World Series week. Something our family has looked forward to for a long time now. We first heard about it in 2006 when we hosted some California boys for the regional 14-yr.-old Babe Ruth tournament held in Murray. How perfect it was that Douglas would just happen to be 13 the year Murray was to host the World Series. "We want to be playing in that," we all said. That is when the dream began.
10 teams qualified to play in the WS. Leominster, Massachusetts*Harris Township, Indiana*Williamsport, Pennsylvania*Kennewick, Washington*Taylorsville, Utah*Murray, Utah*Tri-Valley, California*Tallahassee, Florida*Sikeston, Missouri*McComb, Mississippi. These are the only 10 teams in the entire nation, age 13 Babe Ruth, that are still playing baseball. This was a big deal!
As you are all very much aware of by now, Douglas did not get to have the experience he had dreamed of, nor did we. This baseball thing is a family affair and we are all in it together. We possibly were as disappointed as he was that he would not be able to play. So, what do you do? Make lemonade. You know the old adage...when life hands you lemons, make lemonade. That is just what we decided to do. Here is a recap of our crazy week!
Thursday August 20th:
3:00 Douglas' team checks in at the Crystal Inn. There is a brief orientation meeting, identification badges are handed out, gifts are given, rules of sportmanship are covered. We all get really excited for a fun week.
7:00 Back at the Crystal Inn to pick up the 3 boys we agreed to host from the Tri-Valley, CA team. Same meeting, load the car and the truck with 3 baseball bags, 3 teenage boys and their suitcases.
Friday, August 21st:
11:30 am: Ice Breaker BBQ at Willow Park Pond. Red Robbin caters burgers, chips and drinks. The boys get to mingle with the 9 other teams from around the country. Pins were exchanged for each region the teams represented. When the pins were fit together, they created the US. It was very cool. It was hot, hot, hot that day but a fun kick off to the week. After the BBQ we got a call that one of the host families was not working out and they needed us to take 1 more boy. Our 3 turned into 4.
3:00-4:45 Get my Tri-Valley boys to their practice. We were responsible to get them to all of their events as well as getting Douglas to all of his. Talk about double duty! It took both Russell and I to pull this off.
6:30-8:30 Banquet of Champions at the Park Center Gym in Murray. All of the teams were announced, including each boy. Dinner was served, Vance Law (BYU Head Baseball Coach) spoke. It was a great night. Luckily, I opted to leave Mason at Grandma and Grandpa's. Wise decision!
Saturday, August 22nd: Lets play ball!
12:00-1:30 Tri-Valley Boys practice.
3:00 Taylorsville vs. McComb, Mississippi.
6:00 Opening Ceremonies
Our boys from Tri-Valley have a bye.
Sunday, August 23rd:
9:00 Temple Dedication. Russell takes the boys so I can get my Tri-Valley boys where they need to be.
9:45 Take Tri-Valley boys to the field for their 11:30 game. Russell comes home and goes to the game while I stay back with Mason.
2:30 I go to the temple dedication and savor the peace found there!
4:30 Arrive home to find a house full of boys, their parents, and my extended family over for a corn dog and tater tot dinner (not my idea but kind of fun nonetheless:)). The house is CRAZY.
6:00 Douglas has batting practice at the coaches house.
7:30 We leave for Douglas' 8:00 game leaving my sweet babysitter with a house full of extended family and a big fat mess. Stockton and Mason stay behind.
12:30 am We arrive home from Douglas' game after a REALLY late start. Stockton has not fallen asleep yet but luckily, Mason had! By the time we grab a snack and wind down, it is 2:00 am.
Monday, August 24th: First day of school. I will not be receiving the Mom of the Year award for putting my kids to bed at 1:30 am the night before. I also took no pictures as we ran frantically around trying to get out the door. It was total CHAOS!
7:00 Douglas wakes up a half and hour late and runs out the door with a pop tart in hand.
8:00 Russell and I both take Stockton to his first day. He was SO excited.
3:00 The boys get home from school. We grab a Little Ceasars pizza and pack the diaper bag for Douglas' game that night.
3:45 Douglas to pre-game batting practice. We are playing the Tri-Valley boys so Russell takes them to the field while I drive Douglas to his coach's house.
5:00 We leave for Douglas' 5:30 game.
9:00 Home and very tired!
Tuesday, August 25th:
7:15 Douglas off to school
8:00 Stockton off to school
9:45 Drop the Tri-Valley boys off for their game.
11:30 Go watch our Tri-Valley boys play.
2:00 Home
3:00 The boys get home from school.
4:00 Dinner at 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. The boys have to taste Fry Sauce. It doesn't get more Utah than that!
5:00 Russell and Stockton go to Stock's practice until 6:30.
5:35 Douglas meets at his coaches house for batting practice.
8:00 We head to our 8:30 game. Mason stayed home with same cute babysitter from Sunday. Stockton came with us this time! We got home at 12:30 am once again. Another insanely late school night for us. My poor kids!
Wednesday, August 26th:
9:45 Tri-valley boys get dropped of for their 11:30 game.
11:30 Russell and I head over to watch them play.
2:00 Home from the game.
3:00 The boys get home from school.
6:30 Roni Smith and I host the entire Tri-Valley team, parents and coaches for a good old-fashioned Utah BBQ complete with jello salad, corn salad, spinach salad, macaroni-cashew salad, burgers, chicken, dogs and chips. The boys all play wiffle ball at the park and the parents have a good time chatting.
9:00 BBQ is cleaned up and I literally feel like passing out! The week is taking a toll on me.
Thursday, August 27th: Russell goes back to work, Taylorsville boys are done playing and my Tri-Valley boys have a Bye. Lucky me. I am home all day, by myself with 4 teenage boys and Mason.
11:15 Tri-valley boys have practice. Mason falls asleep on the way there. I wake him up to go back and pick them up at 12:30. ANNOYING!
1:00 Tri-Valley boys leave with their parents for the day and I don't get them back until 9:00 that night:).
5:00 Stockton has practice until 6:30.
7:30 I go to back to school night.
9:00 Russell picks up Tri-Valley boys from the field.
Friday, August 28th: Normal morning routine. Tri-Valley boys don't play until 5:30 so I get them all day again!
3:30 Leave to take Tri-Valley boys to the field for warm ups. I get stuck in major traffic jam and it takes me 30 minutes to make a 10 minute trip, GRRR. Russell packs up our kids and meets me at Roadhouse. It has been over a week since I have been out and I really need a Diet Coke with Lime and Grenadine. Even though I still have my 3 boys with me it feels like a bit of a break!
5:30 We go watch our Tri-Valley boys play. Good thing we all love baseball.
Saturday, August 29th:
9:30 Russell leaves the house with Stockton for his 1st week of Fall Ball double headers.
10:00 I take our Tri-Valley boys to another host family to hitch a ride to their game so I can go watch Stockton's games.
11:00 Stockton plays game #1.
1:00 Russell and Douglas head to the Tri-Valley game. They are playing for the championship. I stay with Stockton and Mason.
3:00 Stockton's game ends and we hurry to Ken Price field to catch the end of the championship game. We get there for the last inning and what a great inning it was. The Tri-Valley team rallies from behind to bring the game within 1 and loses in the end. By the time we take pictures, visit with the parents and gather the boys it is 5:30.
6:00 Leatherby's. Another Utah must! Table for 20 and a high chair.
7:30-3:00 am. Last night party. The boys stayed up REALLY late but they had a great time with our Tri-Valley boys.
Sunday, August 30th:
6:15 am Russell has Stake Meetings.
8:00 Leave the house for Ken Price field where the boys check in with their coaches and then off to the airport! WHEW.
Our T-ville team stunk! We lost our first 3 games, 2 of which I felt like we could have and should have won. It just wasn't clicking. Douglas was frustrated from the dugout but maintained a positive attitude throughout. His shining moments:
Reading the Babe Ruth code to open our Monday night game.
By the last game he was DYING to get on the field. He ditched his brace and went out for warm ups. He used Russell's lefty mitt on his right hand, caught the fly balls, popped the ball into the air while simultaneously throwing the mitt onto the ground so he could recatch the ball to make the throw. It was rather ingenious and I was so impressed by his ability to adapt. I was nervous he would trip and land on his left side. That would be tragic. It was a lot of fun to see him running around out there. He was afraid if the umpires saw his brace, he would not be allowed to play. As the game neared the end his coach asked him if he would rather spend an inning outfield or get an at-bat. He said it didn't matter to him, he just wanted to play. So, an at-bat it was. He had to bat lefty to protect his injured shoulder from the ball. He also had to bunt since he couldn't fully swing the bat. Tears were streaming down my face as I took these pictures. He ended up striking out but I couldn't have been a happier mom.
I was so proud of him for the way he made lemonade the past few weeks. And speaking of lemonade, our hosting experience was not really what we bargained for. We agreed to take 3 boys in for a week. In my mind that was 6 or 7 days. It turned out to be 10 nights and 4 boys. That was a really LONG time not to mention the fact that we got some pretty roudy ones. They were all good boys with unique and great things about them but they tried my patience the whole time! Let's just say they were very messy (crushed pop cans thrown on the carpet, wrappers thrown on the carpet, personal items laying everywhere and I think boogers wiped on the door fall into the messy category as well!), loud (especially after the hours of 10 pm.), disobedient (sneaking into the pool, taking pop downstairs after being asked not to, leaving to get Douglas from school 20 minutes before they were told, and the list goes on) and a bit lazy. I felt like I was running a daycare for 10 days. We still had fun with them, loved their parents, tried to let them have some fun without getting too upset at them and genuinely wanted them to have a good experience. We did our best to make lemonade!
And, while we are still on the topic of lemonade can I just say that August was one of the hardest months I have had in a long time. We suffered the emotional lemons of Douglas' injury, the financial lemons of the surgery (our portion, $1500 and counting), the lemony insanity of having 4 extras in the house for 10 days along with the chaotic lemons of the 1st week of school falling during a very important and time consuming tournament that we got to attend but not fully enjoy besides the fact that I got a new calling as the Relief Society Secretary and I have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what I am supposed to be doing! I have to say, I am getting a little tired of lemonade. August is now over and I am looking forward to a much needed Diet Coke with lime and Grenadine September.
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Enough said.