So it’s been a little while since the last time we gave an update on all things “Desert Dwelling Smith” and about a hundred times longer since I was actually the one putting fingers to keyboard. 

First of all, Happy New Year to everybody and we hope that 2010 is full of health, happiness, and success for all of you.

And now for the update …

Christmas for us was a good one.  We spent Christmas Eve with Lisa’s family at Gary and Bonnie’s house where we were able to see Lisa’s Uncle, his wife, and their son Cameron (who we hadn’t seen in far too long).  Christmas morning at our house was fun, as it always seems to be every year.  Braelyn was surprised with a handful of treats from Santa and we were able to just take our time and relax together as a family … for a few hours at least … we ended up hosting Christmas Lunner at our house with about 20 friends and family with a fun potluck, bocce ball tournament, and a fire outside on the patio.  It was cool to have so many good people come together and just enjoy each others’ company.

Lisa, Braelyn, and I packed up and headed home to SD for the week between Christmas and New Years and were fortunate enough to see lots of family and friends while we were there. 

We took a family trip (my Mom, Dad, Devyn, and Kyleigh along with L, B, and me) to the Wild Animal Park which Braelyn absolutely ate up.  We took the safari tour, heard Lions roaring, got to touch an African Boa Constrictor, got mooned by a handful of Gorillas, fed Ducks, rode the Carousel, and about died from heat exhaustion (the forecast called for something near 60 degrees but ended up roasting our fully clothed selves with a very January-esque 85).  It was a good family outing as none of us had been there since Devyn was in Middle School (10 years ago at least).  Braelyn also decided she wanted to get her face painted … pretty darn cute in my biased opinion.

My parents hosted a New Year’s Eve open house and we were able to see Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Friends, and Neighbors … all of whom we haven’t seen in too long … it was awesome to get caught up.

Braelyn and her Gramma Sheri spent some time baking cookies, playing in the front yard, and playing with lots of toys … Braelyn enjoyed having her little cousin following her every footstep for the week too.

Since we’ve been back to reality, Braelyn continues to keep us busy with her dance/gymnastics classes, swim classes, and play dates with her friend Esteka.  We also had another fun annual excursion with Jack and Betty (Lisa’s Gpa/Gma) when “Disney on Ice” came to town - Braelyn hasn’t stopped talking about it nor has she quit pretending to skate around the house.

As this is a rare update with me as the author, I’ll try to give a recap of some of my job/role changes since the last time I posted:

After spending 2009 away from our Major League team for the first time in 5 years; I was running around scouting High School and College players in preparation for the Draft as well as covering and reporting on a handful of Minor League teams in case trade opportunities were to arise and/or to gauge our interest in Free Agent acquisitions.  I really enjoyed my time and was able to earn a more involved role within our scouting department.  2010 will see me covering 21 professional teams (5 Major League, 16 Minor League) for trades/free agency as well as seeing some of the top amateur players in the country as we prepare for the Draft (it sounds extremely similar but it is different, I promise, though it’s hard to explain).  Long story short, lots of travel, lots of writing, lots and lots and lots of baseball … and lots of opportunity.

I’m just enjoying every minute of the off-season right now since my time at home runs out on April 8th.  Braelyn is such an incredible little girl and Lisa, with very little help from me, sets such a wonderful example of what a caring, loving, genuine person embodies.

Long winded I know, but at least I hope you feel caught up.  Best wishes to you and yours …

Matt

Happy November to Everyone!

We just got back from a week long California extravaganza which included a lot of visits with friends and family and a very fun trip to Disneyland to see it decorated for Halloween and to do some trick-or-treating with Mickey and the gang!

We have never done trick-or-treating with Braelyn before because she is not one to eat candy BUT she really wanted to dress up and go out this year so we figured, what the heck! She wanted to be Tinkerbell which is right in line with her new fairy obsession so of course, mom obliged! On Friday of our trip, we went with Tom and Sheri to the trick-or-treat party at California Adventure Park which consisted of parades, characters dressed up in costumes and several trick-or-treat stations around the park.

Braelyn was lucky enough to be in the parade and to dance with Pinocchio and a very friendly pink witch. They grabbed her out of the crowd and showed her some funny Halloween dances. She was SO excited and kept looking over at us and smiling.

She was also VERY into standing in line and getting her candy. We hit all of the candy stations and her bucket was totally full by the end of the evening. She only ate 1 thing out of the entire bucket and divided up the rest for her sweet-tooth relatives!

We also did a 2 day pass to Disneyland on Monday and Tuesday and got to see some shows, go on all of her old favorite rides and even experience a couple of new rides. She finally agreed to go into the Tiki Room and even wanted to go on Pirates of the Caribbean. She did really good with both, only hiding her face once or twice which is a real accomplishment for her. We tried to get her to do Nemo but she told us that she would only do that when she turns 4.

We did our annual Princess lunch as well and she was picked to be the one to greet all of the princesses when they come out. She stood at the front as the royal announcer told everyone her name and that she would be helping him, then each princess came out to our table first. She was really happy about that and would run up to them the second they came out from the back.

We had a lot of fun but were worn out from all of our activities and it took us a few days to recover once we got home!

Matt carved a pumpkin with her on Friday and she wanted to go out again on Halloween night to get more candy!

We weren’t sure that we would take her out because she had been sick all week and was still coughing and sneezing that morning, but after a 4 hour nap her heart was really set on going out.  We dressed her up as Minnie Mouse and I think that her costume earned her extra treats because after only 7 houses, her bucket was full. Again she ate only 1 thing and we put the rest away for everyone else.

We have lots more pictures to share of things we’ve done with friends and family and I will update everyone about Matt’s surgery next week. OR maybe I will make him dictate it to me since he still owes everyone an update on his new job!! We hope everyone is doing well and that we will get to spend some time with you during the upcoming Holiday season. Goodbye for now!

Happy Saturday Afternoon!

Our family just got back from lovely (and HOT!) San Diego so, I thought I would share all of our fun times with everyone :)  Because we were gone for a whole week and packed a TON of activities into that time, I decided to make a list of all of the adventures and fun times we had rather than writing paragraphs about each one.  I also have a bunch of pics for everyone to enjoy so…. here we go….

THINGS WE DID/PLACES WE WENT/PEOPLE WE SAW

(These are in no particular order!!)

1. Kyleigh’s 1st Birthday Party

2. Legoland

3. The Sea Life Aquarium

4. Dinner with Sara and Emma

5. Dinner downtown and the show, Wicked

6. Time with family

7. Time at the beach

8. Matt’s Birthday

9. Time in the water (to cool off from the ridiculously HOT weather!)

I will leave it to you all to figure out which pictures below came from which of our destinations :)  We hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend & hope to hear from you soon!

Love,

MLB Mama

Hello everyone – it’s been awhile! We have been really busy with traveling this last month and it hasn’t left me much time for writing and blogging. We are home now and I wanted to share some things from our latest trip since it is so fresh in my mind.

Matt and I took our delayed anniversary trip which we were initially supposed to do for our 4 year anniversary last fall. Due to some unexpected circumstances, we had to push off the trip to this summer & we are glad that it worked out.

We spent 5 glorious days in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada and we now remember why we love it so much! The weather, the views and the people make is such a spectacular place to visit. We had sunny, warm temperatures in the high 80s/low 90s which is heaven to us at this time of year. The skies were blue without clouds and you could see the surrounding mountain ranges, lakes and trees forever. We got to be outside everyday whether we were walking, hiking or listening to live music in the village and it was such a nice change.

The first day of our trip was Canada Day, similar to July 4th here in the US so there was a local parade and people were singing the national anthem and dressed up with red, white and maple leaves. Since Whistler will be hosting the 2010 winter Olympics, the mascots and torch were there at the official opening of their Olympic store.

Thursday we decided to be adventurous and we took an ATV ride up to the top of Blackcomb Mountain for a yummy waffle breakfast. The view from the top of the mountain was breathtaking and made us appreciate what a beautiful place we were in. We also went through a mud pit, saw a deer and fawn and a bear sitting on the side of the mountain. Bears are a pretty regular thing to see in Whistler – I have seen one each time we have been there for the past 12 years – but it is still pretty amazing to see wild animals in the “wild”. He just sat on the mountain munching on grass and plants and was completely unaffected by the noise or the fact that 8 people were staring at him taking pictures.

Friday we took the ski lift to the top of Blackcomb Mountain and hiked for a couple of hours back to a lake that was partially frozen and surrounded by snow, even though the temperature outside was about 70 degrees. Matt hiked without his shirt and I was wearing a tank top but there was still several feet of snow on the ground and thick ice on the lake!

After our lake hike, we took the new gondola built especially for the Olympics – the Peak to Peak. This gondola takes you from the top of Blackcomb Mountain to the top of Whistler Mountain in 11 minutes which is REALLY fast. It is however, also REALLY scary as there is NOTHING below you but a creek and trees and you are VERY high up in the air. The engineering is as such that there is no support stations between the 2 peaks so you are just kind of hanging out there in between 2 tall mountain peaks. All I can say is that I am thankful that it was only 11 minutes and that I did it for the experience but won’t be doing it again When we got over to Whistler mountain we took an open-air ski lift to the peak for some amazing views of the whole valley. We also got to eat a yummy BBQ dinner at the lodge and listen to live local music.

Saturday was our last day to eat, shop and appreciate the time we had together. After lunch, we got into our rental car (which we hadn’t driven since our arrival! In Whistler when the weather is nice, you can walk everywhere and Matt calculated we walked about 5 miles each day!) and drove back to Vancouver to stay at a hotel near the airport since we had an early morning flight on Sunday morning.

We had such a great time and it was a much needed vacation for us away from all of the realities of normal life. We got to sleep in and do whatever we wanted with no schedule and no time commitments and it was really nice to be able to do that for a few days. My parents and grandparents took care of Braelyn and Casie for us up at the cabin so that we could get our time together and we really appreciate it (as always) and it made it easier for me knowing that she was in a really fun place so she wasn’t worried about us not being there.

We hope you enjoy the pictures but I must say they do not do justice to the true beauty of Canada. If you ever get the chance, VISIT because I haven’t met anyone yet who hasn’t absolutely loved being there!

Have a good week!

Love,
MLB Mama

Happy New Year from the AZ Smiths!!!

We are SO happy to turn the page on 2008 and move onto what we hope will be a wonderful 2009.

We made a last minute trip to California which turned out to be a really fun, whirlwind trip.  We rang in New Year’s Eve in San Diego with family eating lots of good food, laughing and spending the last few hours of 2008 sitting around the fire pit chatting.

On New Year’s Day, we got to take some Smith Family pictures near Tom and Sheri’s house.  Here are 2 of my favorites:

After taking our pictures, we headed over to Matt’s Aunt and Uncle’s House for a great family get together with all of the extended family that we had missed at Christmas.  There were about 34 people and some really yummy food - we really enjoyed seeing everyone and Matt’s family was SO happy to finally see him for the first time in a couple of years!

On New Year’s Day night, we drove up to Anaheim where we checked into our hotel so that we would be ready to go to Disneyland on Friday morning, bright and early.  We had A LOT of fun seeing all of the characters (We got a picture with Minnie this time!) and taking Braelyn on all of the rides.  She refused to go on any ride that went inside or in the dark.  We did convince her to go on Small World and she did like that but other inside rides were a “no go”.  She LOVED Dumbo, the teacups and the carousels.  She also rode on Autopia and drove the car!  We did our annual lunch at Ariel’s Grotto with the Princesses and the girls were really great.  We got to see Snow White and Jasmine this year who we missed last year.  All in all, even though Braelyn didn’t nap at all, we had SO much fun and intend to go back next year too!!

We drove home on Sunday and on our way out, we stopped by my cousin Sara’s apartment to see her new baby, Emma as well as my aunt and uncle.  We had a good visit for a few hours and got to meet our newest cousin.  Braelyn was really excited to have another baby cousin that she could call “peach head!”

We want to wish you a magical year and hopefully we will get to see everyone soon!

Love,

MLB Mama

Hello from the desert!

We just returned from our last summer trip to San Diego where we had SO much fun!  We were gone for 10 days and we got to spend lots of great time with family, visited Sea World again and witnessed our newest family addition, neice and cousin Kyleigh.  It was so relaxing to hang out in the cooler weather and celebrate my mom’s birthday, along with Matt’s and Kyleigh’s arrival.  We got some funny shots of B playing in her pool at Tom and Sheri’s house and also beaching it in Carlsbad at my parent’s timeshare.  MLB dad had a day off and we used our Sea World passes to make another trip back to do the things that B LOVED the last time we were there.  As the fall approaches and possible baseball playoffs are looming (keep your fingers crossed), we don’t have any plans to travel until Thanksgiving where we will be back in San Diego for one of our very good friend’s wedding.  I do hope that I will have pictures and playoff tales to tell from Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, or Philadelphia if the Dbacks can hold on to first place.  We hope all is well and that the beginning of Fall has come to you wherever you make your home.  We love you all and look forward to seeing you all soon!

Love,

MLB Mama

Hello Everyone!!!

I wanted to take a few minutes to post about our recent trip to Northern CA.  Tom and Sheri bought me an airline ticket to go up with Matt for my Birthday and my parents graciously agreed to take B up to the cabin with them for a few days.  When she is up there, she doesn’t even know I am gone.  She is such a busybody playing in the garden and being outside so it doesn’t even matter Mom isn’t there!!

We flew up to San Francisco on Matt’s off-day in the morning so we would have the whole day together rather than flying with the team in the evening.  When we arrived we grabbed lunch at one of the restaurants (Mexican) that Matt likes to eat at near the hotel and then we took a cab down to Pier 39.  We did some shopping (clothes for Braelyn and candy for Matt) and walked around the Embarcadero enjoying the cool weather and the people watching.

We had to make a stop at the Sea Lion and Seal area to take some pictures of them for Braelyn.  They were so funny, pushing each other off the piers and barking and splashing all around.

That night we went to a really nice dinner at the Cliffhouse right by the ocean.  It had a great view and yummy (if not snooty) food! 

The next day we spent the morning walking around the city and Matt took off for the game after lunch. 

I got some great alone time to read, work out and catch up on emails in the hotel and then watched the game on TV that night.  On Saturday morning, we got up and took a cab to one of Matt’s college baseball teammates house to borrow his car for our adventure over to Sausalito.

That night, I cabbed it to AT&T Park where I got to sit with Matt and watch a Dbacks baseball game with him for the first time in something like 4 years.  The seats were great (right behind home plate and 9 rows up from the field) and the game ended in a Dbacks win for Brandon Webb.  I waited outside the clubhouse for Matt took the team bus with him from the field to the hotel.

The next morning (Sunday) we got up for an early morning walk before Matt had to leave for the field.  I left for the airport shortly after he left and then began the long trek on the airport shuttle, walking through the airport, a late flight and FINALLY home.  B was just waking up when I got home and she was excited to see me.

We had such a great time exploring and spending some much needed time together.  We only have 2 more months (and hopefully playoffs) left of the season and we are planning at least 1 more travel trip to San Diego.  We hope you will all continue to cheer for the Dbacks and that we can see you in our last few travels of the season.

Love to all,

MLB Mama

Well…the all-star break has come and gone and even though it got off to a rough start for Matt (he was delayed leaving Philadelphia and missed his connection from Phoenix and San Diego!) we ended up having a relaxing, if not sun-burned couple of days

Braelyn is somewhat of an animal addict and she LOVES anything that lives in the ocean.  Jan and Bob gave her a magnet set for her birthday that is one of her favorite toys and she ALWAYS want to do the sea animals set so, needless to say, she knows all kinds of ocean animals, their names and what they eat!  A trip to Sea World was definitely something we HAD to do during the break.  We had a great time at the Shamu, Dolphin and Pets Rule show, as well as the looking at all of the animal exhibits.  It wasn’t too crowded and the animals were pretty active so we got some great close up views.

Mind you, Braelyn knows the names of, not just the normal animals like dolphins and seals, but she also recognized the manatees, sea stars, beluga whales, orcas and sea otters.  I guess we have Go Diego Go! to thank for all of her animal knowledge. 

Braelyn was funny because she thought that Sea World was its own city or state!  When we left Tom and Sheri’s house she said “we’re leaving San Diego now” and when we pulled up in front of their house after our all-day trip, she said “we’re back in San Diego Mommy!”  We had a great time with family and we are thankful for the time we were able to spend away from the field and look forward to going back to SD at the end of August.

Love, 

MLB Mama

As I sit here in my hotel room in Miami and am able to reflect on the last week for a few minutes I realize that I am fortunate to have a very cool “job” that I enjoy and that provides me opportunities to experience once-in-a-lifetime situations much more often than I realize. 

 The team went through Boston earlier in the week and I was able to finally see Fenway park, the Mecca (sorry Yankee fans), and experience Red Sox Nation.  And I had a blast.  I can’t describe the goosebumps and sense of history that hit me when I walked up the steps into the dugout and onto the field the other day.  For me, it looks much different in person than on TV and it took a second to get my barings. 

I was able to just wander around and give myself a tour of the park and I explored every nook and cranny that I could find.  I went to the top of the Monster, out to Pesky pole, sat behind one of the pillars in the grandstand (just to see what the poor saps who buy the tickets from the scalpers see) and had to pick splinters from the wooden seats out of my shorts.  I got a chance to go through the Red Sox clubhouse and just cruised the concourses to get a feel for the place … AWESOME!  I shook hands with Manny and saw Papelbon wearing a Pirates’ bandana and eye patch in the weight room (the Yankees were playing the Pirates so their clubhouse was pulling for Pittsburgh, obviously).  I also had the opportunity to go inside the Green Monster and “immortalize” myself by signing my name with a Sharpie on the foundation of Fenway park amid the thousands of other signatures down there (there were so many that I was in there for 20 minutes reading the old signatures and didn’t even come across the legends).  And no, I didn’t pee in the same spot Manny so famously did during the infamous pitching change a few years ago. 

 I was also able to walk around Boston’s downtown a little bit and spent a fair amount of time in the park (Boston Commons).  There were some Trumpeter Geese (that were almost as big as I am) that were sitting on a nest full of, what looked like, dinosaur eggs - something I’ve never seen before. 

It was also good to catch up with some old friends and people I used to work with, who are now Red Sox employees, after one of the games.  They showed off their World Series rings and shared stories of the Duckboat parade.  Needless to say I was jealous and eager to have a similar experience in Phoenix one of these days. 

It was an unbelievable stop and something that definitely lived up to the expectations.

I am, however, looking forward to getting home.  When it’s all said and done, I will have spent just 8 days at home this month and have been gone the better part of the last 6 weeks.  My minor league scouting coverage is complete, with just a handful of reports left to write up before the trade deadline so the work load will lighten up a bit soon, relatively speaking. 

 I hope all of you are doing well and hopefully my travels will bring us together at some point soon … Now if I can only get “Sweet Caroline” out of my head.

Sorry for the lull in communications
B came down with the VERY nasty stomach virus that is apparently going around in the kiddos and it knocked her FLAT for 1 full week.  Those of you that are familiar with B and her daily antics will know that this must have been something serious to keep her from eating and playing for 7 days.  We are glad that she is finally feeling better and have become obsessive/compulsive hand washers the last few weeks to try to keep it from spreading - it is not something I would care to have.  Luckily MLB dad avoided getting it, mainly becuase he has been gone for about 2 weeks straight - I think we saw him for a total of about 10 hours since May 9th and he won’t return until the 26th. 

Because this month and next are so crazy for traveling (he is gone 21 out of 30 days in June), B and I have become dedicated Dbacks watchers (even more so than in the past) and have foresaken pretty much all other TV so that we can keep up on the goings on with the team.  It is necessity for me because I can guarantee that after the game I will receive a phone call quizzing me on plays and strategy for that evening’s contest & I better be ready :)  It also keeps us feeling close to his daily routine and what he is experiencing when he is away from us for so long.

B has become a regular cheerleader and knows all of the starting pitcher’s names.  On their day to start, she will do a “GO (Fill in pitcher’s name here) and GO DBACKS!” cheer for Matt and we have even recorded it and messaged him on his cell phone.  She knows that the Dbacks wear red hats and that they try to “hit the ball over the fence.”  She even practices hitting like the Dbacks with her set of golf clubs and works on catching the ball like “O-Dog.”  I fear we have created a monster.  She will run around the living room saying that she “LOVES baseball” and that “Micah is her favorite and she LOVES him.”  Oh the poor boys that will date her and try to keep up with her baseball knowledge!

I got lucky and married someone who is more obsessed than I am with sports but we do have entertaining evenings of watching Baseball Tonight and Sports Center to try and catch the 10 second highlights of the Dbacks that they show (East Coast and AL Bias!!!!)  He knows WAY more than me about everything regarding baseball and all I can do is try to keep up and impress him with my surprising tidbits of info.

Anyway, if you all didn’t know it, we are baseball crazy and we try to stay connected any way that we can.  It is such a HUGE part of Matt’s life and therefore ours but I am growing to love it more and more and couldn’t imagine another way of life.  It’s hard when he’s gone for so long, but knowing that he has a job that he loves so much, makes it easier.

We hope you are all well and taking the time to enjoy being with your spouse, kids and family.  Quality time is important, don’t take it for granted!!  We love you all.

Until next time,

MLB Mama