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Hannah and Derek Jeter have been married for seven years and are parents to four children: daughters Bella Rain, six, Story Grey, four, River Rose, 21 months, and son Kaius Green, two months. Although I now mainly root for the San Diego Padres, I grew up on Long Island and was raised a Yankees fan, going to games at the old stadium. As such, I followed all of the Derek Jeter gossip: Mariah, Minka, swag bags, and beyond. Middle school-aged me finds it heartwarming that The Captain has settled down with four kids.
At the end of July, the Jeter family hopped into their giant Jeep Grand Wagoneer and road-tripped from NYC to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, which is generally around a four to four-and-a-half drive without stops. If you’re wondering why they didn’t just do that rich people thing and fly, there’s no direct route to Cooperstown. You have to fly into Albany and drive about 90 minutes. Also, it’s pretty obvious that Jeep sponsored their trip, haha. In an interview, Hannah spoke about the realities of traveling with young children and all that it entails.
Once Derek Jeter called it a career in 2014 after 20 seasons and five World Series rings, he wasted little time setting up a true home base with his wife of seven years, Hannah Jeter. Fast-forward to this summer, when they piled four children into their Jeep Grand Wagoneer for a road trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame festivities in Cooperstown, N.Y., and the couple can measure—in memories and mileage—how far they’ve come as a team.
“Just to clarify, it was her bright idea to bring all four of them,” Derek cracked, pointing to the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue cover model sitting next to him. “It was ambitious.”
But Hannah simply refused to leave their youngest, then-2-month-old Kaius Green, behind.
And yes, the four-and-a-half hour drive from New York City was “definitely chaos,” Hannah shared, with daughters Bella Rain, who’s since turned 6, and Story Grey, 4, in boosters and River Rose, 21 months, and her baby brother in respective car seats.
“We need a lot of room,” Hannah described the scene. “We need a big trunk. We need a good sound system, as Derek would say, to drown out the noise. You need a lot of snacks.”
I have no idea if a nanny was included in that adventure or not but I don’t envy anyone doing a road trip with four young kids, especially an infant. Every kid is different. Some children travel really well and others don’t. It has to be a mixed bag with four of them. Traveling with kids definitely changes as they get older, but snacks (and if I’m being cynically honest, tablets) are probably the one thing that make children of all ages happy. For us, it used to be a boob or bottle, then yogurt or applesauce, and now we’re solidly in pretzel and goldfish territory, which I’m hoping we’ll stay in for a while.
As I said, every kid is different. Most parents want to share the things that mean a lot to them. If the Jeter children can handle it or if Derek and Hannah had plans in place for when they misbehaved or got overstimulated, then I think it’s great that they were included in the Hall of Fame induction festivities. If you’re a baseball fan and you’ve never been to the HoF or Cooperstown area, it’s pretty awesome. I definitely recommend going in the fall when all of the farm festivities are also going on. Don’t forget to bring snacks!
For my little sister it was cheerios in a ziploc bag. Worked every time!
I think they did a smart thing! I grew up about 50 minutes from Cooperstown by car, moved to the Midwest and eventually became a single parent. After one flight with a then-six-month-old, I knew I’d NEVER want to set foot on a plane with little kids. So, for years, my little team of three and I made the 20-plus hour trip to Grandma’s by car, along with a cooler and (eventually) a five-man tent. We’d eat breakfast in a restaurant, have a picnic at lunch and land at a campsite or motel, where we’d eat dinner in the room (or the campsite). And when they got old enough (maybe the small one was four or five) I taught them to sing three-part harmony because…..(get ready for it), they couldn’t fight when they were singing! Traveling with little ones is a lot, but the thing about a car is you can always find a spot to pull over and let them have a little “blow off steam” time – something that is impossible on a plane.
You nailed it with this comment!! Mine are old enough to fly now – but the “pull over and run around thing” was HUGE when they were little! Trapped on a plane with small kids – NO MA’AM.
Those goldfish are great until you are vacuuming them out of every crevice in the car. This story does my heart good, though. I had no idea Jeter had 4 kids. He was smart to wait until his career was over to start a family. Rosie, I still haven’t been to the new stadium but have fond memories of the old one. Derek gave us some good gossip back in the day, but he always did his job well.
@FHMom I actually put a moratorium on eating in the car in general unless it’s a road trip. They are so messy! We were just at the new stadium in May to see the Padres/Yankees game! I switched jerseys every inning to be impartial haha.
My kids are 25+ and I did many road trips with baby/toddlers. Some with husband, some alone. I drove from GA to MN with a toddler in the back and a small laundry basket full of toys in the front. I would hand him a toy, he would play until bored, throw it in the ground, holler, and pass him another toy until the basket was empty. Than it was time for a break.
I personally would neither travel with nor leave behind my two month old *but* maybe I’d feel differently if I was on baby number four.
I’ll take this happy family story over the hate filled divorce stories any day.
And, yes, snacks snacks and more snacks are the way to get through any situation with little kids that need to stay still.
Agree to snacks it works for 5 year olds and 45 year olds lol. Also mostly chiming in to say that as a fellow Padre fan I’d be into more baseball gossip! 😊⚾️
@SummerSage, hi fellow Padres fan! We getting that wild card this season or what?!