Buffalo Val

On the morning of the second day of trek, we were woken up way too early, but in the morning light could appreciate the beautiful little spot we had camped in the night before.

After a much-welcomed breakfast of oatmeal and apples, we re-packed our handcart and were on our way!

As we arrived at the first rise in the trail, we were told that our "camp hunters" had found and killed a buffalo. I could not believe it when they led us by families to see it and have our picture taken with it. It kind of made me sad and sort of grossed me out, but I realize the gratitude the pioneers must have had when they received fresh meat to eat.

King Family

Bradshaw Family (Spencer's family)

Bowler Family (Noah's family)

The next night for dinner, the meat from "Val" (the nickname the buffalo was given) had been processed, smoked, and prepared for dinner. It was actually delicious and we truly enjoyed a fabulous meal!

Anyway, the second day was hands-down the hardest for our family. We never really got the knack of packing our handcart and had to stop too many times along the trail to adjust and re-pack. It was just so hot, too, and some of our kids had just checked out. Although the first day was 13.2 miles and the second day was only 5.3 it was really hard to keep everyone's spirits up, prevent heat exhaustion, and get to base camp together. This is Jeremy and I and our girls finally arriving at camp.

After we ate a lunch of peanut butter sandwiches (have they ever tasted so good?) the afternoon was filled with pioneer activities. We had potato sack races, stickball...

...stick pulls, stilts, tug-of-war...

...taffy pulling...

...watermelon eating contest (the best!)...

...duck, duck, goose, and whatever this is called...

...but the most popular and heavenly rotation was the hair-washing station! Oh my goodness it felt so good. Noah and I washed each others' hair.

Later that day we received giant baby wipes and were able to clean up and put on our clean set of clothes (I loved watching the kids trying their best in this environment to get gussied up for the hoedown that night). I felt better but then the blisters on my feet wouldn't be ignored any more. It took over a month before they were completely healed!