Coach Pitch Baseball for Seth

Seth has grown up going to more baseball games than we can even count. He is such a good sport to be hauled around all over Utah to watch his brothers play baseball. He also loves to play baseball, too. Seth was really excited to play coach pitch baseball and to have his dad be his coach.

Seth is a great little player, and he even accomplished an unassisted triple play. He caught a pop up and tagged the kid running from 2nd and then from 1st (these kids don't know about tagging up and pop flies, but Seth does!) He was really excited. He made lots of great plays in the field. He had to tone down his throws because after he rocketed one over to first and almost killed the little girl playing there, we made him throw lobs.

He was also a solid hitter. Seth made great contact and most of his hits went over the outfielders heads. He had a great season, and he loved playing with Dad.

Seth is a very tough baseball player.

Seth loved having his Dad pitch to him.

Seth is a great fielder.

We had a fun little team.

Seth and Dad make a great baseball duo!

The End of an Era

Both Mark and Dax ended their time with their baseball teams. (Don't worry they weren't free agents for long!) Mark played on the Diamond Thieves with the same group of kids for 3 years, which actually means 6 seasons counting Spring and Fall baseball. He really learned a lot about baseball and made some great friends. We loved his coach, Jeff, who was so good with Mark and always treated Mark like a special player. Eventually, though, Jeff and his son moved into high school baseball, but Mark has one more year of super-league. Since half of his team was left, and his rivals, the Scrappers, also had half a team, they combined. The new Scrappers are better than both the old teams! Mark has really been excited to be with some of his old friends, and to make some brand new baseball friends.

Mark became a leader on the Diamond Thieves.

The team relied on Mark for pitching quite a bit.

We spent many nights at the baseball field watching Mark.

Mark is always happy playing baseball. 

Pitching again!

We love watching Mark on the bases. He is so smart.

Jeff was the best coach!

Everyone was so good to Seth. He was like the team mascot. 

The boys took 2nd in their league. It was a heart wrenching loss after 8 innings on baseball. 

This is when Mark first joined the Diamond Thieves (they wore A's jerseys for the first season).

Then here they are at the end. Mark, and 3 other boys stayed on the team the whole time.

Dax only played with the Curve for a year. Then his team got picked up by an academy. This means that the entire team had the opportunity to switch over to a team that is coached by an ex-college baseball coach. Jeremy Thomas coached at Dixie and BYU before leaving the college ranks to start the Barons Academy. Dax made the team and was excited to become a Baron. He loves the history of baseball, and the Barons are based on Birmingham Black Barons from the Negro Leagues. Dax even changed his number to 18 to honor Cool Papa Bell, a speedy outfielder from those days. He and Dad attend the practices and they both learn so much. By the end of the first day, every one in our family was throwing harder and more accurately! We are really excited for the upcoming season!

Dax loves to pitch!

Dax is the lead off hitter for the Curve and Barons.

Dax is so quick. He can turn almost any contact into a base hit.

Dax has fallen in love with baseball. 

Dax plays catcher a lot! And he's a great little catcher.

One more pic of Dax pitching because it's harder to get pictures of the boys making plays in the field.

The Curve were a great group of boys, but most of them were picked up by the Barons, so there weren't many changes.

July Fun

Most of our fun in July was had right at home because of Covid-19. We did try to venture outdoors and enjoy nature, but it was really fun to be able to just be together so much as a family. We also got busy with baseball again!

Dax had a great time at the bowling alley.

Mom totally whooped us, though!

Cousins came to visit for Seth and Charlie's baptisms.

Seth goes to a lot of baseball games. He finds all sorts of ways to entertain himself.

Mark finished his time with the Diamond Thieves.

Baseball outside is about the only Covid activity we can do.

All the cousins came to see Mark and Dax play.

The cousins played lots of games together.

Dax loves his bright "sunset" outfit. 

Mom and Mel took the kids on the Big Springs hike.

The spring was disappointing, but it was fun to have the kids together.

Mark and Daniel think they are so cool.

Seth is the only one to have swimming lessons this summer.

He is doing great in the water and is at the top of his class.

We tried out some new parks.

Mom took the boys to the Lehi Pool before school started.

We had two boating trips with Glen.

Seth likes the tubes, but he'd rather drive the boat!

The big kids get a little crazy.

Nate is so good to go with our kids so many times.

Seth loves the boat.

We love the new boat that Glen has.

Dax, always creative, made up a Jeopardy game.

Mirror Lake Day 3

The last day we spotted Gray Jays!

We really enjoyed our camp site. There were Clark’s Nutcrackers chittering everywhere. Both chipmunks and squirrels visited us after every meal to see if we dropped anything. Best of all, there was a fair amount of shade during most of the day. We kept a crackling fire busy almost all the time we were around camp, too. 

 

We woke up early on Tuesday morning. For breakfast, we had eggs and bacon from the campstove. Then we worked on packing up camp. The boys were such good helpers that we had everything loaded in the truck by 9:30. 

Starting right at our campsite, there was a trail that ran one mile to Lake Bonnie. It was on this trail that Mark and Dad had seen the weasels. Everyone wanted to walk out and see if they could spot them. We didn't have any luck with weasels, but it was a really nice walk to the lake. The Uintas are so peaceful, and the morning was still cool. It was a really nice hike.

There are some little ponds along this trail.

Mark really wanted to find those weasels to show the family.

Bonnie Lake was a beautiful spot.

Mom loves hiking with the boys.

The boys love taking pictures of Mom and Dad.

The boys were such great kids on this camping trip.

Mom loves moments like this.

Seth loves this pose.

Our last adventure was to a place called Lake Alexander. We wouldn't have dared it in the van, but with the truck, we thought we could make it over the dusty, rocky, forest roads. However, our map wasn't very helpful and we ended up turning around in a thick stand of trees in the middle of nowhere. We were glad everything was covered with a tarp, because there was dust everywhere! We never found the lake, either. 

This is the only picture Mom took of the crazy adventure.

Finally, we gave up and rather than unpacking the truck to get to the cooler, we had a late lunch at Wendy's in Heber. We got home around three o'clock and soon had the truck unloaded and returned. We had such a great time in the Uintas, and it was so much cooler than the valley. It reminded us that we need to camp more often!