JOE

February 26, 2019

JOE

Your temporary space in the basement while Miss Hoeller lived with us before her wedding.

Happy birthday Joe! Happy 12th birthday. You're a pretty easy kid. I don't know if that is by design or if we've parented you to be that way. We probably can't take too much credit. It likely has something to do with birth order too...being the youngest boy...the sixth child, the end of the middle. You probably watch and learn a lot. I guess that could be good and bad. Despite being pretty even-keeled you're definitely a pot-stirrer. You know how to get under your sisters' skin for sure. You and Ben share a room. You pretty much have had him as a room mate since shortly after birth.

At 12, in the 6th grade, you are 5'7", 140 pounds-give or take a couple. You wear a size 16/18 and have a size 10.5 foot. You're totally into football trading cards. Every once in a while there are some baseball cards thrown in there, but mostly football. You and your buddy George spend hours a week working up the perfect business plan to mow, rake, scoop and landscape the neighborhood and you've earned a pretty penny doing it. Most of your earnings go right into football cards!!!

Your other interests are whatever sport is in season. You knocked out your first year of football pretty successfully playing on the Firefighter's B team and then moved right into indoor soccer and wrestling, and then to outdoor soccer. In May you'll run your second Bolder Boulder. You're a competitor and it doesn't really matter what the event, you'll leave it all out on the field, floor, court or whatever it is.

Leadership Camp 2018

You're just plain committed to whatever iron you've got in the fire. Your class of boys has a group called Esto Vir that meets over the lunch hour once a week. It's a great group for your rambunctious bunch and you're a good leader. You're a good altar server and always looking for ways to become a better Christian. I admire you Joe. You're a pretty great kid! Happiest of birthdays to you! We are so glad you were born!

Winning it all at Huskerland. You're a fabulous wrestler, but also a very talented swimmer so it will be interesting to see which direction you decide to go in highschool.

Running your first ever Bolder Boulder. Running is new for you, but of course like anything else you do, it seems to come easy. You're more a distance guy which is new for our family since everyone else has been a sprinter this far. You asked the night before if you could run with us so we signed you up at the race and with no prior training you proceeded to run 6.2 miles.

Growing boy...must eat.

Bolder Boulder 2018 complete. You beat us both!

On top of the world. Literally! It was 100 degrees at the bottom of the mountain and 32 at the top. We didn't stay long!

Signature look.

Signature shenanigans

You've gotten a lot of trophies...but you aren't big on keeping them. You took this photo and then proceeded to disassemble and toss them in the trash.