Labor of Love

Long time no blog, I know.  I didn't die.  I've been a little busy.  And out of town.
So now I shall attempt to catch up.  Although it might take me til Christmas.  Wish me luck.

Going through the approximately 1500 pictures I took on our Stake Pioneer Trek as our ward's photographer has kept me just a tad busy this summer.
Then I made a slideshow movie out of them, which I had never done myself before, which I had only a week to do.  I had to learn how to pan & zoom on the pictures & how to splice music.  I should have taken a picture of my computer room afterwards, which I pretty much lived in.  Empty Diet Coke cans everywhere, used paper plates.  It was bad.  But I loved every minute of it.  I loved learning how to do something new.  I loved having the music stuck in my head.  And I loved being completely absorbed for a week in the re-living of the Trek with all of these kids & adults that I love & admire so much.
Good times.  Special times.

I posted the slideshow on YouTube, with the help of my genius brother, Benj.
It had to be split in two parts.

Part One:

Part Two:

And some of my favorite random shots.......

OK, this one is not one of my favorites.  I just thought I'd better include the only picture with me in it.

Having been born and raised in the Mormon church, this pioneer thing is something I'm used to.  I grew up learning about our pioneer ancestors who traveled across the plains & mountains in the mid-1800's, in covered wagons or handcarts, to settle the west, including Salt Lake City, UT, and including where I live now, Mesa, AZ.  They did this to escape religious persecution in the east at the time.  They gathered their few precious belongings & set off in groups for a new land where they could live & worship in peace, which allowed our religion to grow & flourish.  We know of their tremendous hardships from journals that were kept on these journeys.  Getting caught in early snowstorms, burying babies who had died in shallow graves, then continuing on the next morning.  Can you imagine?!!  And I don't think they had any comfy walking shoes either. Or sunscreen. Or Advil. Or foam sleeping pads.  So every 24th of July we Mormons celebrate our faithful pioneer ancestors & all they did for us.  And we hold these Pioneer Treks for our youth to remember & celebrate them also. It gets us out of our comfort-zone, and having to go through just a smidgin' of what they went through helps us appreciate them so much more.  It's a great bonding experience & spiritually-strengthening experience for our youth groups.  

The preparation that goes into these things is mind-boggling.  Our Stake does this every four years, and they go all out.  And I stood there that first day of the Trek, pondering the fact that here were all of these adults....busy, successful, perfectly normal adults....that had taken all this time out of their busy lives to dress up in pioneer-wear & pull handcarts with teenagers for three days.  Why else would they do this unless they knew of the absolute truth of this cause?  Why else?

Our awesome Stake President & his awesome wife.

Our fabulous bishop & his fabulous wife.

This is just our ward.  And only the 14 to 18-year-olds.  Our ward totally rocks!

I hope I can do this again in 4 years.  Jake will be a senior then!  And the thing is, it'll probably be here before I know it!