Memories, new & old

This weekend the Padres faced the Brewers on a cool, cloudy Saturday morning. Tobin played third base and fared well, making three unassisted put-outs. He got three hits (didn't use the tee at all!) and scored three runs. He displayed a batting stance that reminded Matt a lot of Darryl Strawberry.



We continue to adore T-ball. Everyone is so friendly and good natured about everything. And it can, of course, be very entertaining too. In this past weekend's game, Tobin was the base-runner on third when his teammate Theo hit a pop-up that one of the Brewer infielders caught! Tobin had already made it most the way to home plate when he realized the ball had been caught. So his first reaction was that he was out too, because he took off his helmet and headed to the dugout. But then he figured out that Matt and Coach Leo were yelling at him to go back to third. He made it back fine, because the fielders were confused too and very belatedly doubled up the runner at first. After the play, Coach Leo asked for a little time and had all the players join him in a huddle on the pitching mound, where he tried to explain what just happened. It was a very funny, teachable moment.

More than anything, we're so thankful Tobin enjoys himself so much. We can't help but wish for him to do well but we try very hard to emphasize how fun it is to play, no matter what happens. We love his attitude--he's almost always smiling or laughing--and how he cheers for his teammates from the dugout. In this little video, I love how he smiles after he swings and misses, and how he hustles down the line when he does hit the ball.



Just as we made some memories on Saturday with the T-ball game, we had a memorable occasion on Sunday too when we gathered with my three closest friends from law school and their spouses. I can hardly believe it's been nearly six years since we graduated. Our friends Kari and Adam moved to Colorado shortly after graduation, so we hadn't seen them since 2007. They were in town for a couple of days so it worked out for us to get together at our friends Danielle and Mattison's house, where we let our collective brood play while we caught up. Among us, there are now TEN children: ages 7, 5 (x 2), 4 (x 2), 2, 1 (x 2), 10 months and 5 months. Our friends Leslie and John actually have the bookends of the crew--the oldest and the youngest of the kids.



We had pizza and lots of good--albeit disjointed--conversations. It was pretty crazy with all the kids but in a really lovely, fun way. Better yet, it happened to be Kari and Adam's younger son Felix's first birthday. So we celebrated with cupcakes too.



Six years post graduation, our lives are very different from what they were. But it also felt very easy to just be together. Kari, Danielle, John and I even had our obligatory, wistful reminiscence about our first-year property class with Professor John V. Orth. We parted Sunday night, promising to not let as much time pass between our next reunion.