The Keene Family

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 to...

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.

I get to travel less and less nowadays, but occasionally someone asks me to do a certain type of event that we can't send anyone else to do. This was one of those times, and it ended up that I would be in Sarasota, Florida. So Sunday I flew to Tampa and had a lovely drive down the West Florida keys to Sarasota. I took my time and stopped whenever something looked worthwhile and I was ready to walk around. There were huge lightning storms on Sunday afternoon, and so I watched lightning streaks in the sky from either side of the bridges as I drove across! I was hoping to see a Manatee or two. ;) I stopped when I was hungry and saw a restaurant that looked fun... this is from The Freckled Fin in Brandenton. I tried the key lime martini, just for fun! I walked on the beach for awhile before continuing the last twenty minute drive to my hotel. Usually I am so rushed to get in and out from training events, so it was nice to have a few hours to slow down a bit. ...

My brother recommended we start a family game night once a month. We're on month two and we're having so much fun. We meet at my brother's house for "Substantive Snacks" and a game selected by a family member (we all take turns). This month we played Taboo. The kids and I worked on kid-level Taboo cards and I was really impressed how well they did! Preston made it to game night this month because he's done with college for the year, hooray.

Haley had her PPL this week! (Reference on PPLs - JT already did his .) Her topic was flowers. That is a broad topic so we had to work on narrowing it down to several questions she wanted answered about flowers. She started by explaining that we planted lots of bulbs last fall, and they grew beautifully this spring. She said that she started thinking about how plants grow and what types of flowers were common based on that. It was a good start! So here we are again, sitting together in the back of a classroom to watch our child up front. It's pretty wonderful. To view Haley's presentation, click here . P.S. Jim taught JT to take a selfie secretly when he is asked to take a phone photo. He's getting pretty sneaky at it... I found this on my phone later that day!

Jim had a birthday again! We tried to make his big day pretty special. It started with a cinnamon roll breakfast before church. The kids gave him their gifts at breakfast as well. I enlisted JT to take Jim's birthday photo. With me. :) After church, we took the boat out on the lake. Haley was so excited to get a tube ride in, and Jim volunteered to go with her. JT stayed in the boat with me as flagger! That's because he was chilly after taking a break from the boat at his baseball buddy's house. They live on the lake and invited JT to come swim in their pool with friends while we skied on Sunday. Lucky boy. Haley also helped Jim get the truck to pick up the boat at the launch. Doesn't she look cute in the back of a truck? We came home and played basketball, grilled hamburgers, and ate Jim's requested Oreo Mud Pie for dessert with family. Haley also got to give Jim his mud pie with a candle. She sure loves her daddy!

Jim and I are signed up for three triathlons this summer. Our first one was this past weekend at Lake Wilderness. We both have some work to do to meet our goal times for later races, but it was a good first race. The weather was perfect and we had all the right gear. My knee (the other one, not the one I got fixed) hurt so badly on the run. Good thing I have an appointment with my orthopedist this week!