The Keene Family

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 a row this past weekend without pain, for the first time in those long 20 months. Hooray! I've already done two little, so little runs this week, and I am sad to say my legs were sore. That's what taking a year off does to you. Here's a photo from my first run back. Haley took it! So now I have my sights set on a triathlon. Yikes! Who would have thought? But I started swimming because I couldn't run, and it turns out that I really like swimming. I swam in the open water during our camping trips and it went great. Then I was cleared to start biking a couple of months ago, and I really enjoy biking. So adding the running back in makes for a perfect trifecta. I won...

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 it all the way across the lake and back! I went back with her to drop off Haley on shore with my dad, and pick up JT. Then we heard about one of the wonderful side effects of this trip: seeing all of the wildlife at the lake. All together, we saw bald eagles, blue heron, otters, Canada geese, dragonflies, and two kinds of fish. It was soooo peaceful and quiet on the lake, and it was fun to pack up and spend a couple hours doing something outside of our normal!

We spent Monday afternoon out on Puget Sound enjoying the 80+ degree weather and the beautiful water with the Bonnells. Ali came over to babysit all six children while we boated to Poulsbo and enjoyed a lovely early dinner at The Loft and some street shopping. We did this trip last year as well, and we're hoping to make it an annual event. :)

We've been getting together with this wonderful group of people for the past six years. The first time we planned a reunion, there were 7 children (with four more on their way) and 12 adults. We've grown into an annual winter reunion, but this year we attempted to add the summer day back as well. This year, there were 15 children (with one on the way). We hosted the event this summer at our house, since most hadn't seen it and we live so close to the lake. We started the day at Long Lake at our gracious hosts the Robertsons' house. The weather was not the sunshine we hoped for, so most of the ladies stayed dry. The kids really enjoyed kayaking along the lake. Full boat, Jim is happy! Back at our house, we ate Spiro's pizza and side dishes brought by the group. We did make sure to capture a few group photos, courtesy my nieces who had arrived to help with childcare later on. So we snuggled the kids into a movie with Madi and Ali, a...

For part of JT's birthday gift, we signed him up for Cleat Soccer Camp with a local church. He plays soccer at recess, and we thought he might enjoy a week of learning more about it. It turns out, he loves soccer! We ended the week by watching a scrimmage and an awards ceremony, in which JT received recognition as green team MVP! This was impressive to us since it was his first ever time playing soccer formally, and because it was a second/third grade combined team. Modeling his new gear Back from his first day of camp, waiting to play soccer with Mom Check out those shoes!  Can you spot him in this game photo? Getting his award It just happened that Jim was off work the morning of the awards ceremony, so he was able to come! JT ended up on the same team as his friend Talen from school. We had Talen over to play after the last day of camp as well!

We broke out the double slip and slide last week when the weather was lovely. It's so fun to have two lanes for sliding! We invited Sawyer and Jozie down to slide with us.

We had such a great time celebrating JT. On his birthday, Jim had to work, but he got up early (on 3 hours of sleep) and made JT's breakfast request: French toast. Then we had a quick round of gifts from us before Jim left for work. The kids and I headed off to enroll them in swim lessons (in person. in line. it's the dark ages) and finally made our way to lunch at a park. We picked up JT's friend Brady and went to Family Fun Center for the afternoon. I did not realize the bumper boats had squirt guns on them when I started. I discovered it quickly. I was very wet. The kids got excited about the trampolines and they all got to go - even though Haley was just shy of the weight requirement, the nice man said she was fine and she was all smiles! The arcade was fun too and we spent about an hour using our tokens up. JT used the tickets we won to buy ring pops for everyone. Then JT and Haley and I went to Café Rio for dinner. It was...