Owen, Sara &
Andrew Hoelter

… so that typically fiscally conservative folks like me will say things like “We wanted to go to Disneyland, right?” after I have agreed to buy a trip to Disneyland.

So, we went! The best pictures are coming, but here are a few to give you a sense of what it’s like to take 3 kids to Disneyland. By the way, we highly recommend bringing along a set of grandparents to correct the adult:child ratio.

Here we are waiting to go in–

Owen says “If you took away all the waiting it would be double AWESOME”

Outside Sleeping Beauty’s Castle:

On a Jungle Cruise under Tarzan’s Treehouse–

A (premature) celebration of being first in line for Nemo’s Submarine Adventure. We were first in the, ahem, EXIT line, and the ride didn’t open for another 20 minutes. We rock!

Here is a very sleepy Drew, who managed to keep his eyes open through the (VERY charming) Casey Jr. Train ride through Storybook Village. After this ride, we took the kids back to the hotel for a couple hours of swim/nap/snack, which was the thread holding back mutiny at about 12:30 each day.

My little girl isn’t really into princesses, but she is fond of fairies, and Drew thought they were pretty cool too.

Owen preferred the roller coasters–

We ran into some line zombies… (Thank heavens for camera phones to keep the zombies at bay)

Wow! We really did have fun! Thanks Grampa and Grandma for putting up with us!

Next time, I’ll post the pictures of Legoland (think about the planet of Endor rendered in Legos… Awesome, indeed!

Last Sunday afternoon we went to Portland with a goal of obtaining a new (to us) Harry Potter #4, as Owen and Peter have loved ours a little too much. We made our way to Powells down the park blocks, jumped in fountains (well, Drew did), and jumped off of many planters, steps and lamp posts. Our cool factor was diminished by lots of pigeon chasing and pointing at cranes. We were okay with that.

We spent about 90 minutes in the children’s section of Powells, with brief, alternating adult excursions to the rest of the store.

We walked to Jamison Park and played in that fountain for a while.

Dinner at Deschutes Brewery Portland Pub (Black Butte Porter!), then back to the car via streetcar.

We love Portland!

Things have been a bit quiet here on our humble little blog. Perhaps it’s because, like Owen earlier this morning, we’ve been running and running for the past month or so.

So, to break the silence, here are a few images from Owen’s school Fun Run this morning (held inside due to good-old western Oregon mist/rain/showers outside).

Right after I took the image below, both Owen and the boy behind him fell, and both of Owen’s shoes flew off his feet. He slipped them on quick, but not completely, and ran feet half-in for a few more laps.

Owen ran 22 laps, which means Mom and Dad are writing a big check to the PTA this year.

Drew was in attendance, and cute as always.