them all so much.

They took the old wood slats off the barn and got it

ready to put metal siding on it.

This is Jauran and his son Taylor Dennis, they are some

of our favorites.

This President Platt who is a counselor in the Stake President.

He was the project manager and was there everyday.

They brought Grandpa's, Son's and Grandson's to work.

This is up to high for me.  They loved it.

This is crazy.

The new metal looks  wonderful and sturdy.

President Platt was so happy up high.  He loved to

run the levers to go up and down.

Again another Picture of the Martins.

Here is President Nixon.  He is the Branch President of the

single branch here in Evanston.  When the dairy barn

was built he helped to paint the blue paint on it and

now he is covering it.  What a legacy of service.

We love the people of Evanston and love the example

they have shown us.

August 16, 2016

Great week, we had family trek.  Miah and I look 

awesome in our pioneer dresses.

Little Ruby in her dress.

Look how great Gib looked.

Family Photo, everyone there except Kendrick.

Plus we had Katie's Nephew Crawford with us also.

The kids had a good time pulling the cart, for a little while.

What a great memory for us.

Some must push and some must pull and some just ride.

Haelly looking fine.

Old pioneer men on trek.

When the boys got tired of pulling they started looking for

bones.  They found a treasure, a full vertebrae in the dirt.

They used Quinn's pocket knife to excavate the six vertebrae.

Yes, they took them home with them.

Sam in a badger hole. After this picture he disappeared, we

never saw him again.

A family who treks together, stays together.

After the trek we went into Evanston to the drag race trek.

There we watched our new friends race their car.  It was being

driven by 14 year old Payton.  She was awesome.

Her dad took time to tell all of us about the car.

Payton is dressed and ready to race.

This is just before she started the car.

Isn't that the coolest car.  She set a track record that day.

She went 139 mph and start to finish in 5.01 seconds.

What a great day for us.

They let all the kids climb inside and sit.  Here is Sam.

Ammon

Quinn

Jackson

Max

Ollie

Next we headed to Bear River State Park to play.

They had fun digging in the sand.

Digging in the sand.

Jackson found and caught a small fish.

They caught several frogs also.

Ruby sunning herself.

Notice the sandy feet.

Morgan and Zach

Michael, Jeff and Jeremiah.

Ruby and Sully, what a pair.

This was a final activity, playing in the trek center.

Cousins are so fun.

On Thursday we went on a history tour with our friend

Ryan Richens.  We love going each year with him.

Seeing the pioneer trail never gets old.

This is the trail from Mormon flat to Big Mountain, the last big climb for them.

Yep, Life on the trail is always fun.

Trip to the Brigham City Tabernacle on Wednesday.

The temple was closed so we went on to the Ogden Temple.

But, first we made a stop at Maddox's for a great lunch.

Last night we made the trip out to Lester's Ranch for a 

final party  with the Evanston Stake Presidency.  They

fed us ribs, ribs, ribs, and then we were blessed to 

watch several bowling balls shoot out of their cannon.

Truly, the people of Wyoming know  how to play.

Thanks for a great season.  We love you.

We finished the night with a fireside and testimony meeting

with Elder Durham our new area Authority Seventy and his wife Mary.

They loved the POWER BOWLING also.

One last photo.  A porta john on a train.  Wow, life can't

get much better.

August 7, 2016

Last Trek of the Season, Last Trek for Elder Cowan and I.

Layton Hills Stake.  A group of about 300 people.

They were only a 3 day trek so they didn't arrive until

Thursday.  I don't like 3 day treks.  I think they are missing

the best night of all, the 3rd night is when the kids really

are in touch with the spirit and they are so much closer and

happier.  Oh well, it meant one less pulled pork dinner for us.

This young man brought his bugle to play.  He woke them

up each morning and played when they would begin trekking again

after a stop.  He was great.

Just a shot of some cool long grass.  I figure it looked way

better to me on the hillside than to you on this computer screen.

This is what I will really miss, the big open space, the 

quiet and the feeling of peace found in the landscape.

This is Elder Cowan driving the 4x4 on a piece of trail on

trail 7 that I don't like to drive on.  I don't mind climbing

and walking the hill but I hate the slanted tip of the road.

Take note of the wheel off the ground!!  See why I

always walk this piece of trail.

This group was wonderful with musical talent.

They would sit in the middle of the meadow and just start playing.

Elder Higginson joined in with his harmonica.  It is a 

harmonica his father played and he now has possession of it.

The YM with the flute is a new Elder, he is going to

Columbia on a mission in Oct and starts working in the

Temple as an Ordinance worker this next Tuesday.

This was a lesson in playing the accordion.  They were

there for over an hour.

This group slept in tarps.  The first night they were

not the best, but on the 2nd night they got really good.

Only short people could sleep in these.

Great use of their handcart.  Our carts like it best when

they get to sleep under a tarp and not out in the open.

Again, another design using the cart as the frame.

Elder Cowan spotted this group of young men and said,

"I wonder what that posse of boys are up to?"

We went to inquire.  What a great thing they were

doing.

They had a rock they had written on it said something about,

"Will you go to the Hoe Down and ROCK with me?"

The young women had a cow pie wrapped in Plastic wrap 

that said, " Can't wait to see your MOOVES"

 The boy would ask the girl with the rock, she would 

reply with the cow pie. It was so fun watching them.

They would find boys who were shy and they would

strongly encourage them to be brave and ask a girl.

Each time they would get down on their knee and ask.

This went on for over an hour.

Kids can really be entertaining when they don't have

cell phones and i pads with them.

This was a derby hat that one of the trekkers wore everyday

We all thought he looked like an Irish trekker.  To bad,

I didn't take a photo of his total outfit, it was classic.

On trek we don't let the trekkers use our cart ropes

for jumping rope.  Each rope costs about $30.00 to make.

Jumping them wears them out quicker. 

But, this was our last trek and all of us were tired of saying,

NO.  So we all decided to ignore the jumping.

We were happy and they were happy.

Next year the Pearts might not be happy with us when

the ropes are frayed.  Oh well, as they say, 

"I guess they can fire me."

We had three couples on this trek.  Brinkerhoff's,

Higginson's and us.  All of us are not returning next

year so this was our last time to trek. 

We had a great time laughing together and

enjoying the talk of all the crazy and wonderful

things we have been able to experience. This

photo was on Saturday just before the group

left from staging to go home.

I think we all look pretty happy, satisfied, content.

This photo was taken on Saturday morning right 

after Prayer meeting.  Left to right is

Brinkerhoff's, Pearts, Higginson's,  Us, and

Johnson's.  They all started last year, now we

will all be leaving except for the Pearts.  They

are taking our place as the Directors and they

will serve for two more years.  We know they will

do a great job.  We know this because we have been

teaching them all summer what to do.

We are all happy,  2016 trekking was a success. 

O.D.D.  Operation Don't Die was the plan and we

made it without one loss.  

The next two weeks are cleanup and trek training for 

the treks in 2017.  We are almost finished.