I give up.
We are never travelling again until Soren is off at college. Someone said to me a while ago "Soren must be a great traveller, you guys take so many trips." Nope, we're just crazy. Soren is a HORRID traveller! Last Thursday he and I flew to Chicago to meet Isaac and spend the weekend visiting friends and our old stomping ground. It didn't go very well to say the least. Soren refused to nap, and didn't sleep well at night either. So needless to say he wasn't in the greatest mood. We didn't end up getting to do much as a result. But we did spend some time with our dear friends Sam and Erin, and that was wonderful. When I win the lottery I'm going to move them here to Minneapolis because I miss them oodles.

I thought Soren might like flying because he is obsessed with pointing out airplanes when they fly over us (which happens frequently since our house is in the flight path of most planes landing at MSP). He did like the airport and seeing the planes, but I don't really think he got that we were actually in one, nor that we were flying.
Here's Soren watching the boys Wii box, and trying to get in on the action (or is he dancing? Not completely sure)
Playing trains and Legos with ErinFamily picture at the playground Looking deceptively cute and happy

The only thing Isaac and I insisted that we do in Chicago was to visit our favorite restaurant in the whole wide world Thai Spice. I am not exaggerating when I say they have hands down the best Panang Curry out there. Unfortunately Soren cried from the time we walked in the door until dessert was cleared. And then he turned into Mr. Sunshine. It helped that Sam was being hilarious and sticking pieces of paper to their foreheads and then blowing them off.
On the flight home with daddy

Isaac said to me yesterday "I wonder what we can do next time to make this easier" and my reply was "what the @#%$ do you mean next time, the only way to make this better is for there to not be a next time!" Sigh!

Isaac's Birthday Montage

Everyone loves a good montage, right? I've been meaning to upload this for a while now, but encountered some technical difficulties. For Isaac's birthday back in September I put together a collection of pictures of us, both pre- and post-babe, set to music. Enjoy!

Rumspringa
This past weekend we were invited to a fall celebration at Johanna and her family's hobby farm, Rumspringa. The farm is a little slice of paradise, totally amazing. It was a perfect way to spend a fall day! Here are Soren, Johanna (also known as Coco), and Millie trying to convice Glenn and Elmer the horses to come say hello.
Playing in the sunny living room. (Don't tell Soren but he's standing there not holding on to anything! Although Soren can stand on his own and has even taken a couple of steps, if he realizes what he's doing he quickly sits down.)
The two lovebirds trying out Coco's rocker
It doesn't get a whole lot better than this!

Millie, clearly thinking deep thoughts
Drink break!
I've been thinking a lot of what kind of clever caption to put on the next series of pictures, and I keep coming back to that scene in "Young Frankenstein" which if you haven't seen will probably go totally unappreciated...."roll, roll, roll in zee hay!" (Note: I'm pretty sure in this first picture Tony is trying to pry his daughter off of Soren)

Soren doesn't appear to mind too much. I have about ten more pictures of Millie repeatedly climbing on Soren, but you get the idea.

Always the lady, Millie offers to help Soren up after mauling him.Portrait of a boy and his dada

Coco driving the tractor
Coco and Millie love each other very much. It's so cute to hear them say each other's names!

Feeding Elmer (or maybe Glenn?)

Getting a wagon ride out to the apple orchard
Soren was all about his apple.

Millie enjoying her apple

Townsend family portrait!
Our lovely hosts- Angie, Jorg, and Coco

Alex, Millie, and Tony
Rumspringa from the apple orchard. Isn't it dreamy?
It was a memorable day to say the least, and we look forward to going back in the years to come!

Soren and His Girls
We are so lucky to have two of the cutest girls ever and their awesome moms for friends. Yesterday we met up in Stillwater with Millie and Alex, and Johanna and Angie. We went to an apple orchard, the coolest park ever, and had lunch at a cute diner downtown.

The goats at the apple orchard were a huge hit! Soren could hardly believe it! Millie, Johanna, and Soren

Sweet Millie
Soren getting some love from Johanna
Millie saw Johanna moving in on her guy and rushed over

....and one upped her! Take that Zach!
"It's okay girls, there's enough love to go around!"
Playing at the park

Minnesota River Wildlife Refuge

"Hey dad, whatcha lookin' at?"

This one is for Grandpa Albright.....Soren unprompted wanted to give this wood badger a little love.

"What's that Bucky? What do you mean sauteed gophers?"

There's no denying it anymore, it's definately fall around here. We decided to replace our dying plants in our front pots with some mums, and Soren was a big help.

"Hey mom, quit taking pictures and get over here and help!" Excitement over the neighbor's cat.
"Yes, this dirt will do quite nicely."
Soren likes to test things out as potential hair products. He has found the peanut butter works quite well, good hold.

Flower pot=hat (and as an added bonus it was fun to dump the dirt all over himself)
The end result...
The best part is, when I went in to wash up Isaac took Soren over to play with the neighbors like this!