The Keene Family

I was asked in May if I would be available to keynote the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert summit in Auckland, New Zealand this July. At first, we weren't sure about me going because there was a lot going on that weekend: JT had a baseball tournament and a birthday, and we were supposed to be leaving for a weeklong camping trip with family. But once Jim and I talked it over, he said, "You don't know if you'll ever get another chance to do this. You should go." So I said yes! It's pretty amazing to me that I have a job where someone will ask me to fly to New Zealand and speak at a conference... and pay for everything... and pay me a speaker fee on top of it all. This isn't how I envisioned living my life at 38! :) I flew to NZ on Tuesday, July 10. Because NZ is over the dateline and it's about 17 hours of travel, I landed Thursday, July 12 at 5:30 AM. I lost Wednesday to the universe! It is also winter in the southern hemisphere, so I had to men...

Preston invited us to see the Blackhawk helicopters at the Puyallup Fairgrounds this weekend. Little did we know (when we said yes, of course!) that it was also the annual Washington Toy and Geek Fest. There was so much to do and see! We started in the military area... And Haley also conquered the climbing wall. We grabbed some scones because Fairgrounds. Then we went in the Hobby Hall and met Optimus Prime (the actual truck from the Transformers movie)… Flew an X-wing... Hoverboarded next to the Delorean... Sat in the Millennium Falcon... And fought off Siths. It was basically an awesome time!

The kids finished up a great week at our church VBS program the week after school got out. Then we helped Grandma and Grandpa Keene move into their new house... in our neighborhood. Hooray! We also watched our two-week old friend Everly for a few hours Saturday morning. We all had a lovely time snuggling her! Finally, we wrapped up June by attending my cousin Jacob's wedding to his lovely best friend, Jordan. How did June fly by so quickly?!