The Keene Family

We ordered a personalized pumpkin for the first time this year... and it was more stressful than I thought, coordinating a time in our schedule to go pick it up! But we did, and it was cute, and we put it on the porch. I also grabbed two big pumpkins from Costco for carving. Haley had a master plan. In fact, she made a book full of pumpkin ideas! JT, on the other hand, hates carving pumpkins because of the pumpkin guts. He literally gags. So he decorated his pumpkin with metallic Sharpie. And then he told me that he's maybe getting a little too old for that anyway, and next year he'll skip it all and just put his pumpkin on the porch, plain. 

We decided to celebrate Grandma Keene's birthday at Point Ruston, and the weather was phenomenal for an evening dinner on the waterfront! We had dinner at a great burger and whiskey place and then walked around for a bit. We ended the evening at Ice Cream Social, the best ice cream shop in Tacoma with a line out the door and around the corner on a sunny Sunday evening!

We look forward to the Buddy Walk every year (especially when it's a gorgeous Seattle day). We go to support our nephew Russell, who has Down's Syndrome. It is a really fun event. We were lucky to have amazing weather this year! Russell and Grandpa Keene... somehow I did not get a single picture of Russell's face that I can post!

My friend Toni threw a Fall Favorite Things party... and it was so fun! We each brought six items that we loved about fall, like candles, coffee cups, nail polish, scarves, etc. Then we snacked and ate dinner and drank Moscow Mules and laughed and got to take home six new things from everyone else's favorite things. It was fun to connect with these seven ladies over the weekend.

That's right - in eight days, I traveled 18,000 miles for work! It was a whirlwind of trips to Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Fort Lauderdale to visit school leaders in each system. I help them with their strategic plans to implement professional learning experiences for their teachers for the school year. Then I assign our company's trainers to the events and make sure they are delivered with excellence - meeting the objectives of the district and helping drive awareness of the Microsoft in Education tools and services that they already have. It was very rewarding to meet with these customers and plan for over 50 days of training this coming year! Baltimore was first. I haven't been there in over 25 years and I'd forgotten how colonial everything is. Then I flew to LA (by way of Seattle, which was odd) and enjoyed a two days of sunshine! I also got to meet my nieces for dinner in Studio City (surprising Ali, arranged with Madi). That was sooo fun! We ...

I have always wanted to do a fall trip to the coast, and with our camper we now have the chance to do that. So we scheduled a weekend at Pacific Beach with our friends the Bonnells, and we had the best time!