Owen, Sara &
Andrew Hoelter

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

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!

… 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!

As we began packing to return from our trip in Maui, it became clear that one important item was not accounted for: Owen’s dear stuff dog named Newspaper. It appears he liked it so much on the island that he decided to stay (isn’t that what most of us want to do anyway?).

Well, godspeed to you, Newsie. We will always remember our trips with you to Montreal, Wisconsin, and Washington DC. We hope you enjoy your endless supply of sun, sandy beaches and Mai Tais.

Artists rendering of Newspaper's current appearance

Maui! We’d had enough of a rainy spring, said “pooh-pooh” to a 5 hour flight with 3 little kids and headed to Hawaii for some sunshine and adventure. Peter and I honeymooned here 11 years ago and have been itching for a swim in the warm ocean ever since we left.

We had the extreme good fortune of being “test guests” for Julie Mercer’s (Auntie Jen’s Mom) condo in Kihei. Very comfy digs, I tell you. If you find yourself headed to Maui, we highly recommend contacting Julie for details! (By the way, we ARE available to test other people’s vacation homes, as well!)

Our days started early, on the beach like this, (at Big Beach in Makena)

And included lots of sand castle building and unbuilding, (at Ka’anapali Beach)

And digging big holes, (at Ulu’a Beach in Wailea)

And eating sand

And some body surfing/getting rolled around in big waves. (at Ulu’a Beach) Owen became quite the body surfer!

One day we drove to the top of Haleakala, the volcano that makes up the south end of Maui, over 10,000 ft high! Here is Owen peering down into the “erosional valley” at the top (not a crater, we learned). It was amazing to be up ABOVE the clouds and the views on the drive up/down were great, too.

Another day we went to Lahaina for a ride in a Yellow Submarine (this delighted our 3 year-old Beatles fan). While not REALLY a submarine, we did ride below water level over a shallow reef and saw corals and lots of fish.

We also rested at the “World’s Largest Banyan Tree” and attempted a picture of our fantastic 3. Drew was attempting a “moon”–tough to do in a onesie!

Another day we took at drive to the other side of the island (the wet and rainy side) and took a hike in a bamboo forest

to this waterfall. Owen and Peter scrambled up a 12 foot rock wall to get to another one as well!

In the afternoons, we napped and then swam at the condo pool which had a big tile Orca in the bottom. Sara was never fully convinced it wasn’t going to bite her. This was Owen and Sara’s most favorite thing–swimming every day.

We ate our share of Maui pineapples and mangos, and (at Owen’s request) bought a coconut at the farmer’s market. A woman with a big machete chopped off the end and stuck in a straw! We all tried it, but Drew was the only one who went back for seconds and thirds and fourths…

After dinner, we would seek out a sunset (at about 7 pm!) across the street from the condo

or along the fancy Wailea Beach walk

We took some self-portraits

And finally got a picture of everyone looking in the same direction! Taken by a mother of three (teenagers) who Drew very effectively charmed (a recurring theme!).

We had a GREAT time and are still cleaning off the sand. We’ll be back someday!