Friday Isaac had the day off after finishing a two week training in Chicago that had him on the road for even longer weeks than usual. Tuesday he'll start a new project in Chicago for the next few months. We kicked off the long weekend with a trip to the Minnesota Zoo to see the Russia's Grizzly Coast exhibit. It was a really neat exhibit, and we added eastern Russia to our long list of places to travel some day. My friend Karen's husband John has spent time tracking fish owls in eastern Russia, and so it was really cool to see pictures and statues of the birds he's told us about, and even to see a picture of John in one of the displays!

Here's Isaac and Soren at the otter exhibit. Isaac is explaining to Soren that its' not a cat.
Here's Soren getting excited because this time he's SURE he spotted a cat...
...and it is!!
Soren always likes seeing the giant fish tanks. This was the first time he got to try out the "petting pond" with little sharks and sting rays. Soren liked splashing around, but I don't think he touched any fish. Isaac had to make a quick save and grab a kid next to him who started to fall in head first. According to one of the zoo volunteers kids take a dive on a regular basis. Being that I kinda hate fish it sounds perfectly horrible to me.
Those who have been around Soren recently know that he's a little obsessed with drinking water, so he was pretty stoked about the drinking fountain, even if it didn't all go in his mouth.
Today we're catching up on some housework, and tomorrow it's back to the state fair!!

A Day in the Life of a Cat Hunter

Soren can't figure out why the cats run from him. Hmmm....could it be that ear piercing shriek?? If you listen closely you'll hear him saying "dat" which is his closest approximation to "cat".

The Great Minnesota Get Together!

Today Beth, Soren and I went to the Minnesota State Fair. We gorged ourselves on deep-fried food and saw a bunch of farm animals. It rocked. Soren's favorite seemed to be the battered, deep-fried Reece's peanut butter cups, and I must concur. He was not so interested in the Pronto Pup, so I had to eat them both myself (errr...I mean one, I ate one...) Here we are sharing a Sweet Martha's cookie-Even though he now has eleven teeth, with more on their way in, Soren wasn't able to figure out how to eat the buttered sweet corn from the cob, so I played mama bird and bit a bunch off and spit it in his cup. Delicious!
Soren was not, I repeat NOT, a fan of the giant slide. On the plus side Beth is pretty sure she worked off at least the fried cheese curds on the trek up the stairs.In the "Miracle of Birth" barn we got to watch a baby lamb being born. I felt pretty bad for the mama sheep though, I would not have enjoyed giving birth with a crowd like this, PLUS they were broadcasting the whole thing on TVs overhead.
Soren kept pointing at all the animals and saying "cat!". Apparently we need more work on the fine distinction between a cat and, say a lamb.
Although Beth was clearly enjoying it, Soren was not sure whether to laugh or cry when a cow moo-ed about a foot from his face. He decided on whimpering in the end.
This pig was bigger than it looks, and some guys were trying to prod it towards its pen. This time it was my turn to be petrified, I was sure it was going to charge us!
Afterwards Soren zonked out on the car ride home. We even heard a couple of snores!! I realized afterwards that we forgot to try the chocolate dipped bacon. I might have to see if Isaac wants to go back on Friday since he has the afternoon off!

On our way back from the reunion Soren and I spent a few days in Duluth chillaxin' with grams and gramps. We went to Bridgemans and Soren had four people shovelling ice cream into him, but it still wasn't fast enough!Soren enjoyed "helping" gramps water the plants, which mostly involved him sticking his head under the very cold hose in hopes of getting some in his mouth. Nice clematis gramps!
Grams pulled out a bunch of vintage toys for Soren, including some toys from her childhood which probably wouldn't pass safety regulations these days. Soren got to try out some of mom's old toys too, including this sweet ride. (you'll notice the wet hair from the plant watering)

Global Reunion

Ten years ago I left on the adventure of a lifetime. For five months I travelled with 27 classmates, visiting eight countries with everything I needed in two backpacks. The people I travelled with have remained some of my dearest friends, and this past weekend many of us got together up on the North Shore to celebrate and reminisce. It was a total blast. Such fun that I hardly took any pictures. Here are my globes friends!With significant others and kids.This is our best effort at getting a pic of all the kids. We missed our friends who couldn't make it!

Three posts in one day? Holy smokes, I'm on a roll! Tonight was National Night Out and so our block whooped it up, complete with a giant bounce house and a visit from a fire truck! Soren spent most of the evening hanging out with our next door neighbor Catherine, who is exactly one month older than him. Soren thought the fire truck was pretty cool.
All the babes were impressed with Soren's sweet ride. Fiona lives across the street from us.
Soren and Catherine playing with the toys on each other's rides.
Just chillin', enjoying a couple of suckers together.

Brulympics 2008
Every year the Albrights hold a family Olympics at our cabin in Brule, WI. It consists of Bocce Ball, Badminton, Ladder Golf, Trivial Pursuit, and the card game Oh Hell. Last year we were severely handicapped by the sheer exhaustion that comes with having a six week old. We were sure that this would be our year. There was some grumbling that having a three person team would put Team Townsend at a distinct advantage. Not the case.

Two problems- Soren has decided that sleeping away from home is for the birds, and also that groups of people that make loud noises are scary as shit. Here's Soren and Isaac during the opening ceremonies. He's a little on edge.
And then, unbeknownst to all, Tom and Liz decided to make a spectacular entrance (looking back we should not have been surprised, they pull shenanigans like this every year). Here's Tom bursting through the flag banner they had announced that they had put up "in the spirit of the games".
Soren was scared out of his mind!!! Did I mention he doesn't like a)suprises b)loud noises c)people with funny things on their heads? I'm probably a horrid mother for thinking this is just about the funniest picture ever.
I wish I would have taken a picture of his little hand grasping onto Isaac's shirt for dear life for an hour afterwards. Or the tears that continued every time Tom came anywhere near him for most of the afternoon. Sigh. Well, at least we'll have something more to add to the embarassing slide show we show at his and Millie's wedding. Here's my mom and dad in their hippy garb, vintage from their glory days! Seems some of it shrunk in the wash somewhere along the way. Not sure if you can see that my mom had flowers braided into her hair.
Mary and Neal's shirts said "The Appraisers-assigning arbitrary values to your weak game", which they did.
Tom and Liz went with an American Gladiators theme, complete with matching (women's) athletic shorts for both!Poor Beth and Scott had planned to do an American Gladiators theme too (great minds??) but found out ahead of time about Tom and Liz, so changed to The Contenders (you know, like the contestants on AG).So we didn't win, but we didn't come in last either. Right smack in the middle of the pack, which is better than last year. And we had a blast, so who can ask for more? (Well, Isaac might disagree, he's a bit competitive)

Here's Soren on Sunday gearing up for a hike. For some reason he looks a little tired???
Next year we're leaving Soren at home with the cats.

Global Munchkins! In two weeks I have a ten year reunion with friends from my Global Semester abroad. It's really hard to believe it's been ten years. Last week we had a playdate with a couple of the girls and their kids. Here is Madelynne, Soren, Anna, Alex, and Blake. And here's what it takes behind the scenes to get five kids looking in the same direction and possibly even smiling.