Owen, Sara &
Andrew Hoelter

Drew has discovered the lure of altitude, which we’ve been using to our advantage. He stood on our stool in the kitchen playing with (previously shunned) cups and spoons long enough for me to fix dinner AND empty the dishwasher! I took the picture of the back of his head because I couldn’t bring myself to disturb the peace.

We’ve been looking forward to a Memorial Day weekend trip to the beach for a LONG time. We joined the rest of the Hoelters in Manzanita for a few rainy days of beach walking and sand castle making, some foosball, board/card games and CUPCAKES to celebrate Chris’s Birthday. There was an impressive array of idevices, much to Sara’s delight. Sara and Owen got to sleep in bunk beds, which made going to bed FUN and bonded with their cousin Jackson, 7 months.

Here are some pictures!

Eat sand or run into the ocean? So hard to choose…

Manzanita has Cape Cod-esque dunes that Owen and Sara had fun exploring, with lots of climbing/jumping/rolling. There was sand where no sand should be!

An EXCELLENT frosting:cupcake ratio

Thanks for sharing your toys, Jackson!

A good looking bunch of Hoelter cousins…

The whole crew, minus one bearded world traveler. We miss Micah! (Sara, in her nearly 3-year old obstinate phase, insisted on sitting RIGHT there)

A very silly Silly photo.

Thanks to Mark and Miriam for making this happen—we all had a wonderful weekend—rain can’t ruin the magic of the beach!

The Wings gathered in Union this past weekend to celebrate Auntie Karen’s graduation! She’s pretty amazing and we are proud of HER. We had all been looking forward to having a party and gathering all of the cousins together, because none of us were quite sure exactly what it looks like to have seven grandchildren all in the same place.

The SEPTAVERENT (with grandparents)

Pretty adorable… from the left: Alex, Sara, Ben, Drew, Owen, Henry and Lily.

My kids were really excited to meet their newest cousin Lily, whom Sara insists is called “lOOly, like Looly poops” (Hula hoops, I’m guessing), and sleep in the bunkhouse. We had beautiful weather, particularly the early mornings–crystalline blue sky, bright sun, and the Grande Ronde Valley spring at it’s finest with green hills and fields. Luckily, no one missed these beautiful hours, as it’s pretty much impossible to convince the kids that it’s still nighttime when the sun comes blazing over the hills just before 0600.

Hugs before breakfast

There was a hike with Uncle Adam and Auntie Jen to collect rocks in a completely legal and permitted manner.

Catherine Creek, near the summit

There was a Bird-a-thon at Ladd Marsh with several bird-related activities

Making birdhouses

Ladd Marsh with Mt. Fanny

There were lots of stories, naps and snacks. Nobody takes pictures of naps, but with 5 nappers, the strategic coordination of napping locations and shushing of the non-napping was epic.

Stories

There was an amazing amount of food, including a REALLY good Prime Rib, courtesy of Adam.

Meat!

And here’s a picture of the whole clan at our Eastern Oregon Luau!

The crowd

My little sweetheart was waking up with out-of-control bedhead, compete with little mini-dreds, so it was time for a haircut. I only have time to negotiate hair combing with one child in the mornings.

Sweet baby curls before haircut

This nicely co-incided with a visit from Grandma Judy, so (using my giant and very sharp Don’t-touch-mom’s-scissors scissors) Drew was sheared.

Post-shearing

He kind of likes having his hair played with, so he didn’t mind sitting in the chair until his little ear got in the way of the big bad scissors and he ended up with a tiny nick.

There was a little pile of curls on the counter when we finished, now safely in an envelope.

I feel like we’ve been passing a lot of milestones in the last few months. Now Drew is a walking, jabbering, mimicking almost 14 month old. I don’t really miss the days of having a newborn (though he was an exceedingly sweet newborn) and I know from watching him with Owen and Sara that things only get more fun from here. I’m just saying that when he insists on being in my arms and no one else will do–I might sniff his baby smell and kiss his baby hair and try to remember exactly what it feels like.

A good day for our Big Boy…

Finish Line!

He ran in Awesome 3000, a K-12 cross country-style fun run. A big deal for Salem with 3,200 kids registered this year! It was a SEA of orange T-shirts and skinny legs. I find it really amazing that all of those kids found their way back to the correct parents. Kinder and 1st graders run a 1500m course, and the older kids run 3K. Owen finished in 8:20, and seemed to have a good time. His buddy is finishing just in front of him.

Clearly, very cool boys

Then, we had a soccer game. (No pics–just imagine little boys in shinguards kind of actually playing soccer!)

Then,  it was time for Owen’s first piano recital. He’s been taking lessons for about 3 months.

Grandma Judy sent a new shirt and I ironed his pants. He, being the “youngest” student, played his pieces first. He didn’t make any mistakes and didn’t lose his composure when he had a small issue with a very large piano.

After the recital, Owen and his buddy (with some help from Sara) played a duet that they have been learning.

"Whistling"

I’m working on a snippet of video that Peter took of Owen’s favorite song “Big Ben”! Sort of reminds me of the 5th grade band playing Good King Wenceslaus at the Holiday Concert… Hopefully will post it soon.

We do have 2 OTHER children, remember. They are cute too, and we do take pictures of them. More on that later !

Yeah for birthdays! I took the day off (highly recommend this approach to birthdays) and we had a very nice day.

We took our first bike trip with all 5 of us, (the two little ones in a 2-seater Burley trailer, and Owen on his own) at Minto-Brown park and had a picnic dinner! Drew tolerated a handed down pink panda bear helmet, Sara only pinched him a few times, and Owen, except for one spectacular downhill crash on a bridge, did GREAT.

We had angel food cake with strawberries when we got home. My favorite.

Peter and I took a little vacation to Hood River/Stevenson, WA over the weekend, while the kids had a sleepover with Mark and Miriam. (We LOVE Grandparents!) We stayed overnight at Skamania Lodge and enjoyed the view of storms moving down the gorge from the outside hot tub. We slept ALL NIGHT and read the ENTIRE newspaper!

We were all pretty wiped out when we got home on Sunday afternoon, so we wolfed down a pizza in the backyard. Don’t leave Drew alone with a pizza…

We have been working with Owen on learning how to ride his bike (without training wheels) for about 18 months now, and it has been a long and not-very-fun process for all involved. In fact, “This is the worst thing you’ve ever made me do” and “You’re ruining my life” are only a sampling of Owen’s opinions on the subject, despite his parents attempts at coaching and psychology.

But Monday night…

Owen: “Mom-can I eat my WHOLE package of Lifesavers if I really GRASP how to ride my bike tonight”?

Mom (with a note of sarcasm): ” Owen, I’ll take you to the store and buy ALL of the Lifesavers if you really grasp how to ride this bike tonight”

Boy gets on bike and (with a small push) rides bike all the way down the street. I guess we hadn’t explored all of the bribery options. By the time we got home, he’s riding in circles and gives the above quote shortly before crashing into a rather large rosemary shrub.

I didn’t have the camera that night, but can post a picture of our kids and their Uncle Micah, who is in Bogota, Colombia tonight! Have a good trip Micah!

We want to share our pictures and kids with you in a new, more current way, so we (okay, we all know it’s actually Peter) have given owenhoelter.com a new look and added a blog. Now we can join the cool kids (Christy, Aaron, Micah)! Yeah for Peter! A few things:

• Peter will still post his photo galleries periodically, linked from the home page
• Pictures posted by me, Jenny, must carry  a disclaimer that they HAVE NOT BEEN COLOR CORRECTED, and thus should not reflect poorly on my diligent husband, would never post incorrect colors.
• We will probably add the password protection back again soon—it’s easy—any of the kid’s middle names will work, and if you can’t remember, just email us and we’ll fill you in.

And now, some cute kid pictures, because that’s what it’s all about!

These are from Easter! Note Willow the bunny in her Easter dress, the prominent display of Owen’s missing teeth, and Drew walking with assistance (sort of). He has since started walking on his own! Whew!