Grandma Hall’s 90th Birthday

We had the pleasure of heading to Portland this past weekend for Grandma Hall’s 90th birthday party. We also had the honor of escorting the birthday girl from her house to the party venue! The kids and I were backseat buddies, and I snagged this cute picture of my two favorite kiddos on the way to the event.

Grandma wasn’t sure she wanted this big event, but we all promised not to throw her another 90th birthday party.

We didn’t get a whole group photo, but we did grab one with ten of the 16 grandchildren at the end. There are tons and tons of great grandchildren, and they were too busy running around outside to get a photo. 🙂

We spent the night at Grandma’s house, and JT and Haley just loved playing with and walking her dog, Callie. We also made a yummy family breakfast Sunday morning before hitting the road home.

On the way home, we stopped twice (we made it to Portland in record time on Saturday but weren’t in a rush coming back) – once for Dutch Bros Coffee and another time for donuts. We listened to Harry Potter 4 and Christmas music and had a lovely drive in the pouring down rain!

Thanksgiving Weekend 2018

This year we decided to host Thanksgiving at my grandma’s senior residence in the hospitality room, so we could all be near her for the holiday. It was the perfect space! But let’s back up to the start of the weekend…


We started a new puzzle. And snuggled into the cold, wet weather.

Haley also suggested a family game of Monopoly, since we had four whole days to play!

On THE DAY, I popped a turkey in the oven and zoomed over to my grandma’s to set up with my sister in law, Gena.

Then we came back and feasted and hung out with family. I was thankful to get another 4-generation photo of my grandma, my mom, Haley, and me together.

On Friday morning, Haley woke up bright and early to start decorating!

Just like last year, the boys went up the ski hill and the girls stayed home. I think it’s fun!

Haley and I went to see The Nutcracker and the Four Realms in the afternoon after the house was decorated. We liked it!

Ahhhh…

Then we enjoyed a “lazy Saturday” with our usual pancakes. Except then Haley decided to do a MAJOR room clean-out.

And the kids enjoyed FaceTiming with their friends Sawyer and Jozie, who are away for a few weeks with their family.

For the big game, Haley dressed festively and made pumpkin oat chocolate chip cookies that were so good.

On Monday, both kids came downstairs dressed and ready to defend their champions. We loved watching UW win and Alabama win their rivalry games in the same weekend!

A Conference in San Diego

This trip was for Jim’s work! Jim attends an annual conference that was in San Diego this year, and a lot of the wives go along on this trip. He asked me maybe a year ago if I would join him on this one, and of course I said yes. It was five whole days of sunshine and I got to do some new things in San Diego.

Day 1, Friday – we were checked in at the hotel by 11 AM after a very early start in Seattle. Jim upgraded us to an ocean view room and it was beautiful!

We met up with the crew (8 guys and 6 wives or something like that) and went to El Indio for lunch. Best chimichanga I’ve ever had.

Then we hit Ocean Beach for the afternoon.

We got back to the hotel in time for sunset at the pool!

Jim and I walked around the conference trade show together, and then went out for dinner for the evening.

On Saturday, we met some people to go to brunch on Coronado at Crown Bistro. It was so yummy. Then we walked the beach and took the ferry back to the hotel. The team had one afternoon session to attend at the conference. While they were there, I walked over the Little Italy and shopped and had a mani/pedi at a local salon. That was nice!

Saturday night, Jim and I met some people in Gaslamp Quarter for the evening. We snuck off by ourselves to the Ghiradelli store for some treats. 🙂

Sunday morning the conference sessions began. I slept in a little and then went for a run on the waterfront.

I forgot my swimsuit so I took an Uber to Target, bought a new one and some beach snacks, and then I met up with Alison, one of the other wives, at Coronado for the rest of the day!

That evening Alison and her husband and Jim and I went to Bon Appetit in Little Italy for dinner, and then to Extraordinary Desserts after that. They are certainly extraordinary!

Monday morning I was up early to run. The sunrise views were lovely and it felt good to get going for the day.

Then I settled in for a morning of work. Rough view.

After my work calls were done, I went to Balboa Park. I’ve always wanted to go up there! I had lunch at El Prado and then took another few calls from outside the San Diego Art Museum. Not bad views for my work calls from here either!

I walked the Japanese Friendship Garden…

And toured the San Diego Museum of Man.

I went back to the hotel and joined Jim for a last evening in which we went to Coronado for dinner, to Miguel’s for Mexican. We took the ferry back and the night views were lovely!

On Tuesday, I spent the morning working again… poolside. Not too shabby!

We checked out of the hotel and went to Ocean Beach again for lunch and hanging out until we had to go to the airport.

Oh, and one last ice cream sundae. 🙂

It was a wonderfully sunny trip and my face got some awesome sunshine. We soaked up our fill of vitamin D and are glad to be back home as a family of four for the holidays.

More Minecraft

My work recently has revolved quite a bit around Minecraft. I’m enjoying learning more. I’m starting to see lessons for Minecraft pop up in the world around me, and that’s a good thing because I’ll be writing lessons (and managing other writers and world builders) for the next few months… the company I work for is releasing 200 new lessons eight weeks from now and I’m in charge of that. Ah!

I went to a two-day Minecraft trainer summit in Redmond with three of my other team members. We had a great time laughing and learning together. I even wore my Minecraft shirts.

While our team was all in town, we had two evening events. The first was going to IMOMSOHARD at the Paramount. My friend Kristin had bought us all tickets months ago… and then my teammate Beth was already going, and we found an empty seat next to me for my teammate Kelli. Win!

Then the second evening we had our team dinner, take two. Beth and Hope had missed our first team dinner (in October) because they were out of town, and Kelli was here from Alabama, so we met up for a second round. I just love my team, and this is only part of the awesome. 🙂

I wrapped up a busy three days “at home” with a new OneNote shirt coming in the mail. I was a speaker at a worldwide virtual conference that drew 3000 participants. To thank us for our time, the OneNote team at Microsoft shipped us each a shirt. That was a fun surprise! Here’s my #workfromhome photo in my new shirt. It’s a little nerdy, but I posted it on Twitter and it hit like 10,000 people in views. In my circle, people really love OneNote. 🙂

Weekend in Lake Chelan

We realized at the beginning of October that we were on a streak: we’d planned a camping trip every single month of 2018 – except November. So we quickly took a look around and decided to book two nights at Lake Chelan’s city park for Veteran’s Day Weekend. It was such a fun trip! We arrived late Saturday night (leaving after JT’s football game) and woke up Sunday morning to gorgeous fall weather.

First stop: tennis courts.

Then we took a bike ride to downtown Chelan and just happened to be riding by when the Veteran’s Day parade began. Of course we stopped and watched.

Then we rode all the way through Riverwalk Park.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped at the local bakery for treats.

The kids spent the afternoon making a huge leaf pile. We filmed in slo-mo and boomerang while they jumped in from every possible angle.

We took a walk to the park and then along the beach as well. Then we came back to the campsite for a campfire and s’mores bites.

We pretty much headed home first thing Monday after we packed up. Chelan is definitely a place we’d go visit again!

Day Trip to Reno

I had a client meeting in Reno on Monday, so I flew down in the morning and back in the evening. Our senior manager Jenn met me there, and we did a little team planning as well. Our first task was to find a smoke-free Starbucks. As a Washington girl, this seemed simple. It was not. We drove to three different Starbucks in a five mile radius, and they were all in casinos!

We finally found one… in the hospital. Perfect!

We met with our client, Washoe County Schools, and then headed back to a hotel…

…because our trainer, Sara, flew in to lead an event the next day.

So we all went out to dinner together before I flew home. We found an awesome restaurant in a restored train station called The Depot. I’d recommend it! Smoke free, gorgeous interior, yummy food.

I flew home and our plane was less than packed… I laid down in my row and took an hour nap! Then we glided right over downtown Seattle with clear skies on approach. It was beautiful!

PS This is my 1000th blog post! Oh my gracious!

Halloween 2018

We hosted our annual pizza party before trick-or-treating for our neighborhood crew! (I was working in Seattle that week but, because my boss is awesome, she offered to meet up in West Seattle for the morning. So I ferried over, worked at Starbucks for a few hours, had a yummy Mediterranean lunch, and ferried home in time to pick up pizza and get my house ready for guests.)

The kids coordinated a theme with their friends Sawyer and Jozie this year. JT was Luke and Haley was Rey. I love that they both chose characters who are strong warriors fighting for good!

I was thankful to have another mom to join me in walking the neighborhood. 🙂

Sawyer and Jozie came with us since their parents are out of town… and there was quite a series of negotiations to trade candy!

86 extra hours

That’s how many overtime hours I accrued in October! It was a busy month. The company I work for launched a new partnership with another company, and I’m in charge of all that entails: training, content, and resources. The owner of the other company was in Seattle for two weeks as part of the venture start-up, so we needed to capitalize on the opportunity for collaboration.

Bonus: I got to ferry with Jim most mornings!

We hosted 16 trainers from my company from seven states for a weekend Minecraft: Education Edition trainer bootcamp. That was three straight days of Minecraft, along with team dinners, planning, and lots of learning! 

Our two senior managers, who I work with a lot, flew in to join the event. We all stayed in our boss’s house for the weekend (near the training venue) and had a great time hanging out together.

Our trainers loved getting some serious swag – some sponsored by the Minecraft team, and some I ordered for them. Fun stuff!

Then we filmed some videos about Minecraft: Education Edition and how it can be used to amplify student learning and engagement. This is my “How in the world is this my life?” face. I can’t believe I get to do the awesome things that I get to do. I love that my work impacts kids around the world!

At the end of a very busy two weeks, I went to dinner and Volta (Cirque du Soliel) for an evening out with work friends. I was very ready for that extra hour of sleep on Saturday!

Pumpkins

We ordered a personalized pumpkin for the first time this year… and it was more stressful than I thought, coordinating a time in our schedule to go pick it up! But we did, and it was cute, and we put it on the porch.

I also grabbed two big pumpkins from Costco for carving. Haley had a master plan. In fact, she made a book full of pumpkin ideas!

JT, on the other hand, hates carving pumpkins because of the pumpkin guts. He literally gags. So he decorated his pumpkin with metallic Sharpie. And then he told me that he’s maybe getting a little too old for that anyway, and next year he’ll skip it all and just put his pumpkin on the porch, plain.Â