Indoor Summer Activities

Home from Banks Lake Trip 1, we took a trip to the library and got some new books… which both children promptly finished that day. JT actually got a magic trick book that had a couple really good ones in it!

JT did some baking one evening. All by himself, he decided to make cookies. I helped a) get down the baking sheet from the top cabinet, and b) divide 1 3/4 c in half. Otherwise, he did absolutely everything on his own. They were very yummy and it was so fun to watch him work in the kitchen (and cut a recipe in half in his head as he went along).

They’ve also been building forts and playing Uno and checkers inside. Apparently they got enough sunshine camping for a week because they’ve been enjoying time just to relax on carpet. 🙂 The other day, they had a stalemate playing checkers. This has never happened to me before!

They are both trying to hit the 100-hours of reading mark for the summer library program. I have told them over and over that I don’t expect them to read that much because I want them to focus on playing outside. But we are reading a book together (The Mysterious Benedict Society) and they just keep sneaking in reading time… when they first wake up, after meals, before bed.

Steamboat Rock Trip 1

Our first trip to Steamboat Rock State Park on Banks Lake was with the Cole family for a week in July. We had such an amazing time! The weather was 90-95 degrees every day, and it was rare to see a cloud float by. In fact, most days were completely blue skies start to finish. Best of all, there were almost zero mosquitos. Neither kid sustained a single bite! It was pretty fabulous. We were impressed by how much both JT and Haley continued to improve at swimming. Haley tried out the new combo skis and JT got to pull a wakeboarder behind the boat for the first time. While Gena and I took over 600 pictures between us, I’ve narrowed down to my top ~25 to share here. We can’t wait to go back in August for trip #2 with Jim’s parents and a group of friends.

Turning Nine

JT’s birthday got a little spread out this year due to the STP date conflict. We started a day early with birthday breakfast. He chose coffee cake, bacon and cheese omelets, and fruit. Yum!

Then he had asked to do his presents at his birthday breakfast, so he got those a day early too.

Later that day, I had to work (from home) and Jim took the kids out back for some target practice with JT’s bee bee rifle and balloons. They had so much fun!

Saturday was his actual birthday but I left to go to STP, so I wasn’t going to be home and Jim was already gone by Friday night. But I woke him up with a song and he had the exact same reaction he has had every other year of his life. It’s nice to be consistent.

On Sunday, after we were back from STP, we hosted a family birthday dinner. JT picked his favorite, taco lasagna, and helped design his cake from Grandma Cole.

Tradition: measuring on the growth stick. This kid grew just under 4 inches this year. That makes him 4 foot 7 inches, and that’s the most he’s ever grown in one year!

On Monday, we took JT’s friend Blake and met the Bonnells at Wild Waves for a day to celebrate. JT has gotten into having one big event instead of a friend party at home, and we think it’s easier and more fun too. We met up in the parking lot and then went in to have some fun!

After lunch we dried off and went to the amusement park side. Poor Haley was not tall enough to ride most of the things we wanted to go on. She was a very good sport about her disappointment and kept Carson company, who was tall enough but didn’t want to go.

It was Blake’s first roller coaster and he was so excited to go. He and JT can be seen with heads buried in their shoulder harnesses right in front of Jim and me!

Before leaving, Jim offered to buy everyone a treat. So they enjoyed slushees, ice cream cones, and elephant ears before taking the drive home.

Blake and JT went straight to baseball practice so we stopped at Taco Time for dinner before dropping them off. They were tired but powered through like good nine year old boys! 😉

STP 2017

Jim has been wanting to complete the STP bike ride (Seattle to Portland, 203 miles) for a few years now. You can finish in one day or two days, and of the 10,000 riders who participate each year, only about 2,000 finish in one day. Of course, he wanted to finish in one day. He was able to recruit a group of guys to ride with him to make a team, and on July 15th he did it!

Kristin, one of the other wives and our neighbor, and I drove down to keep up with the guys and refresh their fuel and bikes and offer encouragement at the main stops.

This first picture is from the half-way point in Centralia, when we first caught up with them.

The guys got pretty decent food at the checkpoints.

I took one “Tour de France” style video as we followed the guys up the hill from one stop to the next…

Kristin and I thought we would have lots of time to kill… but nope! We hit one outlet store and one Target along the way, and otherwise we were busy tracking the riders, arranging meet-ups, and driving south to Portland ahead of them.

They crossed the finish line about 11.5 hours of ride time later (15 total hours).

This is what 15 hours of road travel look like on your legs – look at all that dirt!

We spent the night at Jim’s grandma’s house in Portland with Sean and Kristin, and went out for burgers and beer to celebrate after the guys took showers.

It is quite a feat and I’m so proud of Jim for this accomplishment. He says he doesn’t want to do it again!

July 4

We decided to host a backyard dinner for our neighbors and friends, the Drews and the Lees, on the Fourth of July. Look at all these cute kiddos!

Had to capture the moms and dads as well…

This photo shows just some of the fun – you can’t see the basketball game going on from here!

I bought a few American flags and stuck them around the house. I love having a porch with flowers!

The kids waited so patiently for 9 PM so we could do fireworks. Haley and JT went to pick theirs out with Jim earlier in the day. We gathered in our street with the Drew kids and set things on fire!

July 3

Jim bought tickets to the Rainiers baseball game on July 3rd for him, his dad, and JT for his dad’s Father’s Day gift. They had an awesome time in the sunshine watching the Rainiers hit home runs and win, and the after-game fireworks show was really well done.

Meanwhile, Haley said she wanted to spend the time playing Monopoly – something we don’t often do because of the time commitment involved! So we invited Grandma Keene to join us and had Oreo milkshakes while we played. Haley won. Again.

Summer Sports

We’ve never had summer sports in the Keene family, except water skiing. This year is different. Haley was invited to participate in a small group of gymnasts who are working toward level 3. She will be attending class twice a week this summer instead of her usual once per week. (She also got a new gymnastics shirt with her name on the back and a new leo to celebrate!) She is doing harder moves and working really hard.

JT was invited to participate in a select team for summer baseball, and he decided he wanted to do that. It is practice twice a week and weekend tournaments, just through July, with a coach he already knows (from last year’s little league champions) and friends from school. We’re looking forward to encouraging him with some baseball with kids his age and building some confidence back after a tough season in minors. He said he’s looking forward to not playing in the rain!

We had his first tournament last weekend. The boys looked so sharp and played really well. JT had some awesome fielding plays. He’s still adjusting to the pitching machine but the next tournament is coach-pitch so we’re hoping for better results soon for him.

JT was thrilled that his friend Blake was on his team!

The team meets in the parking lot to walk in together… pretty cute.

As usual, JT had quite the cheering section!

JT’s friend Sawyer is on his team as well!

On the way home, everyone crashed! We had a long couple of days.

Getting Summer Started

We are off to a great start! The kids got kayaks from Grandpa and Grandma Cole as early birthday gifts while I was in San Antonio. They were so excited and they got to test them out right away!

When I got back, the weather was beautiful and we had a nice picnic lunch at a local beach in between errands.

The kids have two daily learning tasks over summer: reading and reasoning/logic puzzles. JT tends to be a book hopper, so I challenged him to finish a book start to finish. He’s reading the first Tom Swift book and enjoying it. The logic puzzles are a favorite, however, and JT is loving challenging his brain in new ways.

The kids finished up their week at VBS!

One perk of their new kayaks is that they can paddle with me while I swim. That works out for all of us!

After swimming and paddling, we laid on the dock in the sunshine and worked on our read aloud book. It was lovely!

Haley’s reading challenge is to start the Magic Tree House series. She can read them pretty easily but it’s a great way to work on comprehension and stamina. Good stuff!

ISTE 2017

I’ve been to the ISTE conference for the past four years (Atlanta, Philadelphia, Denver, San Antonio) and it just gets more fun. I know more people, I have an idea of what to expect, and I have fewer commitments. It’s like an exhausting vacation. 😉

I flew in on Sunday in first class with my colleague from the company I work for. The views from the plane were gorgeous and we really appreciated that our company upgraded us, just for fun.

We stayed in a hotel right next to the famous Riverwalk.

On Monday, I got up to present at the conference. It was my first time submitting a session proposal and my first time getting accepted, which was exciting because only about 30% of all 1500+ proposals are accepted.

Monday evening, we went to The Alamo just to say we’d been there…

And then we went to dinner in the Historic Market Square.

On Tuesday, we had a late breakfast at the hotel after coffee on the balcony in our robes. Not too shabby. We took it easy because we had a big event later that night and a team dinner after that. We didn’t get back to the hotel room until 1 AM, so we were glad we didn’t rise and shine.

On Wednesday, we wrapped up the conference and flew home. It was a whirlwind, as usual, and so much fun. One of the most impactful things this year was when, in the span of just a few minutes, I had an educator from New Zealand and then another from Singapore both tell me that they had learned so much from me, and that everyone in their schools knew who I was… all because of the videos I appear in to teach educators how to use digital tools. That was pretty amazing!

Ending Baseball

Haley’s season ended with a couple of games and a party, as usual. We were in the same location as last year because a family on our team lives in a neighborhood with beach access in Olalla. It was a sunny day and we had so much fun on the beach.

Haley thinks her coach is pretty awesome. He is really encouraging and just a nice guy who teaches baseball with a smile. It’s been a good two years of baseball for her!

JT ended the season with interleague playoffs.

We couldn’t believe how well his team played! They ended up taking 4th place out of the 24 teams in his league. They played 5 games in 7 nights during the final week and it was pretty intense.