Owen, Sara &
Andrew Hoelter

We’ve had some late summer travel and big adventures for our littlest guy. Ironically, his worst scrape was acquired in our own playroom on his sister’s princess castle. He did get several thumps, bonks and bites but seems to be faring pretty well. Here are some of his missed opportunities for giving his parents a heart attack:

Here he is at Point Prominence, overlooking the Minam River Canyon northeast of Union.

Here is the lookout we climbed to the top of, with Drew trying to wiggle out of Peter’s grip the whole way.

His shoes were kicked off during the climb and fell “DOWN, DOWN”.

We also rode the (probably not endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics) wagon pulled by Jack and Joe, on the way to Sunday School in Union.

The next weekend we were in Sunriver with the Hoelters, in a fabulous house the the most intriguing spiral staircase. Here is cousin Jackson demonstrating the toddler ascent with his mom as spotter.

We walked along the Deschutes to Benham Falls, over a creaky bridge.

Luckily, Drew has a buddy to commiserate with,

and a big sister looking out for him.

Whew! Back home safe!

“…So, they had to go from the edge of my carpet all the way around outside past the dinnertable across the yard, onto the cherry tree (the big knot on the trunk), down, back across the yard, up the steps. It’s okay to have a giant carry you–I am the giant! Then they have to go through the window, though the kitchen and back into my room. But then, they had to cross the entire length of the carpet in a flying machine, and then you had to go out the door then they had to stay out there for a while and see if they could meet up with old friends.”

“Remember Mom? This robot was lost out there. Then they had to fly back onto my bed. The race ends there.”

Mom: “who won the race?”

“Obviously, (guess!) the good guys.”

Mom: “Why? Are they faster?”

(voice lowered for emphasis) Because they’re good, actually the best.

Mom: “What did the bad guys do to be so bad?”

“They’re evil!”

“They now each have a gun (the good guys). The bad guys, after landing on my bed, took off to find a weapon of their own. They found a little missle launcher, but haven’t found a missle yet. They found a stoplight and thought it might be useful. Then, they found what they wanted, but they still didn’t have something to put it on. They found a steering wheel, which of course would come in handy, and a large fan. Then they found what they were looking for, but it didn’t work. Then they found another thing and this time it worked. So they installed it. This one is a plain old laser.”

“The largest of the good guys missle and lasers is the lawn mower laser, it’s green like grass, which is why it’s called the lawn mower laser, because the grass gets cut into the lawn mower. The next little ship is driven by the robot (good) it has a water laser (because water is poison and poison is water in Legoland). The last missle is a dynamite launcher. The moment it’s launched, the fuse is lit by friction in the air. And that’s all the lasers. And the missle.”

Did you follow all of that? I’m tasting some influence from “The Empire Strikes Back” and Looney Tunes, with undertones of 7 year old fascination with weaponry and domination! Ah, Legos…