The Keene Family

Can you believe it? We barely can. We went on our first date together 20 years ago. TWENTY YEARS. It feels like a very long time, and yet it's all gone by so quickly. For our first date, we went to the Seattle Boat Show and to Ivar's on the waterfront for dinner. I think that's a pretty decent first date for high school! We usually try to go to the boat show, but this year we decided to go to Ivar's for dinner as well so we could celebrate twenty years of dates. This year, we got blessed by a bunch of freeness (is that a word?). We had free tickets to the Boats Afloat part on Lake Union, which got us into the indoor boat show for free as well. When we parked at Lake Union, a man who was leaving gave us his parking pass so we didn't have to pay. Then we drove up the hill to the indoor show, and the garage attendant said there wasn't a fee to park at Century Link that late in the day. At the show, Jim convinced me to let him buy me a new ski. :) He's...

One of our favorite things to do is to invest in our children. I am so thrilled that I get to spend time at our kids' school this year! I volunteer one morning a week and spend time in both kids' classes. Haley got to use the 3D computer with me last week to dissect a dinosaur! JT received an Eagle Award at his school assembly for his respectful behavior. Awesome! We all enjoy watching JT play basketball - and Jim coach! Sometimes Haley keeps stats. JT earned a reward to sit at his teacher's desk for a day at school. He got to use ink pens on his assignments, all of the stamps, and the twirly chair. It's a big deal that only a few kids have had a chance to do (this is his second time). We attended STEM night at their school last week. It was fun to participate in projects and build together. Then Jim and Haley had their Dads and Daughters night for Husky women's basketball. Except it was on a Friday, and he works on Fridays, so JT and ...

We had some pretty exciting mail this week! We've been sponsoring a child in Sri Lanka through World Vision for over a year, and we hadn't received any communication from her. The average time to receive any mail from a child is three months, so we were surprised but tried to be patient. We send her mail every month, and just trust that it has gotten to her. But then this week we received a postcard! Right away, we took a photo with the card and sent it to her so she can see we got it (you can email your child and the local agency prints and translates it for you - so handy). Normally, the cards are translated. This one was wrapped in an envelope with staff member writing "Love and peace to your family" and "Merry Christmas," but we weren't exactly sure that was what our child had written. I'm "friends" with teachers from all over the world on my professional Facebook account because of my work with Microsoft in Education, so I...

It's our fifth anniversary of traveling to Naches, Washington for a weekend in the snow with our #roomiereunion buddies. We love spending time with the five other families we've known since college. This year we had 12 adults and 17 children (with two still baking in their mama ovens). We arrived at dinnertime on Saturday because we had basketball that morning, so we missed a full day of snow with everyone. But we were ready to rock on Sunday morning! We started with breakfast at the main house with everyone. Look at all those kiddos... It was a balmy 9 degrees when we headed outside. There was a ton of snow, and we were ready to slide! Tres hombres My favorite snow bunnies We had some time in the afternoon to do some hooky bobbing. In the evening, Jim and I joined seven kids in the hot tub on one of the patios. It was crowded and goofy and fun. Monday morning, we gathered for a group photo. It's so fun to see how much these kids grow (and th...

I kicked off 2017 with all sorts of fun. I took my niece Madi on a "day with Aunt Becky" before she went back to college. We worked out, went shopping, had lunch (and dessert!), and saw a movie. Then I went to a local MIE Expert event. It's my Microsoft teacher group who connects via social media, notes, and face-to-face meet ups occasionally. It's always fun and we learn a lot from each other. I had some time alone with Haley this week while JT was at baseball camp with Jim. She spent it very active... gymnastics followed by a mile run in which Haley shaved one minute off her last time. Then we played Jenga and built a really tall tower - twice!

We have really enjoyed the lull between Christmas and New Year's, when there isn't much going on and we can all be home together. One of the fun things we did one rainy day was make bread for Grandpa and Grandma Cole, which was JT's idea. Actually, I wrote that incorrectly. The kids made bread. I watched. We were completely amazed at their baking skills (I don't know why... they've been baking with me since they were little). They found the recipe, read it, simmered the oatmeal, checked the temperature before adding the yeast, mixed in the flour, all of it. And it was soooo good! We also got ready for New Year's Eve... by sporting our Alabama attire for our weekly shopping trip. Shockingly, no one said a word to us and we only saw two UW fans. We're not really a college football town. The kids have been enjoying their new books from Christmas. Haley has whipped through maybe five chapter books this break, and JT (who is more of a grazing type rea...