Category Archives: Uncategorized

I have no pictures to record it, but Jim completed the Black Diamond 70.3 long course triathlon on Saturday! (The kids and I were home for JT’s first soccer game, so we missed it – sad.) That’s a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. Ouch! We are so proud of himContinue reading “Triathlon Weekend”

We’ve been a little busy not being busy! Last week, the kids and I checked all sorts of things off my summer bucket list. First, we went biking in Jackson Park. It turned out, JT loved the bike jumps and had a great time. We also enjoyed playing “Follow the Leader” through the forest –Continue reading “Ending Summer”

Friday, August 26th was my last day in Kent School District after 15 years as a teacher. It felt like a mini retirement, especially since I’m leaving public education. For Kent, I taught second, third, fourth, seventh, and eighth grade. My first students have long graduated college and are off finding their way in life.Continue reading “Last Day in KSD”

For her birthday gift, Haley got a new Power Wheels Jeep. The big deal is that JT decided to sell his Power Wheels truck so he could help pay for her Jeep. It was very, very sweet. It didn’t come until two days after her birthday, so we were excited to give it to herContinue reading “Haley’s Jeep”

Haley had a great time turning six. We started the day with her requested breakfast: pinkalicious pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream, egg and cheese omelets, and bacon. She also said she wanted to open her gifts from her immediate family at breakfast. So we got up and got going because we were planning toContinue reading “Haley Turns Six”

Jim and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary while we were at Banks Lake this past trip. Wow! It started off with perfect weather, which was really fun. We went out and skied, just the two of us, and the lake was the best we’ve seen it all summer. So that was awesome! And thenContinue reading “15th Anniversary”

We had another wonderful 11 days at Banks Lake with Grandpa and Grandma Keene, the Bonnell family, and the Jaime family. There were some major milestones while we were there, which I’ll post about separately. Meanwhile, here’s a Sway with some of my favorite photos.

In boats use is measured in hours on the engine (versus miles in a wheeled vehicle). That doesn’t count floating time… that’s hours the boat engine is actually running. Jim has a goal to use the boat as many hours as possible! We just turned 500 hours in the boat while we were at BanksContinue reading “500 Hours”

I’m back! After 20 months of knee pain, a year without running, ten months of physical therapy, and four months after surgery, I was exited from therapy and cleared to start a running program. It’s a slow start back to running, but I’m thrilled! Another bonus was that I water skied two days in aContinue reading “Back in the Game”

It turns out, kayaking is a really easy thing for kids to do. Not just our kids – I’m hearing from friends all over that kids just catch on to kayaking so quickly. My dad and I took the kids to Horseshoe Lake on Tuesday to go kayaking. Haley is improving rapidly and made itContinue reading “Kayaking”