Well the bad thing about waiting till September to write about what happened in July and August, is that I may have forgot a few things. So I will do my best to explain all the fun things that we did during the summer of 2014.
End of JuneBaseball season ended with 2 weeks of rain. This put a damper on the playoff schedule for our Minors program. Because school was coming to an end, it was decided that playoffs would be cancelled and they would just decided league winners by overall record. Our team was 9-0 so we ended up being the winner of the league. We were disappointed that we didn't get to play playoffs, but excited that we won the league.
Haydn and Brody both had great seasons and improved so much. We were so proud of Brody for moving up to Minors a year early and holding his own in the league. He had some great hits and made some great plays on defense. Haydn ended the season hitting the ball well and hit 2 in the park home runs in our last game of the season.
Tyson played T-Ball and I am pretty sure he was more interested in playing in the sand than playing baseball. It was so much harder and frustrating to coach T-ball than I ever thought it was going to be. hahaha. Tyson played...........well he was on the diamond and did his best.Martins Cove July 1-5
I was put in the Young Mens just before summer and they had been planning a huge camp to Wyoming and Martins Cove. This was where the Pioneers trekked through to get to Utah. We were able to walk the same trails that the pioneers struggled and died on. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. We had 3 separate hikes that we pulled hand carts on.
We stopped at independence rock on the ride down.
Our first hike was 8 miles to Martins Cove. This was a cove that the pioneers tried to hide themselves from the winter storms that they were stuck in. We stopped by a river that had a monument to the 3 men who carried all the people across in the winter.
In November 1856, about 500 Mormon emigrants in the Martin Handcart Company were halted for five days in the Cove by snow and cold while on their way to Salt Lake City.[1] The Martin Handcart company had begun its journey on July 28, 1856 which was dangerously late in the season and would ultimately lead to the disaster. Although the number who died in the Cove is unknown, more than 145 members of the Martin Company died before reaching Salt Lake City.[2] A few days prior to their arrival at Martin's Cove, the company was met by a small rescue party with food, supplies, and wagons that LDS Church President Brigham Young had sent from Salt Lake City, Utah. On November 4 the company and rescuers forded the bitterly cold Sweetwater River and sought shelter in the cove. That evening a powerful north wind blew the tents to the ground. The tents were set up again, but a blizzard brought heavy snow. The company remained in the camp for five days, unable to proceed due to the snow and cold. A number of the company's cattle died there and were preserved in a frozen state. When the weather warmed, on November 9, the company was able to move on toward Utah. With assistance from the original rescue party and from additional rescue parties that met them along the way, the survivors finally reached Salt Lake City on November 30.[2]
Our 3rd hike was Rocky Ridge and it was about 16 miles. This was a hard hike in the heat, so I can only imagine how hard it was in the winter. The trials that these pioneers had to go through were so great. The path was filled with jagged rocks that made pulling the hand carts very difficult. At the end of the hike we stopped at a grave site that was for 13 people that had died on that part of the trail. a few of those that died were children the same age as mine and this was difficult to see.
This camp was a great experience for me. There was a lot of fun had, but it was also very spiritual to think of the pioneers and all that they went through to do this for what they believed to be true and right. So many young and old did not make it to their final destination and gave their lives for what they believed to be a better life. Many times I pictured my own family on the trail and could not believe how some of the young ones made it as far as they did. It definitely was an eye opener to how good we have it in our lives.
Scott Quinton and I shared a tiny little 2 man tent together. It was funny cause one of the nights the wind was blowing so hard that I was sure that our little tent was going to fly away in the wind and not come back.
On the way home we stopped in Cody Wyoming where one of the churches there is known for its art work in the front lobby.
July (A Month of Baseball)
July was another month filled with baseball. Haydn decided to play on the "AA" Major All Star team, which was great because he only played Minors during the baseball season. So we had to stay pretty close to home during July because of practices and games. It was another All Star baseball season for Haydn to meet new friends and play baseball. Almost all the kids on the team were first year Majors so we knew that we were going to be in tough with the other teams.
Our final tournament to go to Prairies was in Lethbridge. The boys played great and we made a run to the championship and played Lethbridge SW. We got beat and finished 2nd. All the boys were pretty proud of the way we played and had a great time.
One of the best parts of playing summer baseball for Haydn is playing with his friends after the practices and games. They would play basketball, swim and hang out. It was a great season of baseball and friends.
Crush Sox Softball - We were playing for our 5th division title in a row this year. Needless to say we were the team to beat and everyone wanted to see us go down. haha. It was actually a tough season this year and we had a lot of close games. Our season record was 25-1 and the one loss we had should had been a win, but we really played like garbage. haha
We ended up winning our league again (5 times baby), but could not play in the final tournament again because everyone was gone on holidays. We have a great team and we have such a great time playing together. This year was really different for me because Kristi only played 2 or 3 games this year. Its different not having her on first base the whole season. Hopefully she will be back next season.
I also played in a Mens Provincial tournament this year with a team from Lethbridge. We played well and made it to the championship game. We lost to a team from Edmonton. It was a fun tournament to play in and there were some great games to watch.
We were introduced to the Beazer swimming hole this year and the kids loved it. Everyday they would ask if we could go out there. The kids would swim, tube down the river, fish, swing on the rope swing, and jump off the bridge. We would just pack some chairs and food and stay out there all afternoon. The kids loved it and I am sure that we will continue to go out there each summer from now on.
August (Gone too Soon)
August always starts out with the Family Tournament. This is always a great way for the family to get together and have fun (Well at least when we are not arguing with each other). Ryan came home this year for family ball so it was great to see him and his family.
We played well and went 3-1 in the round robin. We lost our first playoff game and that ended of family tournament run. We didn't play our best in our playoff game. Haydn and Maddux were able to play in this game and they were so excited!! Haydn got a great hit in the game and walked.It was also 30 years this year since I had been shot. So me and Travis had to take a funny picture together.
WASA BC --- camping in Wasa is one of the highlights of our summer. The kids can't wait to go every summer.The kids love it and have so much fun on the beach and riding their bikes everywhere. Its great because it gets the kids away from their iPods and stuff and makes they have fun outside all day!!
Now this year we went for 2 weeks and we didn't have the greatest weather. We probably only had 3 hot days in that 2 weeks and the rest of the days were overcast or rainy. Of course the week before we came was hot and the week after we left was hot as well. Just our luck. Justin, Jo and Brad came for the 2nd week that we were there.
The main attraction of our camping trip this year was the exercise ball in the sand. I watched a youtube video and saw someone dig a hole in the sand and put an exercise ball in it and then jump off the top of the ball. So on one of our trips into Cranbrook we bought one and it became the funnest things on the beach. People would watch the boys jump and do flips. Kids would stare until we invited them to use the ball.
They made a new bike park at the campground and Tyson loved it. He rode his bike so much and really improved on his balance. He was at the bike park everyday rolling down the hills and having a great time
Worlds in Calgary
This is one of our favorite tournaments of the year and we barely got a team this year. We had 3 or 4 people drop with just a week left before the tournament. So we scrambled and picked up some players who don't usually play with us and had not played a lot of ball this year. Needless to say, we did not think we would go to far in the tournament this year. We only had 10 player, so we had no suns for the entire weekend. Every other team had between 3-5 subs and we had to make sure no one got hurt on our team. haha. Also we had no one over 5'9" tall and every other team seemed to have at least 1 guy over 6" tall.
We had 3 games in our round robin pool and they were all close games. We lost the first 2 games by 2 and 3 runs. Each game could of gone either way, but they both came down to one bad inning that we had. Our 3rd round robin game was against a team that had beat (Fairly easy) the 2 teams that we had lost to. So we came into the game thinking that we might not be able to beat this team. The game started and they got up on us 21-12 by the 6th inning. We thought the game was all but done. We went into the bottom of the 6th looking to score a couple runs and hopefully get to the 7th within striking range. We started the bottom of the 6th with Jimmy and I hitting solo shots (Whoops), then we just had base hit after base hit. We scored 11 runs before the other team recorded an out. I ended up hitting 3 times in the one inning and I am pretty sure I have never done that before. We won the game 25-21. The other team was so mad cause they thought they were going to beat us easy.
We ended up in the Intermediate "C" division. We thought we would be 2 and out in the playoffs because some of the players we had didn't play a lot this year. We won our first playoff game 15-2 and we walked it off in the 5th from a 2 run home run that I hit. We were excited because this guaranteed us that we would be playing on monday.
Our 2nd playoff game was Sunday Morning and Kristi drove up to play our sunday games. The team that we were supposed to play in the morning were a girl short, so they had to forfeit the game to us. We wanted to play, but it was great to get one game further in the tournament.
Our 3rd playoff game was to see who would go to the semi final. We took an early lead in the game. The other team had the bases loaded with no outs and a ball was hit in the gap to right. Ryan Harris tracked the ball a long way and made an amazing catch at the fence. One of the girls on the other team didn't tag up and we got her out on 2nd. They only scored 1 run that inning. We ended the game by Jimmy hitting a big home run and then Tim hit a huge walk off home run to walk us off 15-4.
Semi Final game was so much easier than we thought. We won 14-4 and I don't think there was one point in the game that we were in trouble. So it was off to the final to play against the team that we got into a huge fight with last year at this same tournament. This was a team that sandbagged all their round robin games to get to a lower division. We should have never have been playing them in this final and we had so many other teams hoping that we would beat them. We had to be beat twice because it was a true double knock out. We gave them a run but they ended up beating us both games and we finished 2nd. We hated to loose but we were happy that we made it as far as we did. We won $550 and custom Hoodies for or 2nd place finish. With that money we were able to buy 3 bats for the team.
New School Year
Well another school year is upon us. Haydn is making the big jump to the junior high school, so I will be able to see him everyday. I can't believe I have a kid in my school, I thought the day would never happen. The kids are growing up so fast. Brody is starting grade 3 and Tyson will be in pre-school next year.
Other Pics from Summer
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