Lexi has been trying to ride a trike for a while now. We have a trike that Mitch used to ride but she can't quite reach the peddles. Lexi found a trike that she liked at Wal-Mart, and we just had to get it. Lexi loves it! She just goes outside and rides it on the pad. If we don't know where she is, go look on the pad. She's sure to be there with her bike. 
Last week, I (Alyssa), went to Martin's Cove with the Ashton Stake. It was a lot of fun! It was hard, but not as hard as everyone makes it sound like. Martin's Cove was where the Martin and Willy handcart companies tried to cover from the winter storms but still had so many deaths. Since our ward wanted to make it an actual pioneer experience, they make us skirts and bonnents. The bonnents came in handy during the wind storms. We left the Ashton stake center about 6:45 am on Wednesday and didn't get to Martin's Cove 'till about 3 or 3:30 p.m on Wednesday. About a 9 hour drive on a bus filled with people I don't even know! Did I sleep? NO! When we got to Martin's Cove, they spoke a little to us about the history of it. Before President Hinkley died, he took all his family and they did the trek. President Hinkley told them that it is one of the last sacred and hallow places left on Earth (That means that Christ has actually walked on the Earth at Martin's Cove. How cool is that?!). After the little devotional, we split up into familes, grabbed our handcarts, and hiked 3 miles into our camp. My ma and pa were Kathryn and her husband Grube. While we hiked into camp, we reenacted the Mormon Battalion. This is where the men and boys went off to war and left the women to pull the handcarts by themselves. Us women had to climb the rockiest, sandiest, steepest hill there with our handcarts. Once we reached the top, the men supposedly said they wanted to help us. I'm so sure! Then we continued to camp. I only saw a snake once sitting on a rock, but that was fine with me. The next day, we hiked up into the actual Martin's Cove. It's sad to think that so many people died there. Then we walked around where they tried to bury their dead. Wolves just took over from there. After that, we got to cross the Sweetwater River. This is where the 4 young men helped the pioneers across the 3'' ice coverd river in the freezing weather. The water was a little cold but it felt good since we were all so hot! Then we took our handcarts back to the visitor's center and we had the opportunity to go to Devil's Gate, but, I didn't go. While we stayed at camp, there was this white, pyrenees dog named Oscar. He is a dog that walks with kids on the trek, then leaves at the end of the summer when all the workers and everybody goes home. He lives about 10 miles from Martin's Cove. One morning when we were ready to say the prayer, Oscar went to the front, laid down, and crossed his paws! It was so weird! Then that night, we had Testimony Meeting. After soemone would bear their testimony, he would bark like he was saying "amen". He was a funny dog. The next day, Friday, we came home. But first, we took a detour to Independence Rock. This is where the pioneers were told that if they made it to this rock by July 4th, they would have good weather the rest of the way to Salt Lake. Since the Martin and Willy company didn't make it 'till November, they had some troubled weather. We had the chance to climb up the rock and look at the names in the rocks. I wasn't going to go at first but I figured that if I could pull a handcart in a skirt, I could hike up a pile of rocks in a skirt! I got to the top and realized that since I went up, I HAD to come down. I really don't like heights.... At the top there weren't a lot of names from the 1800's but there were a lot of names from the 1900's. After Independence Rock, we came home. We were all so excited to come home and use a working, flushing toilet that had no signs to keep the doors shut so no snakes would come in!!!!!
