Thunder Supporter

Shana and I went to see the Minnesota Thunder play Miami FC tonight. The Thunder have just moved their home stadium back to the National Sports Center in Blaine. It was a good game, Minnesota has definitely gotten better over the years and won 3-1. What's also great is that the stadium at the NSC is being revamped to be more of a true soccer stadium. The best part of the night, however, was the supporters club. I've always wanted to go to a European soccer game and experience the songs, chants, and general craziness of a match. Now I can get a taste of this right here at home with the "dark clouds" supporters club complete with songs, drums, smoke bombs and flags. I'm pretty stoked to be a part of it and can't wait for the next game where I hope to join the tail gating party and the mayhem that follows! We'll see if Shana will go with me again :-) Check out http://www.blueskysoccer.com along with http://www.mnthunder.com/ for more info about the team and the supporters club.
Below is a photo of the construction taking place at the NSC with a the projected new sideline. I think it's going to be a great new venue for professional soccer in the Minnesota.
Now if the league would only figure out a relegation system. For those who don't know, most of the professional soccer leagues in Europe (if not all) have a relegation system. Each league has a number of divisions and in each division the top 3 teams move up and the bottom 3 move down. Anyone who wants to can start a team, they just have to start in the lowest division. After Malcolm Glazer bought Manchester United, a bunch of fans who were ticked off started their own club and I think their team is now in the third division, only two away from the top! I think there is great irony in the fact that this approach is far more in line with the spirit of the free market, especially in comparison to how professional sports are currently run in our country.

Spring! Yes!

Anja at her favorite park by the library. Where else can you watch the ducks swimming while swinging?!

Like many other Minnesotans, we're breathing a sigh of relief at what was one of the longest winters we've had in a few years. The sun is out, our pool is open, and people are finally getting outside!

Anja loves being out . . . after 1 1/2 hours at the park, we'll come home and she'll sit in her Burley not wanting to get out. That's when I bribe her with lunch or a promise that we'll go outside later!

Below are a few pictures from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

We finally got the Burley out and going on Mother's Day. We had a mechanical, but quickly resolved that for a nice ride. (See photo on the left.) Anja loves using the pump--a good sign that she'll be able to change her own tires some day!

Anja with Papa.

Anja playing around in the backyard. Every time she picks up a(ny) leaf, she says rather proudly, "Oak leaf!"

Anja decided to jump all the way in when my back was turned this week --she was a bit shocked but recovered well and finished the lesson. She's signed up for the next session--she loves the pool! (Hooray!)

Mindekirken, demonstrations and more

Anja and I joined our good friends Paul and Katie at Mindekirken in Minneapolis for a Syttende Mai service and parade today. Anja was a bit overwhelmed by it all. We made it through the concert and a bit of the service before she was ready to go. The church was absolutely packed and most of the service was in Norwegian, which may have just been too much new stuff for her. In any case, we joined in for the parade which was a shock to most of the Minneapolis neighborhood which is now predominantly Somali. One man came up to us and asked why we were demonstrating. Afterwards we headed over to Grandma Marilyn's house and took some photos in front of the chokecherry and flowering crab trees.



Hop Farming

In other news, now that my graduate coursework is finished (I still have my thesis to finish) it's time to take on some random projects this summer. I used to be a fairly avid home brewer and plan to do a bit of brewing again this summer. I also thought, I should try growing hops, so I ordered some rhizomes online and planted them today. Evidently there is a hop shortage (which is why the price of beer has recently gone up) so if the four vines I've planted are successful, we may just expand production and start on a new career path :-). Or I'll just start a micro brew if anyone has $70,000 laying around they'd like to invest. No matter what happens with my newly planted cascade and willamette hops, I had fun operating a Bobcat for the first time! Stay tuned for updates about how these crazy things will grow. They're actually a vine and commercial growers use 18 ft. high trellises!

Gratulerer med dagen!

For those who don't know, today is Syttende Mai, or Norway's Independence Day. Unfortunately they're having some of the worst weather for their big national holiday. The headline for Aftenposten.no (at least about syttende mai) reads, "Worst weather in 50 years." Here in Minnesota the big Syttende Mai celebrations are actually tomorrow (why, I don't know), and Anja and I plan to be there. To get ready, we decided to try on her bunad and make sure everything was in order. It started to rain after we got it on so this was the best picture I got. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!

29 and 1 1/2!

I turned 29 today, but more importantly Anja is officially 1 1/2 today! It was a gorgeous day, so we enjoyed a walk to the library and park, then topped the day off with swimming lessons. Erik finished a 25 page paper this evening and is that much closer to earning his MA from the U of M (hooray!).

We think she's pretty amazing for 1 1/2 . . . she can count from 1-10, loves to sing the ABCs and her vocabulary is growing leaps and bounds. She's a bundle of laughs and enthusiasm. Gotta love it!

Anja at her first night of swimming lessons at the Centennial High School pool.

Norway was last month . . . time to finish!

Okay, so we've been back for awhile and our posts on Norway have been lacking. So, I'm going to finish things off by posting a few of my favorites from the end of the trip. Enjoy!

Looks like she owns the place . . . on our way from Oslo to Flåm via train.

We definitely recommend doing the "family area" on the trains . . . there was a place for Anja to play on both trains (one train even had a tunnel!).

We stayed in Aurland, a quiet (we were very off-peak!) and old town (notice the date on this tombstone) in the midst of fjord country.

We took a ferry from Flåm to Aurland. We had an early boat (see Anja) on the way back.

Erik has always raved about the strawberry milk in Norway (the company Tine makes it). I found out why in 2004 and Anja found out why this year. YUM! She was saying strawberry (milk) like "dub-ya" --- we quickly corrected that!

The train from Oslo to Flåm was fantastic---you started in the city then ended up in these crazy snow-covered mountain towns (Finse, Myrdal). It was an interesting sight to see people with their skis, poles and boots hopping on and off the train in the middle of Oslo.

Brit took us to the ski museum, newly opened in Trysil. This is a picture of the first ski lift from the resort in Trysil.

The evolution of skis.

This is just a part of Bjørn Dæhlie's trophy case. Wow.

Anja on the ski jump simulator.

Erik's family was fortunate enough to go to the Olympic Winter Games when they were in Lillehammer in 1994. What a beautiful place! We had lots of fun in the Olympic Park.

I love these guys!

The reason for our trip . . . a visit to Erik's folk high school (Hedmarktoppen). The view from their main building was gorgeous!

During our last night in Trysil before we took off for home, Anja was feeling a little shy so she decided it was best to hang out with Morten. Anja really took to him while we were there . . . now every once and awhile she'll say, "Tickle Morten!" She's got quite the memory!

It seemed like everyone had a station wagon in Norway, so we fit right in with our rental car.

We had a great time . . . hopefully we can get back sooner rather than later! Thanks to everyone who made the trip so enjoyable!