Trek Homecoming 2009

So this is "the park" where the torture took place. As you can see it is not raining for the actual pick-up of the pioneer trekers.This is one of the carts that was constructed and pulled for the pioneer trek.
This was the wagon train as they came off the trail and down the road. As tired as they all were by this time, they were all excited to go home. They were ahead of schedule and HAD to stop and take a break so they did not arrive at the pick-up location too early.

Zach was behind his handcart as they came off the trail. So it was hard to get an actual picture of him, he was also very focused on getting to the end. This is just before they broke down the handcarts. He is wearing the hat that he really did not want for this activity. Go ahead and ask him about his "new favorite hat". He hates it when Mom was right...

Zach did not take any pictures during his pioneer trek experience, much to his parents unhappiness. He protested going to pioneer trek right until he got home. He says he did not have fun, he would not want to do it again, he knows why they had the pioneer trek, and it should be discontinued. So he was asked, "would you send your own kids to trek?" Funny answer... "Yes."

During trek they pushed and pulled their handcarts. They also had the pleasure of an all natural shower each day minus the privacy, soap, and a dry towel afterwards. Ask Zach about his experience some time, maybe his opinion will change.

Date Night or Camp-Out or Both!

In spite of scheduling himself for a camp-out, Zach double booked himself for a date night too. Friday we attended Medieval Times for dinner and the tournament (show). It was a great time! Dinner was served somewhat late, well past 8 PM. Zach was pretty hungry when dinner was finally served, he even drank the tomato bisque soup! We had a jolly good feast of tomato bisque soup, chicken, spare rib, potato, garlic bread, and for dessert it was apple pastry. The best part, utensils were not used in the 11th century so we got to eat with our hands. Eating with your hands will prevent you from burning your mouth on food that is too hot. Simple solution if you have had this problem in the past.

I know this is where I input pictures from the show. Well the pictures from the show are pretty blury. OK, they are a blurr. Someone forgot to use the sports mode on the camera, or it is possible that it did not help. The arena seemed to be pretty small for a tournament with jousting and horses. Yes, the horses made my allergies flare up. It is not like I was sitting in the sand with them! We were on the yellow team, so we had the Yellow Knight to cheer for. Again, sadly he was the first to be elimated from the tournament.

Instead of enjoying pictures from the show, here are some pictures of Zach and his date Emily.

Just in case you are wondering, yes Zach did make it to his camp-out. He finally arrived at 1:30 AM to the camp site. (That of course put his parents home at 3 AM!) They camped Friday night in the rain. Zach got to sleep on a picnic table, the tents were already wet on the inside when he got to camp. So he opted to sleep on the picnic table for the night. We are happy to report that the police did not show up for this camp-out and wake them in the middle of the night or shake down their tents in riot gear. On Saturday they went shooting for the day.