The Keene Family

Haley’s Birthday

What a good time we had celebrating Haley turning eight! Her birthday this year came in phases… starting with a family birthday party over a week in advance. Haley wanted to make sure Uncle Jeff, Aunt Gena, and Ali had a chance to attend before they left to take Ali to college in California, so we bumped it back a week and had her dinner (sweet and sour chicken, lo mein with vegetables, steamed broccoli, and fruit).

One highlight was testing out the new Nerf gun on Uncle Jeff. 🙂

Then we had a friend party with six more sweet little girls at AR Workshop. They got to design and paint their own tote bags, enjoy donuts, and watch Haley open gifts. The girls had such a great time. They giggled and crafted and got excited to see each other at school in a few weeks.

Finally, the actual day! Haley requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast a little last minute, and with some ingredient help from Grandma Keene at 10 PM the night before, we were in business.

She opened her main gift from us – a Kindle Paperwhite – with great excitement. Now she can read in bed, all she wants, even in the dark, and download new books like crazy. Considering how fast she finishes books, this is a family investment. 🙂

For dinner, we invited Sawyer and Jozie to join us for a simple meal, games, and dessert – since Jim was at work and there was no gymnastics this week.

Haley is strong, brave, compassionate, smart, and loving. We can’t wait to see what more God has in store for her!

Boating to Poulsbo

We had such a wonderful time visiting with Uncle Rex and Aunt Donna while they were here from Alabama for a week. One of the days, we borrowed my parents’ boat and took a trip to Poulsbo. It was a beautifully warm day – smoky from the fires but calm and lovely for a boat ride.

One of our favorite things to do in Poulsbo is window shop. That is closely followed (and maybe trumped) by treats at the bakery and a meal at The Loft. And let’s not forget climbing the rock and the chocolate shop! It was a wonderful day, such a fun time, and memories to be sure.

Summer Days

Shortly after we returned from vacation, the kids picked so many blackberries we decided to host a cobbler party. JT and Haley made the recipe (and tripled it, all by themselves) and we invited all the grandparents over to enjoy it with us!

During the summer, sometimes there is more time together that can lead to arguments. And kids who have time to argue probably have time for more chores. 😉

JT and Haley also enjoy some summer freedoms like making their own lunches!

JT started his mowing job for Grandpa and Grandma Keene, and Haley got to ride along!

We’ve also made a trip to the library to get some new summer books, on an extra hot day.

The skies have been beautiful lately with all the smoke in the air… bad for our lungs but gorgeous in the sky!

We also enjoy hosting friends for lunches and dinners, occasionally. Friends we’ve known for several years moved into our neighborhood, and that’s super fun!

And finally, the kids made a major purchase! Sawyer, Jozie, JT, and Haley have worked for two months to save up $300 – and they used it to buy a full size trampoline!

Goodbye Ali

Our niece Ali just left for college! Before she left, we went out to a lunch on the Gig Harbor waterfront. The food was yummy and we got to talk about her plans and all the exciting things that college brings.

When we got back, the kids came running from play time in the neighborhood to say final goodbyes as they won’t see her until Christmas. Haley was particularly sad!

Anniversaries

Our 17th anniversary came and went without too much excitement simply because we were busy. We actually didn’t sit down and exchange cards until late the following evening, which was fine. It was later on that week that we had an awesome date night to a fabulous waterfront restaurant and to see the new Mission Impossible movie.

We celebrated my parents’ 45th anniversary the same time we celebrated Haley’s birthday with our family. Jeff made a nice toast and we all appreciated Gena’s cider display!

Roomie Reunion Summer 2018

We hosted another summer Roomie Reunion over the weekend! Only four of the six families could make it (one was headed to Ireland, the other double booked with a church group in another city). But we had 20 people here for tubing on the lake, eating pizza, and generally having a great time together. The weather wasn’t ideal – after a few weeks of gorgeous heat, it was suddenly cloudy and raining hard. But that didn’t stop us!

Banks Lake Trip 2

We had a quiet second trip to Banks Lake this year, with only Grandpa and Grandma Keene joining us for the week. It was lovely! We left straight from JT’s last baseball tournament, arriving about 9:30 PM, and went to bed. The next morning we did some quick set up and were ready to enjoy the beach!

Haley tried slalom skiing this trip! She wasn’t fully successful but did awesome for her first attempt. She got a little water logged after this and didn’t want to try again, for now.

Grandpa and Grandma Keene both joined in the tubing fun!

And everyone did a lot of reading.

We had great times snorkeling, swimming, skiing, and playing in the water.

…and we also did more reading. 🙂

We kept our new tradition of s’mores on the beach one of the many beautiful evenings.

And Haley found a butterfly on the beach that stuck around for a long time!

Grandma and Grandpa kept busy with two grandkids around…

And I think everyone had a wonderful time!

Last Baseball Tournament 2018

What a season for Renegades 9U – and for JT! We finished the year with a three-day tournament in Federal Way. It was hot, hot, hot, and dusty. The boys played Friday night, twice on Saturday, and twice on Sunday to take second place in the silver bracket.

Jim does the GameChanger app during the games… a very important job! It earned him a Renegades hat and the coach used the stats for his planning… plus parents and family who are out of town can follow the game remotely.

I sit and enjoy the sunshine. 😉

One of the older sisters, Makayla, brought all sorts of games and activities for the younger girls to do on Sunday. It was awesome! The sisters club has definitely bonded this year.

So have the parents. We love watching JT play baseball and look forward to next year already… which is good, because try outs are this week!

Keeping up on yard work

We’ve been employing our niece Ali to take care of our hedges since we moved here, but with her leaving for college in just a couple of weeks, we needed to hire a replacement hedge trimmer. Good news – JT can do it! 🙂 We went outside together and figured out that, with team work, the whole process only took less than two hours.

It also gave me some time to check out our blossoming garden plants.

…and rest in the shade for a bit to enjoy our hard work! 🙂

Banks Lake Trip 1

Twelve hours after I arrived home from New Zealand, we left for Banks Lake trip 1. Jim had been very busy packing… and the kids too! And I packed my clothes before I left, because I didn’t need summer camping clothes on my trip, and we grabbed groceries on the way. Preston rode over with us, so it was fun for JT to have a backseat buddy.

We were so excited to use our camper for the first time at Steamboat Rock State Park! The kids still slept in their own tent (which I never went in, not once!). We set up our site, and our grill, and hosted dinner for all 10 people that same night. I joked that I’d been in the country for less than 24 hours and it felt a little surreal to then suddenly be off the grid, camping and grilling!