Blessed, Honored, Pioneers: Trip to Martin's Cove Day 1 of 3

Our trip to Martin's Cove started out on Sunday night. We drove half way while the girls slept. We ended up staying in Dubois, WY and stopped there about midnight. We got up the next morning and had a slow start, had breakfast and drove the rest of the way. This worked out great for our little family of 4. We hit Lander, WY and ran into the Strupps at a gas station. We then followed them to the site. We pulled into the site right behind the ward bus that had most of the people going on the trek. They had left the church at 6am Monday morning. When we got there we were to eat lunch and load our cart. Then we had orientation where we learned a little about the pioneers and were instructed on what to do and what the rules were. Then off we went. It was just before 3:30 that we began out trek to the campsite.

Lois and Jasmin sporting their matching bonnets. Thanks Mom and Sister Lundquist.
Here we are just before we started the trek. Look at those cute bonnets and skirts that were made for the girls in the family. They sure helped in keeping the sun off too! I don't know what I would have done without them!
This is a shot of Jasmin. This is how she spent most of her days. Just hanging in the front pack baby carrier, a sleep! What a great baby!


This is just shortly after we started off down the handcart trail!
Kenya walked at least 1 mile before even being picked up. I think it was more that the other adults thought Kenya walked to slow and offered to carry her rather than she was too tired. Lou Anne a lady in our handcart family is carrying Kenya here. Our family was so great at helping out with our children!
Here is the flag that Lois designed and made for our handcart. We had a wide variety of people in our handcart family and so this is what she came up with. It says, "From all walks of life, we all walk together." Then she put an outline of each of our feet. So, there was Robert's, Lois', Kenya's, and Jasmin's feet all on the flag. It turned out pretty good! Our handcart family was:
The Smiths: an older couple (Jane and Brother Smith) (he is in the bishopric)
The Strupps: middle aged couple (Karl and Kim) and sister Strupp's sister (Mona)
Sister Thompson: middle aged single lady (Lou Anne)
The Drapers: Robert, Lois, Kenya and Jasmin

Setting up the tent was a nightmare. It was by far the hardest part of the whole trek! The wind was SOOO strong that it was blowing all the tents over. It was so windy that a lady's sleeping bag was actually blow away in the wind. Daddy and Kenya put up the tent with a little help from others while Mommy had to feed Jasmin. They did a great job. Once the tent was up the wind was so strong that it was still blowing the tent so that one side was collapsed. Our tent was only half as big because the wind blew one side into the middle of the tent. Robert had to tie an anchor from the top of the tent to the near by fence to keep it from going completely flat.
Jasmin just chillin' while we set up the tent. She sure had a comfy seat!

Our little one was only 2 weeks and 3 days old, but she is smiling and not just in her sleep. We are amazed that the things she can already do!

Daddy is having a huddle with the girls!
Kenya is gettin' some kisses from Jasmin...

So Kenya decides to reward Jasmin for her kisses by sharing some chocolate pudding with her for the .5 seconds we weren't looking!





Kenya was so tired that night that we missed the fireside about Ephriam Hanks who was a rescuer that saved so many people on the trail. It was nice to have a little quite family time though. We were tired and all asleep by like 10:30 or 11pm that night.