9U Baseball Tournament #1

JT had his first baseball tournament on March 31 – just a one-day with four teams. The night before when we set out all his gear, we realized that we hadn’t bought new cleats for this year. #parentfail So off we went to Big5 at 8:30 PM for cleats that fit (last year’s did NOT – we tried).

He looked so sharp walking in! The team has matching bags with their names and numbers embroidered on the back.

He’s not wearing his jersey here, because his was ordered late (we joined the team late) and didn’t arrive in time for this tournament. But doesn’t he look handsome?

JT went 3/5 at bat over the two games – one HBP, two walks, and two strike outs. Not bad at all for his first outing of the season!

Haley read four books on Saturday. 🙂 She did watch the entire first game, but after that, she sat with us and flipped pages.

JT had a couple of great slides…

And three very good plays from left field where we caught cleanly and threw to exactly the right place.

His team is full of great kids with good attitudes and we are so happy to see them being taught to be respectful and have fun together. It’s going to be a great season!

Later we went to Spiro’s for dinner and JT ordered big – and finished a full half of this pizza!

Becky’s 38th Birthday

I woke up to a lovely homemade breakfast – yogurt berry parfaits and veggie-and-egg mini muffin cups. Jim did a great job with something healthy and yummy!

Then he went to work, the kids went to school, and I went to spin class! I came home and worked a few hours and captured “me at 38.”

With the kids on half days that week, we left early for gymnastics and powered up for class with FroYo.

After, we went to Panera for dinner.

On Sunday, we celebrated with my family birthday dessert. My mom made a fabulous lemon cheesecake at my request, and I opened some gifts.

I’m blessed to be starting another year and can’t wait to see what it holds!

Ski Weekend #2

This past weekend we had another weekend at Crystal Mountain, staying in the camper and skiing. We have so much fun doing this as a family! We arrived to tons of snow and got cozy…

We forgot all of our games except one, so the kids started working on making their own. They made Pictionary and Memory Matching for us to play!

After dinner, JT snuggled with Jim for a bit and fell asleep for a few minutes. He’s been sick for over a week and it was sweet to see him like this.

We all got great sleep (I could see the moon and falling snow through the skylight above our bed… awesome) and woke up to five inches of new snow! The kids were begging to get first tracks on the mountain, so we ate our pancakes quickly and got up the mountain.

Knee deep in powder – JT loves that!

Haley and I took some time to ski “just the girls” and then warm our mittens by the fireplace in the lodge area.

After lunch, the kids had a new experience: skiing a black diamond rated run! They weren’t too sure about it, but they ROCKED it.

After skiing, we sat by our fire pit in the snow and our friends the Kramers came by. We had invited them up skiing with us and spent the afternoon together.

Day two brought us back up to the top… to ski the black diamond run again!

Our friend suggested a photo in front of the sign, so we took one. I was so proud of Haley when I asked her which way she wanted to ski down the blue square rated bowl ahead of this point and she said, “Which way is hardest? Let’s go that way.” Love her spirit.

One last photo… on our way out Sunday afternoon, in our matching camper flannels. PC: JT 🙂

IB Award

JT was honored at a recent school assembly for being a great example of one of the International Baccalaureate Learner Profiles. Fortunately, everyone was home to attend and Haley even took off the morning to attend the assembly.

It was a surprise award but JT saw us in the audience, so he knew something was coming. 🙂 He was recognized for being a Principled Learner, which means he has shown to be respectful and committed to his work.

E2 Singapore

I got a little behind on posting… probably because I have been gone so much in the past three weeks. Three weeks ago, I took a day trip to LA for work. Then on March 9, I left for an eight-day trip to Singapore for my favorite event of the year, E2. It’s when 300+ educators from 90+ countries (along with another 160 school leaders, Microsoft staff, and speakers) come together for a week long experience in professional connections and growth.

It’s about 22 hours of travel to Singapore, and it’s sixteen hours ahead of Seattle time, so I got to arrive a day ahead of work to get acclimated. Sunday was a sight-seeing day, and then I worked Monday through Thursday all day every day. Friday was another sight-seeing day, and then I flew home Saturday. Flying home is a very long day – I left Singapore at 6:45 AM and landed in Seattle 22 hours later at 10:45 AM!

I made a Sway of all the photos of the trip with captions for those who would like a full scrapbook walk-through (and also for me to remember the trip).

A short recap of Singapore is this: it is clean, colorful, and warm. I’ll include just a few pictures here for a teaser but scroll through the Sway above if you want to see more!

A little work trip

This week, I had two meetings for work that needed to be face-to-face instead of over Skype: one in Cherry Creek, Colorado, and the other in Long Beach, California. I was able to schedule them back-to-back to minimize my time away from home, and it was a whirlwind trip!

I left late Monday night and arrived at my hotel in Denver well after midnight. Tuesday I had to get up for a work call from the hotel, and then I got a workout in!

Then I got ready for the day and had a lovely quiet breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I read The Wall Street Journal.

The meeting went great! I was tired when it was over – we talked for four hours and we all missed lunch! I stopped at a highly rated sushi place on the way back to the airport and got two sushi rolls to go. The flight to Long Beach was longer than necessary (sigh, Delta) and I had a connection in Salt Lake City. But arriving to palm trees makes it all better!

The next morning I got to sleep in (until 7) and got up to workout, again, followed by a hotel breakfast, again. Then off to my ten o’clock meeting I went.

We were done by 12:30 and I sat at another highly rated restaurant (Pho this time) before driving to LAX to fly home.

If you’re counting, that means I was in five airports in twenty-four hours! Denver > Salt Lake City > Long Beach > Los Angeles > Seattle. That’s a record for me! The flight home was beautiful and I watched the movie Gifted, which caused my allergies to flare up and soon I was digging in my bag for a tissue. 😉

Haley asked me all about my trip when I got home… where I went, what I did there, what I ate, where I stayed… details. JT told me how school that day was chaotic because it was pajama day and the kids acted crazy. Then he invited me to “play Minecraft together tomorrow, if you have time.” They are so different sometimes. 🙂

Weekend Away in Wenatchee

Jim and I planned a ski weekend sans children way back in October or something… and it finally arrived. Our dear friends Katie and Carl joined us, and we had sooooo much fun! We arrived Saturday afternoon, went to dinner, and then hung out at the hotel laughing and catching up. Sunday morning we hit the slopes!

We were all so tired from skiing a whole day, open to close, but ready for food and fun!

This is our “adulting” picture – out on the town in Wenatchee with no timeline on when to be home for a babysitter. Fun stuff! 🙂

Monday we hit the slopes again and the weather was cold (-17 with windchill at the summit) but gorgeous! With 11 inches of fresh snow the previous day, conditions were just amazing.

We warmed up with La Fuente Mexican food (probably our favorite Mexican restaurant anywhere) and Dutch Bros coffee for the road as we headed home. Special thanks to my parents for taking our children for the weekend… especially after both of them ended up sick. 😦

Skiing in the Sunshine

Jim had to work on Saturday, but that didn’t stop the kids and I from heading up the mountain for the day. The weather was gorgeous and the kids improved so much during the day. They learned how to ski on a little bit of ice and we spent the whole day on blue/intermediate runs, which is more fun for all of us!

We even ate lunch outside… which is unusual. The thermometers showed 70 degrees in the sunshine!

By the time we got home, ate dinner, and showered, the kids were ready for bed!

Crystal Mountain Weekend

I have been skiing at Crystal Mountain for maybe 30 years or more, and I’ve seen the RVs lined up in the parking lot. We always thought it would be fun to stay the night right there on the mountain. This past weekend, it happened!

Jim took Friday off so we could prepare, and we pulled the kids out of school early. (I remember thinking it was SO FUN to leave early!) We headed up the hill and parked in early afternoon. By the time I was making dinner, the lights were on up the hill and we were snuggled in for the night. This is the view from my window…

We brought our propane campfire and sat outside in the evening after dinner, playing games by the fire and watching the stars. We put the kids to bed and went back out for some adult time too. It was so peaceful listening to the river and watching the stars.

In the morning, we ate a yummy pancake breakfast (so far, cooking in the camper is very easy) and headed up the mountain. Jim brought our gear inside during breakfast to warm it up!

The kids played games while I made breakfast… it was a very relaxing morning.

We have a curtain rod in the shower that is built in and meant for a clothes rack. It is a huge plus with four people’s ski gear in the camper!

I found Starbucks instant white chocolate mocha mix (Jim’s favorite hot drink) and was so excited to make it for him. It was actually really good!

All that snow, right outside our door…

It turns out, getting ready for skiing with the camper is easier than in the car. No more standing on one foot with the kids on the tailgate. I told Jim we should bring the chairs every time!

 

We got to watch ski racing too – CMAC had a race going on and Haley enjoyed watching the racer girls. Then we had to watch Lindsey Vonn videos at lunch time. 🙂

There was a Patagonia trailer there over the weekend with items that had been slightly damaged. Tears in puffy coats or zippers that wouldn’t work are the most common items. You can go in and pick out any item, fix it at the table with the help of their staff, and then leave for a small donation. Everyone got a jacket and the kids scored awesome winter coats for next year. We couldn’t even find a flaw in JT’s coat!

It was so relaxing to go to the camper for lunch. It’s warm, it’s quiet, and it’s ours. We left our skis on the hill and just hopped in the shuttle, which drops off and picks up right there in the RV area.

After an afternoon of skiing, we sat on the [covered] patio and listened to live music and ate hot french fries. People were dancing, laughing, and just having fun. The kids did one more “night run” before heading back to the camper for the night. Their legs were spent!

After dinner we watched Big Hero 6 and ate popcorn before bedtime.

In the morning, we had our second ski start in the camper and found a better routine: indoor prep. It was hot getting ready inside but much simpler.

By midday Sunday, JT and Haley were skiing soooo well. JT and I went up to the top of the entire mountain and skiied blue runs all the way down. In fact, we all skiied blue runs a large part of the day. It was a blast!

We ate lunch in the camper and then packed up and headed down the hill for our niece’s birthday dinner… and we arrived home in time to clean out the fridge, shower, and make it to dinner. We can’t wait to do this again!