A little pitch 'n catch

Hey Collinses!

So, we've had a beautiful stretch of weather out here in the Bay Area, and Sarah and I have been doing our best to take advantage of it. We spent a lovely day out in the Filoli Gardens, which is an utterly fantastic manicured estate just south of SF. (It must be beautiful for me to rave about gardens.) We were joined by Mom, Laura and Luke, and Kathleen. A great day all around! I posted a few photos of the flowers below.

As part of the festivities, Luke and I had a good ol' fashioned catch. He's become quite a tee-baller, and it was great to practice our grounders, pop flies, and the like. I've put a sequence of the photos below. They're pretty funny: you can see how I'm trying my best to fulfill my avuncular duty (just like my fearless uncles decades ago ...), and the end result is Luke sitting on the ground with his hat pulled over his face. Kids ...

Hope you all are very well. Let's hear some chatter!

Love,

Brian and Sarah

Back in Country

Hello Collinses,
I'm back in the USA from my lovely winter trip to the mountains. All is well and I'm all settled back into being an American again. The puppy even seems to recognize me (she is chewing on a water bottle on my chest as I type). The trip went by rather quick and the winter weather was very mild this year. Lots of rain and mud. I did get one HUGE snow storm with snow coming down in snowballs. Very cool to see a place usually covered in browns and grays, canvased in white. The work was fun and I have to say turning 30 out there dampened the blow. I even made it into the middle east twenty minutes before the inauguration. How surreal, watching it from across the world with a roomful of people so far from their homes. I'm glad I made it in time.
I hope all is well with you guys and I will see some of you west coasters soon I think.

Brian, I have your 'package' ;)