The Keene Family

JT's birthday got a little spread out this year due to the STP date conflict. We started a day early with birthday breakfast. He chose coffee cake, bacon and cheese omelets, and fruit. Yum! Then he had asked to do his presents at his birthday breakfast, so he got those a day early too. Later that day, I had to work (from home) and Jim took the kids out back for some target practice with JT's bee bee rifle and balloons. They had so much fun! Saturday was his actual birthday but I left to go to STP, so I wasn't going to be home and Jim was already gone by Friday night. But I woke him up with a song and he had the exact same reaction he has had every other year of his life . It's nice to be consistent. On Sunday, after we were back from STP, we hosted a family birthday dinner. JT picked his favorite, taco lasagna, and helped design his cake from Grandma Cole. Tradition: measuring on the growth stick. This kid grew just under 4 inches this ...

Jim has been wanting to complete the STP bike ride (Seattle to Portland, 203 miles) for a few years now. You can finish in one day or two days, and of the 10,000 riders who participate each year, only about 2,000 finish in one day. Of course, he wanted to finish in one day. He was able to recruit a group of guys to ride with him to make a team, and on July 15th he did it! Kristin, one of the other wives and our neighbor, and I drove down to keep up with the guys and refresh their fuel and bikes and offer encouragement at the main stops. This first picture is from the half-way point in Centralia, when we first caught up with them. The guys got pretty decent food at the checkpoints. I took one "Tour de France" style video as we followed the guys up the hill from one stop to the next... Kristin and I thought we would have lots of time to kill... but nope! We hit one outlet store and one Target along the way, and otherwise we were busy tracking the rider...

We decided to host a backyard dinner for our neighbors and friends, the Drews and the Lees, on the Fourth of July. Look at all these cute kiddos! Had to capture the moms and dads as well... This photo shows just some of the fun - you can't see the basketball game going on from here! I bought a few American flags and stuck them around the house. I love having a porch with flowers! The kids waited so patiently for 9 PM so we could do fireworks. Haley and JT went to pick theirs out with Jim earlier in the day. We gathered in our street with the Drew kids and set things on fire!

Jim bought tickets to the Rainiers baseball game on July 3rd for him, his dad, and JT for his dad's Father's Day gift. They had an awesome time in the sunshine watching the Rainiers hit home runs and win, and the after-game fireworks show was really well done. Meanwhile, Haley said she wanted to spend the time playing Monopoly - something we don't often do because of the time commitment involved! So we invited Grandma Keene to join us and had Oreo milkshakes while we played. Haley won. Again.

We've never had summer sports in the Keene family, except water skiing. This year is different. Haley was invited to participate in a small group of gymnasts who are working toward level 3. She will be attending class twice a week this summer instead of her usual once per week. (She also got a new gymnastics shirt with her name on the back and a new leo to celebrate!) She is doing harder moves and working really hard. JT was invited to participate in a select team for summer baseball, and he decided he wanted to do that. It is practice twice a week and weekend tournaments, just through July, with a coach he already knows (from last year's little league champions) and friends from school. We're looking forward to encouraging him with some baseball with kids his age and building some confidence back after a tough season in minors. He said he's looking forward to not playing in the rain! We had his first tournament last weekend. The boys looked so sharp and playe...

We are off to a great start! The kids got kayaks from Grandpa and Grandma Cole as early birthday gifts while I was in San Antonio. They were so excited and they got to test them out right away! When I got back, the weather was beautiful and we had a nice picnic lunch at a local beach in between errands. The kids have two daily learning tasks over summer: reading and reasoning/logic puzzles. JT tends to be a book hopper, so I challenged him to finish a book start to finish. He's reading the first Tom Swift book and enjoying it. The logic puzzles are a favorite, however, and JT is loving challenging his brain in new ways. The kids finished up their week at VBS! One perk of their new kayaks is that they can paddle with me while I swim. That works out for all of us! After swimming and paddling, we laid on the dock in the sunshine and worked on our read aloud book. It was lovely! Haley's reading challenge is to start the Magic Tree House series. She can...