California

First airplane ride, check!

First trip to Disneyland, check!

First Major League Baseball game, check!

9 weeks old and our baby is already seeing the country!

When I was about 8 months pregnant, Matt came home from school one day, and asked if I wanted to go to California for a baseball tournament with his high school team...and a 9 week old  baby! At first I wasn't sure about traveling with an infant, but I thought I might as well be adventerous, considering I would be on maternity leave, and it would be such a fun experience for our family!

Matt coaches varsity baseball for his high school, and every few years, the school will help pay for a trip to a tournament out of state. So over Easter weekend we took 12 high schoolers, 2 coaches, 2 mom chaperones, myself and baby to California for 5 nights! We had a blast! Here are some highlights from our trip....

These are some of the guys at the airport. They were all SO sweet with baby Matthew! When we had Matthew, I thought we might call him different names like Junior, MJ or something like that. However, Matthew has been the only name that has stuck for us...except for Matt's baseball team. It's really cute because they all call him Junior.
I love it!

Matthew did amazing on the airplane rides! I nursed him about 15 minutes before we boarded the plane, and bundled him all up. By the time we were taking off, he was falling asleep and sucking on his binkie. He slept most of the trip, and I nursed him again just before we landed. I had nightmares of him screaming the whole flight, and was so relieved at how well he did! On the flight to California, they gave us an extra middle seat, so we were able to lay Matthew between us, and give my lap a break!

 This is his makeshift hotel bed!  A couple cushions, blankets, pillows, and a white noise machine! He slept pretty good while we were in California. He obviously was completely off his usual schedule and routine, but overall did really well.

Our hotel room was right next to one of the players room. Every morning, one of the guys would come downstairs and tell me exactly what time Matthew woke up during the night, because he could hear him crying! Ha! Poor guy...thankfully he was so gracious about it!

The weather was so gorgeous! Matthew sporting his new sunglasses! What a little stud!



I love his bright blue/grey eyes!!

One night we went to Disneyland!  We were there from 5-midnight, so the time went by quickly, but we had a blast! Last year, we found out I was pregnant the night before Matt and I were leaving on a trip to Disneyland...we were obviously extremely excited, but it also meant that I could only ride rides like Dumbo and It's a Small World. So this time around, I was determined to go on all the big rides! One of the moms who also went on the trip doesn't like the rides, so she graciously offered to watch Matthew, so that Matt and I could enjoy the rides together! We had so much fun, but seriously, we are not night owls, so by the time midnight came around, we were exhausted!

Kinda funny story...while at Disneyland, baby Matthew was getting really tired and ready to go to bed. However, he was fighting it like crazy and was really fussy. So I nursed him, and he was still crying! We decided to put him in the Moby wrap, carry him around for awhile, and see how he did. Now mind you, at Disneyland, you can take babies on alot of the rides with an adult. So knowing we were on a time frame, Matt strapped on the Moby (which keeps baby extremely snug), and we got in line for Pirates of the Carribean. Matthew cried and cried! We finally got him calmed down about the time we were getting on the ride. Go figure, we would get put in the front of the boat for the ride. Now this ride is like a 10+ minute water ride, that slowly takes you through the scenes of the movie, except for 2 times when you go down a big waterfall sort of thing. So we get on the ride, and Matthew starts to scream. We are feeling like awful parents right about now. We are going along, trying to soothe our screaming baby, not enjoying the ride at all, and here comes the first drop...down we go, get splashed because we are in the first row, and Matthews eyes become huge saucers and he stops crying! I think we scared him out of his crying fit! For the next little while, he looked around with the biggest eyes taking in all the scenery and lights, and fell fast asleep about half way through the ride!

That night, once we got back to the hotel, and crashed, Matthew woke up about 3 am. He was crying pretty loudly, and I could not get him to nurse or stop crying. I was trying everything I could think of to get him to stop crying, but it wasn't working. I also couldn't get him to open his eyes. Matt woke up and tried to get him to stop crying too. It was like he was still sleeping, but was having a nightmare of his experience on the Pirates of the Carribean! So Matt finally got him to stop crying, and once he opened his eyes he gave his Daddy the biggest grin! It was so sweet and we got a pretty good laugh out of it! We now like to joke that when he's screaming, he is probably having a nightmare about the pirates!

On Easter Sunday the team had the day off. We started the morning by going to a wonderful church service together and celebrating the Lords Resurrection! We then set off for Matthew's first Major League baseball game at Angels Stadium! That evening we were going to go to the beach to have a time of testimony and fellowship, but it was the one day that was chilly, and even rained, so those plans got put on hold. We missed celebrating Matthew's first Easter with our family and church family though!

I thought this would be the perfect sun hat for Matthew while we were in California...only I never tried it on him before we left!

I never thought that a hat would be too big for a Stevens head! Ha!

Matt's team went 2-2 in the tournament

We speant a beautiful evening at the beach!

 Matthew wasn't really sitting up...he was sitting on a wall, and I was kneeling behind it holding him up!

Okay, does this picture not scream Caleb?!?!?!

Matt is blessed to be a part of a wonderful coaching staff!

We had such a great first trip with baby!

 We loved getting to spend time with Matt's team, and also time together as a family!