E2 Number 3

I was asked a few months ago if I would lead the Educator Challenge at this year’s Microsoft in Education E2 event in Budapest. As Jim put it, when someone asks if you’ll lead an event in Budapest, there is only one answer. 🙂 I have attended E2 as a participant in Barcelona, as a fellow (judge) in Redmond, and now as a speaker this year. It was pretty exciting.

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So. I went to Budapest last week and the city is marvelous. I highly recommend it as a destination! I was there an entire week. I made a Sway about the trip, which seemed easier than adding a bunch of photos and captions here. (Sway is a free tool from Microsoft… and there is an app for iPhone. On the vertical photos, you’ll need to click the caption button to see the text.)

Full screen view

Alaska

Did I mention that I spent 28 hours in Anchorage last week? I had a quick trip for work but it was my first time in Alaska, and I went one flight earlier than I needed to so I could see the city by daylight. I was so glad to have my cozy, fur hooded jacket with me. I fit right in. 🙂

You know this line from Tombstone? It’s “I’m your Huckleberry.” But still.
These are all out of order. But this is flying out!
I really wanted to see a moose, and all the locals kept saying that I would, but I had to settle for this one in the airport.
Friday morning view of Sleeping Lady
My colleague Monica and I walked around the park in the 18 degree weather.

I’m glad this was the only bear we saw!
The view from the training

Okay, so I saw this bear too. I wanted a picture to show the kids how big they are!

Celebrating Grandma Cole

We had a great time celebrating Grandma Cole’s 60th birthday this week. We brought in Chinese take out from Tacoma and feasted!

Grandma’s dessert request was raspberry sorbet with vanilla wafer cookies, and it was all very yummy.

Of course, having three grandchildren to celebrate with her (as well as two children and two in-laws and a husband) was a lot of fun!

When we walked back home from dinner, we saw the beautiful full moon shining above our house! I stopped to capture it… you can see my family waiting for me in the driveway.

Valentine’s Day

This year was pretty low-key compared to last year. We started on Friday with parties for both kids at school. They wore their red and white (and Haley actually had a heart shirt I bought ages ago on clearance). They came home with completely different accounts. JT: “We passed them out and I got a bunch of candy. I’ll probably throw half of it away.” Haley: “Well, first we put the treats in the bags for each child. The bags were set out in the hallway in ABC order and we had to take one treats out of our bag and put them in the bag with the child’s name on it. So I did Quinn’s first, and it was all the way on the end because her name starts with Q, so it was by Z for Zander and Zoe. And then…” (another 20 minutes of straight description). JT really did throw half of his away. 🙂

On Saturday, JT had basketball and Haley got to go to a birthday party for a friend at school. She was so excited, because 1) it’s a birthday party, and 2) it’s her first one in Port Orchard. It feels like you’re really settled when you get invited to a party, I think. She wanted to wear the same dress she wore for her own fifth birthday, but we added some layers for a winter version.

Then on Sunday, the kids got new Bibles. JT got the NIV Adventure Bible, and Haley got the NIrV Adventure Bible for Girls. They were so excited to have Bibles with “all the books” (since Haley only had a New Testament before) and with their names on them. We got them Bible highlighters too, and they spent some time looking up and highlighting their Awana memory verses while I made breakfast.

They took their new Bibles proudly to church, and enjoyed following along in them during the sermon. Then we went to the Bug & Reptile Museum in Bremerton in the afternoon. We had made other plans but found out the YMCA pool was closed for cleaning, and then it was pouring down rain, so we settled for this idea and it ended up being really fun. There is a scavenger hunt page on the museum website, so we printed that out and took pens with us to complete the page while we were there.

I made a yummy dinner and served it on white china with red napkins and a silver candlestick, just for fun. Then Jim shooed all of us upstairs. The kids got ready for bed while I read a book – so nice – and then we tucked them in. Jim got me all the Harry Potter movies for Christmas, and we’ve been trying to watch them ever since. (We actually planned a weekend marathon but realized it would be something like 20 hours of movies, which I couldn’t imagine doing, and it got cancelled due to other plans anyway.) We finally watched #1 a couple of weeks ago, and we committed to watching #2 on Valentine’s Day. Jim said he would provide the movie snacks. Little did I know he was planning something really fun…

He made chocolate frogs and licorice wands and butter beer! (If you haven’t read or seen Harry Potter, this doesn’t make any sense.) It was really fun and a great surprise, and the chocolate frogs were soooo good that I ate four. A fun end to the weekend, to be sure.

Upward Basketball

I finally got a chance to take some photos at JT’s basketball game this weekend. We have enjoyed our second year with Upward Basketball and love seeing JT grow in his skills and affinity for the sport.

Pregame player prayer
Fun on the bench

JT has scored a couple of times this season, which is awesome considering he only gets to practice once a week.

Haley loves the “Halftime Hijinks” games that include all kids who attend the games.

JT has been awarded best defense and sportsmanship stars for his uniform this year.

Two games left this season!

How is it February?

How is it already February? JT was awarded Sparky of the Month at Awana the same night he said his personal record for number of sections signed off, so that was exciting!

Because Grandma Cole is still recovering from her knee replacement, Haley stayed with the Bonnells for one day when I went to work this week. We had a great commute, just the girls.

My niece Ali and I spent some time crafting last Friday night… or rather, painting. We delved into the world of chalk paint and it was much easier than I thought it would be. We just followed the directions on the containers and it went great! She made a chalkboard frame and I repainted a stool.

Stool before
Stool after

Haley has been working very hard to assemble her valentines. She picked kittens and puppies from Paper Source, and it has been a fun project. She finally finished today and they look fabulous!

Also today, Haley planned a picnic lunch for us at home. She got it organized, packaged all the food she picked out, and invited me over to join her. So fun! What a little hostess.

Celebrating Ali

My youngest niece Ali turns 16 today. I can’t believe it, and yet it is fitting because she’s always seemed a little older than she is. Maybe because she’s the youngest of her siblings, but she has often surprised us with how much she could do at a young age. Ali has always been cheerful, hard working, and easy going. We just love having her closer to us, but we know it’s been hard for her to be away from her awesome friends in North Carolina.

Here’s a few memory lane photos…

My mom and I went to NC to watch the Cole kids for a week in 2002.
She’s always been this cute.

Ali was the first one to ride in the back of Grandpa and Grandma’s new diesel truck that fall.
Look at that face!
Ali has always been great with our kids. (So are Preston and Madi, but let’s focus.)
The first summer she came to Banks Lake, I didn’t change a diaper or touch a jar of baby food for a whole week!
Summer 2011

Tonight we got to celebrate with Ali over chicken fajitas and ice cream sundaes.

It took me wayyyy too long to make this card!
Birthday girl + two cousins

Weekend Family Time

We don’t normally have a whole weekend with only a few plans, and we were very happy to notice our calendars oddly empty.

On Friday night, Haley and I went to see Where the Wild Things Are at Seattle Children’s Theater. It was so well done. The word “play” does not accurately describe the experience. It’s more of an interactive story. You’d have to see it to understand what I mean. Haley loved it! Our ferry ride over was moonlit and such a nice time to chat, eat dinner, and catch up after being gone for a few days.

My little wild thing

On Saturday, we went to JT’s basketball game. It was fun to have so much family there supporting him, as Uncle Jeff and Aunt Gena, Miss Wileen, Ali, and Grandma Cole all attended as well.

On Sunday, we went to church and then out to lunch at A&W. The kids had never eaten in a “real” A&W before, and they were thrilled to see a basketball t-shirt that Jim had signed in high school still posted on the wall.

That evening, the kids got going on their Valentines. We bought kits this year from Paper Source, so there is some assembly required. They were really excited to start the project, and it’s never too early to be done with something ahead of schedule. 🙂

…and then it was the Expo

Every year, Kent School District hosts a giant Technology Expo. It is the largest event of its kind around, and I help oversee all of the teacher and student participation. It’s a lot of work but the payoff is wonderful, because we get to see 800+ students sharing their learning with the community.

So last week, I left home on Wednesday to help with set up. I tweeted lots of photos along the way. Here’s one with my team. These ladies make work a whole lot better!

Then the big event came on Thursday. I spent the night in Bellevue because set up gets done pretty late on Wednesday, and I had to be back early Thursday morning. I love walking around the event, talking to students and community members, and hearing all about their projects and their experiences.

On Thursday, we got done late and I spent the night in Bellevue again. Jim was able to join me both nights, so I got to see him and tell him all about the event. Friday morning, I had a Windows 10 presentation in Bellevue and then I hit the YMCA for a swim before making it home in time to get JT off the bus. Phew!

Bethel Ridge Weekend 2016

It’s also known as #roomiereunion because these are the guys Jim lived with in the 17th Ave House in college, and 15 years later they’re still friends, and since they married these lovely ladies, we’ve stayed in touch ever since. Now the 12 adults have been passed up by 15 children and we have a wonderful weekend planned every MLK Day to enjoy snow, fellowship, food, and fun.

We arrived late on Friday evening and saw piles of snow, and the kids stayed awake but they went straight to bed. It was really fun on Saturday to wake up to more fresh snow!

Right after a pancake breakfast, everyone went out to play!

We walk back and forth between the two cabins and the main house a lot. This one is on the way back to our cabin from lunch.

In the afternoon, we took some time for the hot tub. Well, JT didn’t join us. He was too busy sledding. He stayed out on the snow for about 7 hours both days!

For dinner, we showered up and drove down to the main house (a short walk through the woods) with these crazies loaded in the back of our car!

JT enjoyed reading books to the younger children when he wasn’t wrestling or playing football with the older boys downstairs.

On Sunday, it was more of the same. Snow, snow, and more snow. Plus the largest snow man I’ve ever seen!

The kids (and adults) got to do some hooky bobbing: pulling inner tubes behind the four wheeler. Oh my, the kids loved this!

Four moms got to go too. 🙂

Before heading in for our hot tub and dinner on Sunday, JT and Jim had a four wheeler ride and Haley perfected her skeleton on the sled track.

Monday wasn’t quite as simple as the rest of the weekend. Poor Haley caught a stomach bug and threw up violently for the first time in her life between 10 PM and 1:30 AM Sunday night. The babysitter at the cabin had to call us (we were in the main house with the other adults) and Haley was not in good shape.

The track was icy on Monday morning and JT proudly set “a new windspeed record” as he luged (how do you spell that? like the Olympic sport on your back) down the track and landed in a bush. He didn’t even report his injuries… but another mom noticed blood on his face and sent word up to his parents so we could check it out. It looks pretty tough!

Haley woke up feeling GREAT after emptying her stomach and six hours of sleep, but tapered off throughout the day and ended up not enjoying the five hour drive home. She suffered mostly in silence, but we felt pretty badly for her.

All in all, a wonderful time with great friends. We so cherish these memories and love to watch our crew grow in number and size every year!

#fiveyearoldgirlfriends