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!

For six years now we have trekked out to the same Christmas tree farm just outside of Dallas. Each trip includes a bumpy ride on one of the farm’s tractors (a red wagon this year).

Once out on the farm, Dad must dismiss at least eight perfectly good trees before becoming serious about the selection process. With surprisingly little debate and only one lost Lego man (don’t ask), we were able to find the perfect tree. One of the farm workers offered to be our photographer, making this (I believe) the first family Christmas tree photo.

While Dad ties the tree to the top of the Subaru, the rest of the family gets to sip hot cider around a fire.

Back home, the decorating fun begins. This was the first year that we can say that all of the kids were truly into the decorating process. While there may be too many ornaments on the lower-front of the tree, it was a joy to watch them not only help with hanging ornaments, but also get excited about the “tradition” part of the experience. So fun!

One final tradition: the hanging of the star on the tree. This year may be Sara’s last year as the official hanger (Drew protested much this year). She did great.

All in all, a nice family day. Let the Christmas season officially begin!

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.

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!

The big kids and Dad went “autobahn” tubing up at Hoodoo this past weekend – our first play day in the snow of the season. All had a great time – the kids especially liked lunch in the RV our friends drove up. Owen has now decided we need one … maybe next year.

Mostly sunny day in central Oregon, with Three Finger Jack in the distance.

Sara enjoyed the rope tow to the top, though she walked the first three runs.

Time to head home!

Yes, we had to drive up to the tallest point in the city to play in it, but we were able to build a snowman within the city limits — a rare thing for our mild Oregon city. It was a nice way to spend a Monday holiday…

An Ewok treehouse in Lego! Clearly a geek thoughtful fan’s labor of love. You’ll have to look at Peter’s pictures (coming soo, I promise! – Peter) to see the rest of the Star Wars scenes…

Halloween happened right after we got home. We had two Angry Birds and an angry toddler.

Drew is wearing his angry bird hat (he was designated by Sara as “the blue one”), but completely refused to wear the rest of his outfit. Luckily he is still pretty cute and figured out “trick-or-treat”, so kept up with the big kids for our walk around the neighborhood. The Angry Bird costumes were Owen’s idea, and Sara wholeheartedly agreed. The two of them provided very specific art direction to the project, and I think they were happy with it in the end. At least they were happy with their candy haul, which was substantial. They got 2 FULL-SIZE snickers bars! This is crazy.

Next came Peter’s 39th birthday celebrated with lots of candles and a big cake!

Awww, they are sweet. Drew helped blow out the candles and Owen was photographer. Sara was the sick one on the couch. (We seem to have one with every birthday.)

Now on to leaf-raking and Thanksgiving!

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.

Thanks to an extra-busy spring, I got way behind on sorting and posting photos to our site. With over 2,000 photos to go through across many events and months, the task seemed best suited for the lazy days of Summer. Plus, with Jenny blogging about most major events, you, our faithful reader, probably have the gist of what we’ve been up to.

Well, here we are in the Dog Days, and I’m officially caught up. I’ve posted not one but four galleries, dating from mid-March to mid-July.

So, sit back for a spell and enjoy a window into the last four months of our lives.

	Spring Break We gathered up the troops for a Spring Break adventure to Spokane, Washington, Wallace, Idaho, and Union, Oregon. One reoccurring theme: Getting wet-either in form of swimming (water park!) or the constant rain and/or snow falling from the sky. Good times!
	Rites of Spring Spring brought with it familiar experiences (Awesome 3000!), but also some special events, including Grandma and Grandpa’s 40th anniversary, the birth of cousin Carson, and the acquisition of three cute little backyard chickens.
	Scenes from Two Days on the Coast Over Memorial Day weekend we escaped to the Oregon Coast, visiting the beautiful stretch between Lincoln City and Florence. We were greeted by sunshine, blue skies, and Moe’s clam chowder.
	June and July Ah, summertime – a chance to get outside and do all of the things you dreamed about doing during the damp of winter. Our adventures so far include a Marsh/Wing trip to Medford (with side trip to Ashland), Owen’s first backpacking trip, Sara’s 4th birthday party, 4th of July celebrations, and a few (short) hikes.

Today was Awesome 3000, the biggest youth event in Salem and a favorite of our family. This was Owen’s fourth race, and he did great running 1500m. Every year it becomes more of a social event for him (and for his parents), with many of his closest friends participating. Uppa and Grandma Judy were in the stands to cheer the kids on.

Here is Owen warming up just slightly apart from his pack of (270!!) purple friends.

Sara was not going to be left out this year. All week she practiced sprinting around the living room. She was very excited (most excited?) to have same t-shirt as Owen. Jenny ran with her for the full 300m, and I think they both had a lot of fun. We are so proud of our little girl! She ran fast!

They posed for our traditional post-race photograph, though I don’t know where the kung-fu-ish stance came from.

Next year, we will have THREE runners at the event. I can’t wait.

UPDATE:

Owen was part of a group photo that ran on the cover of the Statesman Journal’s Mid Valley section. This is the second time in four years that his image has been on the cover of that section!

Source: Statesman Journal Web site