David's 2 and Charlie's beautiful! And a couple of Little League photos.

I took a super quick trip to Nishinomiya, Japan to meet Charlie and wish David a happy birthday. My dad and I flew out on Wednesday. We arrived in Nishinomiya at about 6 pm and I had to be on the bus back to the airport by 3 pm the next day. Why so short you ask?

I didn't want to miss a Little League game. Bob manages our team, the Mudcats. Cool name, huh? I am the bench coach and I'm totally into it. We had Opening Day last Saturday. We played an exhibition game last weekend and our first official game was Tuesday evening. We won both of those game. Next game is tomorrow, Saturday. Our boys are 2 out of 3 of the youngest on the team. We have 7, 8 and 9 year olds. I know I'm completely biased, however Shane and Sören are a couple of the best ones. Aunt JoAnne and Uncle Dan, check out these perfect swings during the Opening Day's Hit-a-thon!

Okay, back to Japan. I surprised my brother, Ryan and sister-in-law, Isabel. The surprise worked. Isabel shrieked, and little David cried when he heard it. Sorry David! Ryan was his cool self and just smiled. My first meeting with Charlie was memorable. She's a doll. Such a good baby. She has these beautiful, big eyes and a ton of black hair. I did the same short trip when David was born, so it seemed appropriate to be there. It was David's 2nd birthday. Since they didn't expect me, they had already made plans to celebrate his birthday on Saturday with some friends. He doesn't really understand it yet anyway. I was able to spend some time with David and accompany him to his preschool. I held Charlie a ton. Can't wait to see her grow up.

Home again. Thanks to my family for allowing me to go and to Ryan and Isabel for having me! A special thanks to Britt for stepping in for me with picking up the boys from school and doing her Aunt thing!