Utah's First Baseball Game

The first baseball game in Utah players.

A long time ago, when collecting family history stories, we learned that Edward Ockey had played in Utah's first baseball game. That was pretty cool, since we love baseball so much. Then this year, Nephi decided to re-enact that original game. It was a commemoration of both USA's 250th, and the 150th anniversary of that first game. 

When we arrived, we learned a lot of things. The first was that the game was on January 1, 1875, and a light snow had fallen. The field had to be cleared. The second was that Edward Ockey, Dad's great-great-grandfather had died in 1871 four years before the game took place. It was his son Edward Cole Ockey, age 20, who actually played.

They used Edward Ockey's picture, but it was his son that played.

That was okay, we still got checked in and bought a few souvenirs. Then we settled into the bleachers. Each player was introduced, and a short history of the game was given. We were surprised that the Gibson's challenged the Whitmore's, with each player on the winning side getting a side of beef. They had to order a rulebook to play correctly. Then, the Whitmore's (the side Edward, jr. played on) won 87-17. 

In the re-enactment, Edward actually led off. He swung at the first pitch. Mom said, "Now I know where you guys get it!" Sadly, he grounded out to second base. 

We didn't stay for the entire game as we were off to California for summer vacation, but we were glad we planned it into our trip.

There were signs for all the players.

Sandy brought Grandpa Ockey.

We had a lot of fun! Baseball is definitely in our blood.

Two Boys' Baseball Seasons

Baseball this year was a topsy-turvy, tragic, triumphant adventure for both Dax and Seth. This was due to our first major sports incident.

Dax put together a 9-12 grade team that included a lot of his friends. As the team was shaping up, we thought, “These guys are REALLY good.” And they were. After 5 games, they were 5-0 and hadn’t really faced a challenge. Dax was pitching and spending a lot of time at shortstop. He was also hitting the ball really well. It was fun to have a dominant team. Then, before Game 6, he was pitching in the cage and got hit in the face with a line drive. He ended up in the hospital with skull fractures, and we weren’t sure he’d ever play again. 

But Dax’s team kept playing strong. They kept winning. Dax attended games on the sideline, and Dad was still coaching, even though we were less involved. Finally, as the season ended, we found ourselves at 10-0. 

The tournament went well, too. Dax couldn’t play, but he was always there for his teammates. They easily won Game 1. Despite trailing in the semi-final, they pulled out a victory and won 17-8. That left the championship against a team with only 1 loss (to us in Game 6 after Dax’s accident). 

Dax and Dad had to fly back from CA in order to make the championship game and Dax was thrilled because he was cleared to play. Unfortunately no one could hit the pitcher and Dax ended up having the only hit in the game. They lost 3-1. It was a great season and everyone was still smiling at taking second place. 

Dax hit really really well!

We loved playing at Patriot Park.

I don't have a ton of pics from this season.

Dax also pitched well. 

He was a great closer.

This was such a fun team!! 

Seth’s team had a rough season, too. His friend Blake was injured all season. We started off with high hopes, and we played pretty well in the first few weeks. But then two of the best players on the team didn’t return, and we had two super-league players that missed almost half the games in the rec league because they were at other games or practices. We limped into the City Tournament as a 4 Seed and dramatically won Game 1 in a walk-off in extra innings. However, with all the injuries and missing players, we couldn’t really compete with the #1 seed in Round 2. That meant we had to win the next game to qualify for the State Tournament, which we didn't do. Seth played really well. He played catcher a lot and had some really great hits. Hist best was a home run down the line that almost hit the fence on the big field. Despite being a shorter season, it was still a fun one. 

Seth is a good leader on his team.

Seth is a great catcher.

Mom loves watching her boys play baseball. 

Seth played one of his good friends Tyler. 

Seth pitched a little bit this year, too!

It was a good team!

Please note Randy's outfit! He forgot it would be hot and wore pants.

Note the umpire's outfit. We sent this picture to Mark since it was his buddy!

One Night in Veyo

In June, we decided to leave the city. We traveled to a little town called Veyo just north of St. George. We had been out to Veyo once before for their famous pie, but this time we had more in mind. The Veyo Pool and Grill had worked out a deal with Mom to let us stay in their ranch house, eat at their grill, and swim in their pool. We didn’t leave too early, but it’s a long drive to St. George. We stopped at a park for Mom’s work, and then pulled in around 3pm. The pool was actually pretty nice— natural spring water drained and filled every day with no chlorine or other chemicals. We had pie shakes at the grill and enjoyed a pleasant swim. The Ranch House was a nice old home that someone’s grandparents built in the early part of the last century. It had 4 rooms, but we only used 2, and there was a lot of living space. Mom made tacos, and we relaxed, watched a movie, and sat quietly. 

These two are such good sports about visiting parks.

It was so hot that the splash pad felt good!

We were excited to catch crawdads!

The Veyo Pool was super nice.

And these shakes were amazing.

We really had the best time!

Our neighbors!

This is the ranch house we stayed in.

The next morning, we went back over to the pool since we were staying right there at the resort. But before we swam, we had a crawdad excursion. That meant that we were given a stick with a big clip on the end, a cut up hotdog, and some nets. We’d put the hotdog stick into the river. Then, when the crawdads approached, we’d sweep them into the net. Mom was easily the best at this, followed by Seth (Dax was still in FL). It was actually pretty fun scooping crawdads out of the river. Some were up to 6 inches long, and there were tiny baby ones, too. We played at that for nearly an hour before hitting the pool, which was right at the top of the creek bank.

Breakfast

All ready to go crawdad fishing.

Mom thought the crawdads were fun to catch.

Mom definitely had the most fun at this activity.

Seth was pretty good at it, too! He caught this giant guy!

There’s a grill at the pool, and we were given a gift card to eat there. This time we skipped the pie shakes, and had burgers and fries, and a few other things. We ate poolside in the shade, and then swam again. The pool was really nice. It had items you could find underwater like a creature search. They were things like butterflies in amber, or a snake replica in a plasticine box, and it wasn’t busy at all. It was just the break we needed from baseball. 

We really loved Veyo!

Seth had fun getting Mom to take underwater photos of him.

Baseball Accident Setback

Dax went in for surgery on Thursday. Dad and Seth had to go to work for Field Day, so Mom went with Dax up to Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake. As usual at the hospital, it took a long time to get things moving, but finally, the anesthetist came and got Dax to sleep (he was really excited because he heard her say the number "10" as he was going under the gas.)

The morning of surgery this is what his eye was looking like.

Getting ready to go!

The anesthesiologist was so short, but so amazing!

Unfortunately, the surgery was unable to be completed. They went in through Dax's cheek, hoping to pull the impacted bone into place with a hook. This attempt failed due to what they called a "green break," which as far as we could tell, had some similarity to breaking a green stick. This meant that the bone wouldn't be pop back into place. The doctor called in a second surgeon, and they mulled cutting the bone and screwing it back together. However, they decided against that, and instead tried to shift (force) the bone into place. Ultimately, none of that really solved the problem of Dax's broken skull, though supposedly it is closer in line than it was. 

It was hard to wait and be brave!

It was one of the hardest things Mom has ever done to tell Dax that he went into surgery and things didn't go as planned. They cried a lot together in the hospital, and because there were complications, they had to wait longer to go home because they had to be seen by some extra doctors. But he finally was discharged and headed home to sleep and recover. 

This is his face after surgery. 

After waiting several weeks for swelling to go down, healing, and for Dax to return from Florida, we had our last appointments. Here's the final email update to friends and family:

Thank you all for your prayers, hope, and well-wishes for Dax. We are happy to let you know that they worked! Dax cleared the final hurdle today, and though it may not seem like I was good at updating, we have been waiting for three weeks for these 3 appointments. We met with 3 doctors, and got good news from all of them.

Dax had a surgery that was unsuccessful in setting the broke occipital lobe. That was several weeks ago. Since the bone could not be set, the doctor decided to “shave down” the protrusion and let the concave area alone. (The other option was putting a bone saw in through the eye socket and completing the break.) That meant that 3 doctors wanted to check him, but as we were no longer an emergency situation, they all planned us 3 weeks out.

First was the ophthalmologist. Dax's vision is unaffected, and should remain so despite the compromised orbital bone. So Dax passed the vision hurdle.

Second, we met with the surgeon. He said that though the bone is still out of place, it has already healed and is perfectly solid, so Dax’s face is neither tender nor compromised. The surgery cuts are healing nicely, and the muscles that move the eye are all intact and unaffected.

Finally, we met with the ocular plastics surgeon. This isn’t necessarily a cosmetic decision, though that would be on the table if Dax’s face were disfigured. It was more to see that the eyes were aligned, and working as they moved, range of vision, and if the left eye was bulging out. She ran several tests and took multiple measurements. She also said that everything was fine. 

The surgeon wants a follow up in 1 year. They want us to schedule yearly eye exams for Dax with our optometrist. Other than that, this debacle seems to be closed. Thank you again, in behalf of Dax, for your love and concern.

Randy

PS. He will play in the Championship game on June 25! He’s so excited.

All cleared for everything!

His face is healing so nicely!

Lava Hot Springs

Right after Dad got out of science training on the first Friday after school let out, we jumped in the car and headed out for a weekend at Lava Hot Springs. We'd never been before, and we were excited, but the weather also looked pretty gloomy for the weekend. We stopped only once for dinner at a cafe in Tremonton, and then got checked into the guest house around 7 pm.

Dinner Stop

On Friday night we went to the hotel hot tub. It was a pool about 4 feet deep and 10 feet wide by 20 feet long. There were only 6 other people in it. Unfortunately, they were young couples drinking and canoodling, and the boys had enough of their cursing in about 10 minutes. We headed back to the room.

Trying to enjoy the hot springs.

Saturday dawned gloomy and cold. It rained most of the morning, and we did very little in the room. Our only outing was down the street to the waffle shop for a few nice waffles. Finally around noon, the boys decided we should make the hour drive over to Blackfoot to see Grandma and Grandpa. We had a nice visit with them and Abby, and the rain had mostly stopped by the time we got back around dinner time. We ate comfort food at a chuckwagon right on Main Street. Then Randy and the boys went back to the hotel hot spring, which had a much family-friendlier vibe.

The boys showing Mom how they can sag their pants.

Waiting for waffles. 

It was fun to surprise Grandma and Grandpa with a visit.

Mom tried out the hot springs bath in the hotel room. 

That evening, we took a short walk along the river. Generally, people tube this river, but with the high spring runoff, and the cold temperatures, nobody was in the water. Still, the walk was nice, and we noted where people launch and land. We decided we'd have to try this activity some time.

Sunday arrived looking much better. The sun was out, and though it was still cold (around 50 degrees) with a gentle wind, at least we knew we could get a few nice pictures. So we decided to cram in all the adventures we could before heading home. Our first stop was the public hot springs. This is a section of half a dozen pools ranging in temperature from 102-112 degrees. We only managed the 112 for a few minutes before we were soup! But the cooler pools were nice, and since it was still fairly early in the morning, there were only a few older folks soaking in the hot water. We stayed for around an hour, enjoying the heat of the springs with the cool of the air.

The hot springs were really nice.

This pool was super hot. We didn't last long.

Next, we decided to head over to the waterpark. You can't miss this one, as two of the colorful slides go right over the road as you drive into town. There are a total of four slides, and though Dax still has a healing wound on his head, he tried them all. Two twist down in huge arcs, one of them in the dark, the other open to the day. The other two cross the road and then drop down very quickly into chutes. We had a great time with the water slides, alternating with splashing in the pool, and sitting in the hot spring. This was a nice way to end our vacation. Around noon, we decided to grab some food from the snack bar before heading home. It had turned out to be a pretty nice weekend!

You can only see the splashes as they come down the huge slides. 

We had a great time at the pool.

And enjoyed some treats and food before heading home.