Memorial Day in Pleasant View

We had to drive hard from Moroni to make it to Pleasant View for Mom's Memorial Day at two o'clock. After a fifteen minute stop at home to throw together sandwiches, we just made it. Grandma's family has been a large supporter of the Memorial Day get together, but this year the numbers were few. All of the extended family had other things going on, and Stephanie couldn't make it, so it was Grandma, Grandpa, Brittany, and Mom's cousin Collett and her family.

It was a small gathering this year. 

Although the gathering was small, it was still great. We talked about James Maycock who was the first Maycock to come to American from England. He brought all of his kids alone after his wife died. It was amazing to read the stories of how they joined the church and traveled to Utah. They originally settled in Springville, but after the army came through, many people moved south, so James traded his land for land in Pleasant View. This is the same land that Mom's cousin still lives on today.

The boys love the Pleasant View Cemetery because they hand out free sodas and water bottles all day long. 

Memorial Day in Moroni

We were on a time crunch for Memorial Day because of Mark's big baseball tournament, so we put both our celebrations on Monday. Then the games got cancelled due to rain. In fact, we got rained out hard on Saturday and ended up sopping wet! We were pretty upset when the games got rescheduled for Monday, but then those got rained out, too.

The boys wanted to visit Grandma Benson and Grandma Ockey, so we left early and headed to Gunnison first to honor our Andersen and Benson relatives. Then we headed to the Ephraim cemetery to clean up Grandma Ockey's grave and tell stories about what a great grandma she was.

Seth helped Mom pick out all the flowers. 

We love Memorial Day. 

Mark remembers Grandma Benson, but Dax and Seth don't. 

We stopped at the temple for Mom and Dad. It's our special spot! 

We always clean up the headstone and make it look nice for Grandma Ockey. 

We miss Grandma Ockey and wish our boys had been able to meet her. 

Then we ended up in Moroni at 10 am Monday morning. We wanted to talk about Grandpa Ockey's maternal Grandma and Grandpa and the 9 kids they raised. John Thomas Tilby Roston and Isabel Ellen Warner were Dad's Grandma Ockey's parents. They were born and lived in Moroni their entire lives. Their history is a true pioneer story, full of sustenance farming, no modern conveniences (they had to light a fire near the outdoor tap to get water all winter), and difficult living. Grandpa Ockey remembered them just a little (he was 8 when John Rostron died), and he spoke about what he remembered. Since one of the histories mentioned poor man's cake, Mom found a recipe and cooked some up. It didn't have eggs, butter, or milk, but it was surprisingly good, but unsurprisingly dense.

Grandpa Ockey shared all his memories about John Thomas Tilby Rostron.

Dad shared histories he'd collected.

We had a really great time with the Alders, Christensens, and Schusters. The rain held off just long enough for us to find all of our relatives, and there are a bunch. Best of all, we learned a little about the hardships and trials that our family went through in order to give us the opportunities we now have.

The Ockey's who came to Moroni.

End of School Events

The end of school year get super busy because we have baseball and soccer going on, and then we add all of the school events.

The boys were excited about their dances in the Dance Festival this year because they all had fun songs that we listen to here at home. They practiced at home often, and it was fun to watch them at the Dance Festival. Unfortunately it was raining during the performance, so they held all the dances inside, which is a tight squeeze for a school with almost 1200 students. Luckily, Mom was able to get a great seat and she enjoyed all of the dances. The boys all did amazing!

Seth was dressed up as a newsie for his dance.

He clearly carried his class's performance.

They even sparred with rolled up newspapers.

Dax's dance required brighter colors.

Dax did an upbeat song from Wreck It Ralph called When Will I See You Again.

Mark and the sixth graders went with a black and white theme.

They danced to Footloose, which was perfect for Mark.

Seth had an animal report the last week of school. He could choose any animal to research and present his information however he wanted. Seth chose the Dodo bird and he wanted to create a Power Point after watching his brothers use so many for their school assignments. He did an amazing job and learned so much about Dodo birds. 

Seth presented his report to his class. 

Mom gave up her volunteer position of organizing Field Day for the whole school, so she only helped with Mark's field day since it was his last. Seth loves attending Field Day since he has helped every year since he was 2. The 6th graders think Seth is the cutest, so they let him play with them because kindergarten is already out. Mom and Seth had a great time!

Seth loves the parachute game with the big kids.

William, Gavin, Mark, Tyce, Gray, and Seth

The last day of school there is a 6th Grade Clap Out. All of the 6th Graders walk through the school and the rest of the students stand in the hall and clap for them. Seth and Mom went to clap for Mark and all his friends. We also took pictures with their teachers. Everyone had a great year! It was the only year that all the Ockey children will ever be in the same school.

Mrs. Burgoyne was the best teacher for Dax. She loved him, and he loved her sarcasm.  

Mark coming to high five his brothers!

We were so lucky to have Mrs. Duvall (Mom's good friend) as Seth's teacher. She was amazing!

First Day of School at Dry Creek!

Last Day of School at Dry Creek!

6th Grade Graduation

Mark graduated from 6th Grade! It is weird to think that he will soon be walking the halls of junior high! Mark is pretty amazing, and we are lucky to have him as our oldest kid. He works hard and is smart, so he makes life pretty easy on us.

Mark is so grown up!

Mark didn't have to do a lot at graduation other than shake a few hands when he received his certificate for graduating. Seth and Mom enjoyed watching the speeches and talents, but we really liked the slideshow that had a kindergarten picture next to a 6th grade picture. It was fun to see everyone so small.

Mark shaking the principal's hand.

I love this picture!

This was hanging up on the wall with the info below. 

It's fun to see what his favorites are since I would never have guessed Math was his favorite subject. 

Mark sure has grown-up. 

Mark and Tyce

William and Mark 

Mark and Cael were in kindergarten together.  

Jared is Mark's knowledge bowl buddy. 

Mark's teacher Mr. G. 

Mom was glad she could watch Mark graduate. 

After graduation, we took a few pictures with good friends and then booked it out of the gym because Mom had to go to a funeral, so Mark got to babysit Seth until she came home. We decided to let Mark choose something fun to do since Dad was home after the funeral, too. So he wanted to go to Doc Brundy's. He loves pinball just like his Dad, and Mark was very excited to set a high score on the AC/DC machine. Then we went out to dinner to celebrate. We are so proud of Mark and the great student and kid that he is.

Mark headed straight for AC/DC.

He loves that it plays songs while he plays pinball. 

MJO--new record on War Machine!

This 4 player PacMan game was super fun. Mom and the boys played it a few times.

Spring Soccer

Spring Soccer is crazy time around here. There are 3 boys playing soccer, but also 3 boys playing baseball. So we are running around to thousands of games all the time. Since Randy is helping coach Dax's baseball and is the coach for Seth's soccer team, there are certain places he has to be. But luckily, we made it to most of the games, and we had great seasons.

Mark has been playing soccer with his coach for so long that I can't even remember how many years it has been. We love Coach Clark and are so grateful for his positive attitude and for his knowledge of soccer. Mark's league this year was kids ages 12-15, so we were a bit of a smaller team since most of the kids on our team were 12 or 13. They didn't win a ton of games, but they played well as a team, and Mark was a good leader for his team. He still scored many goals, and hustled really hard on the field.

Mark is usually smiling on the soccer field. 

This pic is a little blurry, but I love his footwork in this picture.

Soccer is Mark's "fun" sport because there is no pressure.

Mark can boot it FAR! 

Can you see the size different in this picture from Mark to the other team? The kids were so big!

Dax seems to end up on the teams with no one to coach. Luckily, one dad decided to help out, but it wasn't the best year for learning new skills. That didn't seem to affect Dax though. He dominated on the field. His coach never played him at goalie because he loved having Dax as striker. Dax scored every game (usually 3 or 4 times). He is fast and quick, and he is also smart about where to send the soccer ball. So if his teammates were in the right spot, they often had an easy goal. Dax also started taking all throw-ins like his big brother. We love watching Dax play.

This was a common sight. Dax out front with the ball!

I loved watching Dax hustle across the field to take the ball from a teammate for the throw-in. 

Dax is about to juke it past those boys!

Dax can also boot it FAR like Mark! 

Dax's team

Seth played on Dad's team this year for the last time. Next year, Seth will move to the bigger field and have goalies and Dad does not coach at that point. It has been great watching the boys get to play soccer with their Dad. Seth was a great hustler in soccer, and he scored in most of his games. Seth also got to play with lots of his neighborhood friends, which was a ton of fun. We can't wait to see how he does on the new field next year.

Seth started to learn great soccer footwork. 

Seth loved having Dad as his coach.

Seth played well on offense and defense.

He is so fast!

Go Blue Tigers! Our neighbor made this amazing flag, which now hangs in our garage.