Raise your hand if you're crazy!!!!!

Before you start reading... I don't have pictures yet... I may add them later.  Also the tense changes a lot, so if the grammar bothers you... I apologize.  I'm not turning this in for credit, and this is how it came out of my brain.  I guess that's the good thing about putting this on my blog, I can write it anyway I want and you can choose not to read it   :)  Also... it's long.  It took us almost 11 hours to do the Temple Walk and it'll only take you 11 minutes to relive it!!


"So was it fun?"  What is it with that question?  A few months ago, I would have hit the person/people who asked that kind of a question, but today... yeah it was kind of fun.

It all starts when the alarm goes off at 1:30 a.m. and you jump out of bed after sleeping 8 1/2 hours.  You grab your running shoes, and pack your backpack with Gatorade, band-aids, extra socks, and some other odds and ends, then head to work to meet Holly at 2:45 so you can fill 5 water coolers with ice and water.  Then you drive over to the church and realize you're not alone in your insanity, because the church parking lot is full of youth and their parents, and all those other leaders who are just as crazy as you, and the funny part is, only a few of them look miserable.  I think secretly, they are all excited to be up at 3 in the morning.  Holly gives a few last minute instructions, everyone grabs a pen and a piece of interfacing that will eventually be pinned to all of our shirts, with two names penned on.  One for a person we're walking in celebration of and the other someone we are walking in memory of.  It is hoped that these people will be the motivation behind this insanity.  At long last, we pack up in as few vehicles as possible (it was a lot,  there were about 50 of us) and get on the freeway to drive 45 minutes south just to walk more than half way back.  It's a little after 4 and you can't see our destination because they haven't turned on the lights yet.  Before we leave though, those beautiful lights come on and in the "shadow" of the pre-dawn morning, we gather in front of the Draper Temple for a picture.  The "Before" picture. When the photographer is satisfied, we start down the hill.  The goal is 22.7 miles away and we are so eager to get going.  The moonlight helped us see our way, with the help of some flash lights and head lamps.  Our first stop for bathrooms and breakfast is 3.3 miles away and we start off at a good clip.  About a mile and a half into the walk we hit the Porter Rockwell trail, a nicely paved trail that keeps us off Draper's busy roads (because there is a TON of traffic on Saturday morning at 4:30).  Keeping an eye out for wildlife, we spot a small frog.  I was pretty sure it was a grass hopper until my light caught it.  That was the extent of the wildlife on the trail, aside from a few rowdy young men, but we made good time getting to the park.  After a potty stop and some muffins and juice, we fill our water bottles and head for the hills.  Literally.  The biggest hill on our journey was just out of the park and we conquered it in a few short minutes.  The next stop is another 3.2 miles away and has been slightly modified from our original plan, since Sandy City doesn't open it's park bathrooms till 9:00, so we got a really nice man to open a church for us at 6:00 in the morning just so we'll have a place to pee.  We fill up water bottles yet again and grab granola bars and trail mix to snack on and head off again.  The light is starting to show from the sunrise and as we continue on we realize we're not alone in our journey.  There's another group of young women walking and surprise, their destination is the same as ours.  I call Mom and Dad to tell them we're almost to their neighborhood so they can come meet us, but we walk too fast and they miss us.  I told them to go back for the car and meet us farther down the street.  They meet us at 7-11 and we stop long enough for a quick hug and then the light turns green and off we go.  By now we've walked nearly 9 miles and I can't believe how far we've come.  This area is where I grew up, and I can't believe that I have walked from Corner Canyon in Draper to this point.  Only 14 miles yet to go.  We stop again to use the bathrooms at Harmon's and after filling water bottles again, we continue down the trail.  Wheeler farm is our next stop and the half way mark.  We stop for bagels and chocolate milk and some blister treatment from our capable first aid team.  About a half hour later we head off again, and see yet another group walking.  These girls are in pink tee shirts with the temple spires on the backs and they are moving quickly.  We make it to the Walmart, 14.2 miles into our journey for another potty stop and a potassium boost.  Bananas are handed around and we take advantage of a first aid need to rest a minute.  We start again and I proceed to walk the LONGEST 3.6 miles of my life!!  Our next destination is Fairmont park, but somewhere along the way my right knee starts to hurt and I'm not entirely sure I'm going to make it all the way there.  Another leader, Jessica, is having the same problem and so she and I take up the rear and slowly plod on together.  WE WILL NOT GET INTO THE CAR!!  We are WALKING to the temple.  After an eternity of pain and fighting, we make it to the park where the first aid team is ready with ice and tape and they tape up my knee while I ice it.  Everyone eats Gogurt, and after a really long time, (We weren't the only ones in need of first aid) we start again.  My knee still hurts and the tape is uncomfortable, so I'm still slow going, and I begin to count the blocks.  IT'S A REALLY LONG WAY!!!  We make it to Liberty Park and a few people run to use the bathroom, but I know I won't make it all the way to the bathroom, so I decide I'll go when we get to our lunch stop.  As we are getting ready to leave the park, I realize that there's something on my foot that feels like a giant blister and I can feel the liquid, so I'm sure it's going to pop.  It's only a mile and a half to the lunch stop so I grit my teeth and start walking.  Again, I'm taking up the rear, but I'm still walking and that's all that matters at this point.  We're two and a half miles from the temple.  As I round the corner to the church, where lunch and bathrooms are waiting, I see something that makes me smile big.  It's Sister Elaine S. Dalton, the YW general President, and it seems that Holly's letter worked.  She wrote to her a few weeks ago, but we were told that if we wanted her to visit officially, we'd have to have the stake president submit something official.  If we wanted to try our luck, the secretary could tell Sister Dalton where we'd be and she'd be there if she could.  We were about an hour behind schedule and Sister Dalton was originally told the wrong church, but it turned out that she saw some of the other groups walking and got to totally surprise them so divine intervention must have been behind our first aid needs.  We go to the bathroom and then head outside where we grab our lunches and Sister Dalton speaks to us about the walk and what we've learned.  She then encouraged us to find "our" spot on the Temple when we get there, and to make it ours.  She told us to touch our spot on the Temple, and then when we meet our Eternal Companion to take him or her there and show him our spot on the Temple and share with him our experience of walking and then have him put his hand there with ours.  Then when we have kids, to take them to our spot and tell them of our experience and let them touch our spot.  She then took out a flashlight and a piece of glass. She shined the light on the glass and you could see the light go through the glass.  She then took out a piece of crystal from a chandelier in the Provo Temple, and shined the light on that.  It reflected the light brilliantly and she compared it to living with virtue.  After she was done speaking Holly asked if we could take a picture and so we gathered together, and Sister Dalton is standing next to me with her arm around my sweaty body!!  She headed out, we got our few first aid emergencies treated (including my blister which was by the way as big as a quarter and full of junk...it was like walking on a water balloon) and then Holly asked if we were ready to walk the final mile to the Temple.  We were so ready and off we headed.  We turned onto South Temple and although I was in a lot of pain from my knee and my blistered feet, I was completely oblivious to anything except the fact that I had almost walked from the Draper Temple to the Salt Lake Temple.  We got to State Street and crossed the street, turned North so we could enter the plaza from the East.  As we got to the steps, I looked up and saw that temple and immediately said to Jessica, "I want to cry."  I have NEVER in my life been so excited to see the Salt Lake Temple as I was in that moment and then almost in the same breath I was sorry it was over.  I was sore, tired, overjoyed that we had finally made it, but at the same time, we'd been building up to this for nine months and in that moment it was gone.  Accomplished, finished, and now all I was left with was the memory.  Yes I wanted to cry.  On one hand, because that temple was the most beautiful sight EVER... but on the other hand, I didn't want it to be over.  My life has been consumed with weeks and months of preparation and it was over.  Sister Dalton had said something about knowing we could do hard things and I had.  I had conquered something that 6 months ago, I would have deemed IMPOSSIBLE!  I had walked nearly 23 miles and it didn't kill me.  I gathered with everyone by the fountain by the Church Office Building for the "After" picture and felt AMAZING.  Later I walked up to the Temple.  It was busy.  Brides, grooms, families, and the other 5 wards that did something hard.  I walked around to the west side so I could find "My Spot".  I didn't want it to be in a crowded spot.  I chose the South west tower and picked a place on the north side and smiled to myself as I claimed it for me.  I then sat on the wall and called my mom and Nicole to tell them I'd survived and then slowly and painfully got up and headed home.  A few more days of slow and painful followed, but in my memory and in my heart, I know I won't remember that it hurt.  I'll remember that I walked from the Draper Temple to the Salt Lake Temple, and it changed my life.