We made it to the valley!

In a miraculous turn of events, we survived the trek! It really was a wonderful experience, and it made me appreciate the pioneers that much more. It also was the spiritual experience I needed to re-center my life. I feel like every so often, when I get caught up in the details that don't matter, I need a big experience to give me an eternal perspective again. So this trek was perfectly timed. Anyway, here are some highlights:

Ma and Pa getting the handcart ready
The Howard Family banner (We walked in honor of Emma Howard and her family, Clark's Great-Great-Grandma)
Our chicken. His name? Dead Meat. We feasted on him Friday night. This was
one of the things Clark and I were the most worried about, who would kill the chicken. Luckily, we had some awesome kids who all volunteered to do it. So while they killed, gutted, cut up, and cleaned the chicken, we peeled potatoes. I say we got the far better end of the deal.
Are we there yet?
Trekking along
Digging a firepit
On Friday afternoon, we got to play pioneer games. Here are some of our kids at the stick pull.
And here is Clark racing on stilts.
And we're still trekking. This was the last day, and we were all pretty tired.
Our "after" family photo
When we came into "The Valley," they had all the parents waiting there, along with a lot of the youth leaders, waving white handkerchiefs, welcoming us home. And they had a brass band playing. It's so funny, I knew all that would be there, I had been prepped beforehand, but it still got me choked up to think about making it to the end of a long journey, and having people who love you there to greet you. It was a beautiful thing.

We really did have some amazing kids. They never complained, they were happy, they worked together, it made the experience that much better. For future reference, I don't recommend adopting 7 teenagers (we had 4 girls and 3 boys) at the same time, but for 3 days we could handle it.