The Keene Family

We spent four straight days out of the house at sporting events. We are tired! Friday last week, we went to Haley's gymnastics meet in Kent. She did an awesome job and took 5th in her division! Then we spent two days at basketball in Buckley. Jim is the team's assistant coach now, and he enjoyed being on the floor with the boys! Finally, we took Monday off school/work and headed to the mountains. Haley stayed home sick with Grandma Keene, but the rest of us enjoyed sunny skies and rocky snow. We need a little more cover before the skiing can really begin! First run of the year... wiped us out!

Jim's high school baseball team were state champions in 1996, and they were nominated to be inducted into the local sports hall of fame this year. It was a really impressive ceremony and luncheon with about 200 people attending in support of all the individual athletes and teams who were inducted. We enjoyed going to support Jim and he enjoyed seeing old teammates and coaches at the event.

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 basically have three days off from baseball a week: Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. On Wednesday, we get caught up on homework and housework. On Fridays, we get to have a little fun. Last week we went to a craft night at the kids' school. They made jewelry boxes for mother's day, which was really fun. We spent eight hours of last Saturday at baseball. It was a nice day and Jim even got a little sunburned! JT got his first hit - it was caught but he still felt really good hitting the ball. On Mother's Day, I woke up with JT's cold. And Jim left for New Mexico for a work trip. And by mid-afternoon, I just really wanted to go to bed. I did get a Mother's Day pedicure, and then I dropped the kids off to have dinner at my parents' house provided by my lovely sister-in-law, who swooped in with amazing Chinese food when our first plan to go to a restaurant fell through. And now we're back at baseball... tonight JT's team beat a te...

Jim ran the Tacoma Half Marathon on Sunday, and I feel like it was the opening of race season. We are registered for two triathlons so far this summer and plan to complete three! We woke up early and dropped Jim off near the starting point, and then the kids and I went to Marcia's Silver Spoon Café in Tacoma. It was sooo good! Then we went to the finish line area, found parking, chilled in the car for a bit, and finally walked down to see Jim cross the finish line. Next up: Lake Wilderness sprint triathlon in June!