Owen, Sara &
Andrew Hoelter

A quick update on the life and times of our three dear children…

Owen continues to lead the pack with a number of firsts for our family, including track and field events (he runs a great 1500m time) and a massive, multi-school orchestra concert.

Sara just this week lost her first tooth! Well, lost is not quite the right word—willed it out is better. That girl worked that tooth until it had no choice but to come out.

And not to be left off of the firsts, Drew ran his first Awesome 3000 this year—we now have all three kids running in this great community event. He did awesome.

Mom and Dad are doing their best to just keep up with these three rascals. We do have one cool event to add—we attended a “house concert” put on by a neighbor featuring Brazilian and Irish mandolin players. Grandpa and Grandma Hoelter went as well in celebration of their 42nd wedding anniversary. It was a beautiful, intimate event!

No cousins were injured with sticks. Just in case anyone wondered.

For the first time ever we had two kids running in the school’s annual Fun Run. The weather was unusually perfect, as this year Summer has (thankfully) decided to hang on well into October.

This year Sara got to participate for the very first time, and her class kicked-off the morning’s events. As you would expect, she was a fierce competitor, and managed 13 laps around the playground – pretty good for a Kindergartener!

Owen, always a big fan of the Fun Run, managed one more lap than Sara, and just as many smiles.

He even had his biggest fan out on the field cheering for him, though to keep everyone honest Mom wasn’t recording Owen’s laps. High-fives, however, were allowed.

And what about Drew? Well, he still has two years before it’s his turn. However, he insisted on being photographed at the event.

There were not one but three first days of school for us this year. Owen was first, with his 4th grade year looking very similar to his 3rd grade (he has the same teacher, who we think is awesome).

Next up was Drew, taking the place of Sara at Montessori (and assuming all of her boy friends).

Finally, a week after her open house, Sara began Kindergarten today, and she couldn’t be happier about it.

With all three now in school, we attempted to get one group shot … as you can see we were moderately successful.

All in all, everyone is happy to be back in school. Our summer was incredible (we still owe this blog a summer wrap-up post), but we welcome the predictability and rhythm the school year schedule brings.

Happy school year, everybody!

So many good things this summer–Here are a few shots as we get ready to take off on another short trip, to the coast with the Stuenkels this time!

Drew boogies with Nelle and Jackson at Mary and Garret’s beautiful wedding. Not sure where he got those moves:

Diamond Creek Falls with a buddy:

Dropped Owen off at Camp Lutherwood for a week, then played “airplanes” on the Quad at OSU, finished off with American Dream Pizza:

We’ve kicked the kids out and they are living in the backyard:

“Play me, I’m Yours”: 11 decorated pianos set up around town, this one on the pedestrian bridge over the Willamette:

Riding back from a concert (Cherry Poppin’ Daddies) at Bush Park with neighbors: we were our own parade–2 Daddies with tag-alongs, 2 Mommies with trailers and 2 4th graders on their own:

Don’t try to take Drew’s ice cream, but please feel free to wipe his face at any opportunity:

Peter will have many more pictures in a gallery at Christmastime (Easter?) but you can enjoy these in the meantime. 2.5 more weeks!

Some folks ride 20 miles every day. We are not those people. We ride to the grocery store or the park, very occasionally (usually at Sunriver) we take a longer 10 mile or so ride. Today, we rode 20 miles in celebration of Father’s Day! We are very proud of ourselves tonight, and have a collection of very sore bottoms to show for it.

We started at the Banks end of the Banks-Vernonia Trail and rode out/back to about the middle of it. Owen rode his one-speed, Peter had Sara (who has a need for speed) on the tag-along, and I pulled Drew in the Burley trailer. He took a nap. The first five miles were pretty flat, but the next five were not—a steady railway-style climb with very little respite. BUT going down was REALLY fun, and took a tiny fraction of the time.

We had a snack (Oreos) at the turn-around.

McMenamins Grand Lodge in Forest Grove fed us dinner. (Of note, the last time we were there, it was for Jeff’s 30th birthday, and he turns 40 in two months!)

I just found this picture, taken a month or so ago at Trader Joe’s, and it cracks me up.

I was out of breath, having a hard time keeping up with this little girl yesterday. She told me as we were lining up to start the race (together) that she wanted to run NOT holding hands this time. Okay! I had to cut the corners to meet her at the finish line.

And this speedy guy finished strong and made 2K look like a piece of cake. Of course, he immediately ate a hot dog and all of our snacks, then had a hamburger for lunch. Plenty of energy for horseplay with the buddies.

Little enthusiasm for a post-race picture. The best thing about this one is the stand of native camas blooming in this little piece of preserved Willamette Valley oak savannah. It only got a little trampled.

We got out of town today to Neskowin and got a start on this year’s failed Christmas card photos! Lovely, warm and windy day on the beach. Loving being at a point now where the kids are able to dig their own holes and gather their own rocks, leaving Peter and I to relax on a blanket and have a Real Conversation. They helped each other wipe sand out of their eyes and took turns with the shovel. It was magical!

…and sometimes our neighborhood looks downright magical.

Happy Easter!

We had sunshine this year for our egg hunts, first at Miss (beloved preschool teacher) Ann’s house, then, with Jackson and Carson at Grandma and Grampa’s house in Portland after our ham and cheesy potatoes. Owen took charge of the hiding, and the littles did the finding.

Here are these cool kids dressed up for church, prior to being covered in chocolate. I love Owen’s hip guy stance, this may hint at things to come, and a combed Drew is a rare sight!

The kids ended the day with a game of catch mediated by Grampa–pretty cute all in a row here…