Mark is now 85% Chinese

In a recent e-mail from China, Mark Gudmastad (one of Anja's Godparents) informed us that he is now 85% Chinese. While he wouldn't elaborate at this time, if this turns out to be true Anja's Godparents aren't just Scandinavian any more.

Mark also sent along these photos. He has been traveling around Chengdu in West-Central China. Here are some excerpts from his e-mail. "I've had a pretty exciting time here. I spent 10 days on a solo trip out to the Tibetan/Sichuan border. Three days on a highway listed as one of the highest, most dangerous in the world. Visiting lots of buddhist monasteries. . . . The mountain in the picture is Minya Kanka (Gangga Shan in Chinese) - "To behold it is worth ten years of meditation," according to an inscription at the base. Summited only 6 times with many failures. Two weeks before I was there an Australian man disappeared while trekking around the base of it - they think maybe avalanche. 7,590m; third highest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayas/Karakoram. Heading south to the Yunan province tomorrow, maybe. Will spend a couple weeks weeks backpacking around there."

We're definitely jealous of his trip and we're happy to hear he is having such a good time. We also can't wait to hear some crazy stories when he gets back!

In a subsequent e-mail we have also discovered that this blog is "one of the select sites blocked by the Chinese government." OK, so its probably all blogs. Nonetheless, sorry to all of our China based readers who cannot access this blog.

I'll Take the Stairs . . .

We've got a climber at our house! Two days ago, Anja decided it was time to conquer our stairs. One by one, she was determined to reach the top. The next day, she did both sets at once. She continues to amaze us with her strength!

It's fun to see her progress, but scary at times as well. Even after a few falls while maneuvering around furniture, she gets right back up for more. She's crawling almost entirely now, but still likes to fall back on her favorite army man crawl.

Having Erik around has been great for Anja so she gets more one on one time with him. It's also been nice to have another person to make a save every now and again!

Hail hits Norway Lake - A week ago

Last Sunday, June 10th, Shana and I were visiting the Hoffman's and Clementson's at their cabin on Norway Lake near New London, Minn. Erin and Ben Hoffman along with Mark Gudmastad are Anja's Godparents. We had a great time. Highlights included a long nap taken by Erik and Anja while Shana and Erin toured the lake via pontoon. That night we were hit by one heck of a storm. I posted a video we took on YouTube and have embedded it here.
I have never seen hail like that. Luckily it didn't appear to do any major damage. The photo below is one of the larger pieces of hail we found. They ranged from dime size to half-dollar size hail.

On the way back we visited my Grandparents, Anna and Gordon Halvorson. They were both doing really well and enjoyed seeing Anja. Shana and I are both very happy that Gordon's health continues to improve! From left to right in the photo below, Marilyn, Anja, Anna, & Gordon.

Shana runs marathon while Erik schmoozes with cute kid and humorist

On a warm and humid early spring morning in Duluth yesterday, Shana ran Grandma's marathon. She did an excellent job and while her time may not have been what she wanted it to be, she still finished in a very respectable 4 hours and 23 minutes. Ultimately, while it was 30 minutes off her personal best, she feels good about her race and is glad to be back on the road to her previous fitness level. I got to spend the morning with Anja who was in perfect form and received numerous ooohs and aahs. After a fellow spectator asked how old Anja was, she gasped in near disbelief, "and her mom is already running a marathon?!"

Also in attendance was humorist turned politician Al Franken. He was joined by a few of his campaign team members and they were cheering up a storm. Numerous marathon runners were lucky to get a high five and some very enthusiastic cheers from Al himself. As you can tell by the picture we go way back.


Stay tuned: The past few weeks have been busy ones. My classes are finally over for a few weeks and I'm looking forward to some downtime. This will also give me some more time to blog. Last weekend Hannah McMahon participated in the girls state high school rugby tournament. I'm hoping to get a game report from Hannah herself and will post a few pictures as well. Anja is the ever active child and is getting ahead of herself. Her new favorite thing to do is to pull herself up. However, her balance isn't quite there so she's keeping Shana and me on our toes to catch her falls. We'll have some pictures of her new found talent. Last but not least, I'm hoping to start posting some 'favorite's of the web' posts. For now, check out http://www.ted.com - the short speeches on this site tend to speak for themselves.

-Erik

Success!

Anja is finally into eating a little bit of solid food each day. We're happy to report that she actually kind of likes mushy rice cereal as well as oatmeal--enough to even help a bit. Yum!

She's also up for the stairs now . . . cruising over to them every chance she gets. She only gets to the second step, but that's enough to have her parents racing over to make the save every once in awhile!

Anja after bath time.
Good times for everyone!

It's Official!

After 31 years of teaching, today was Grandma Linda's last day of teaching. She is officially retired. We can't wait to have G'ma and G'pa here in Minneapolis with us for good! Congrats, Mom!

Up and At 'Em . . .

Anja's sure on the move lately! She really wants to crawl (beyond the current army-man) but isn't quite there yet. With the recent influx of humid air, she's also sporting some new curls. :)

In . . .

. . . and out!

Madison Marathon . . .

This past weekend, we traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to visit a college friend and run in the Madison Half/Marathon. The conditions were perfect from start to finish (much cooler than when we finished Ironman Wisconsin in 2005!) and both Shana and Peter met their race goals. Here are a few photos from race day. Anja slept through the entire race, but enjoyed watching rides and people at the "World's Largest Brat Fest" afterwards. Nothing beats a post-race brat!

Peter ran an impressive 3:19 marathon. If he would've shaved his legs and worn actual running shorts he could have run a 3:15. (Shhhh---don't tell!) Peter is also a cyclist--probably the only one in the state of WI who doesn't shave those hairy legs of his. Seriously.

This was a good training race for Grandma's . . . lots of gas left in the tank at the finish.

Six Month Check-Up . . .

According to her doctor, Anja is as healthy as can be at 16 lbs. 9 oz. and 27 1/4 inches. Still tall for her age, she's finally getting some baby fat, but still average for weight.

All the new movement tires her out, so she's been napping quite well lately! Here are a few of our favorite shots from the past couple of weeks.

Helping out . . .

So these are good for high mileage?

Six Months! and Shana's Birthday

Today Anja is six months old and it's also Shana's birthday. The highlight of the past couple of days has been Anja's ability to creep all over the place. Next weekend's plans include Anja-proofing the entire house. Hooray for movement!

The impetus for her to creep this morning was a trail of books. Each time she'd reach a book, Shana and she would read it and then move along to the next. As you can see, it seemed to work; there's a long trail of books in her wake!

Happy Mother's Day!

Last week, we drove up to Alexandria to visit Anja's Great Grandma Bev. Here are the four generations. Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Look Stan, No Nuk!

We took a trip to the Midtown Global Market to visit with relatives on Friday night. Anja thoroughly enjoyed being passed around between aunts and uncles. One comment was made by a particular uncle about her Nuk . . . she does actually part with it sometimes; here's our proof! (These were taken last week as Anja was waiting for G'ma and G'pa Letnes to arrive.)

Moving and Grooving!

Anja's getting squirmier by the day!

Shana's two biggest fans at the Get in Gear 10k last weekend.

Post 10k . . . Anja was pretty konked out after the race!

G'ma and G'pa Letnes' "pea pod" (her crib for visits to Colorado) being put to use in the back yard. She loved spinning around in it, but especially loved licking the netting (YUM!).

Anja has discovered that she can put her feet in her mouth and suck on her little toes.
Once again, YUM!

Moving Forward (Literally!)

A little "bridging" action . . .

her first crack at solids (we'll wait another week!) . . .

and hanging out with Papa.

"Walking" with Uncle Steve

Anja sure loved "walking" with her Uncle . . . lots of steps and even some pauses for photographs. She's been doing a lot of this practice walking--impressing us with the "flamingo" and the "bull" steps (you can use your imagination). One thing is for sure . . . she wants to move!

Get Well Soon, Great Grandma Rolfsrud!

The three of us, plus Anja's uncle Steve traveled to Alexandria, Minnesota a couple of weeks ago to introduce Anja to her Great Grandma Rolfsrud. We had a lovely time, with Grandma retelling stories from her younger years, singing a tune she learned from her father, and uncle Steve playing Grandma's grand piano (Anja was quite interested!).
We want to send G'G'ma get well wishes and look forward to our next trip!

Letnes Grandkids

A quick post to highlight the gathering of the Letnes family in Fort Collins, CO. Here is Ron and Linda (a.k.a. Grandma and Grandpa) and all the grandkids.

A Born Reader . . . Future Triathlete

Anja spent the afternoon checking out the latest Midwest Events magazine. Undoubtedly she spent most of her time debating which triathlons she would eventually compete in.

Spring has sprung . . . well almost!

Monday's 80 degree temperatures were a welcome sign of spring. We went for a long walk, had the season's first BBQ with G'ma and G'pa Erickson, and even let the birds in the house (okay so that wasn't planned)! We look forward to more time spent outside with Anja this spring and summer--maybe even a camping trip or two.



Anja continues to make progress physically . . . she easily holds her head up and even scoots her way out of her Baby Bjorn sitter.

Four Months and Growing . . .

Today was Anja's four month check-up . . . 13 pounds 14 ounces and 26! inches. She was a trooper with the shots, but it seemed as though she knew what we were up to as she was a bit fussier than usual! She's teething, so that may be the case as well!

Not only is she teething, but she's learned to scream in the last couple of weeks. It's a sweet scream--loud but sweet--and her parents love it. (Neighbors, probably not so much!) She gives us a wide grin while she shrieks, so at this point we think she's having a blast. Diaper changing time has never been so entertaining!

Back in the Saddle

Hello Friends,

First a big thanks to everyone who was able to attend our little get together. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing a lot of good friends and meeting some new ones! Unfortunately we don't have any pictures from the festivities. We're already looking forward to being able to do it again. Perhaps Bocce ball in Central Park, a Spring Grill Out, or even a guys only "scotch and cigars" party. We'll see!

With the Spring weather, both Shana and I have been able to start training again. Shana realized that she has run more in the past week than she has in the last year! I've also decided to get back on the bike and I actually enjoyed a short spin on the trainer. For those of you who are not familiar with trainer riding, it's a contraption that allows you to turn your bike into a stationary bike and tends to be awfully boring. Unfortunately, it tends to be one of the best ways to get some early season miles in. Luckily, it won't be long until I can start commuting to work on my bike!

Anja continues to grow like crazy and we're currently enjoying the teething process! Stay tune for more pictures later this week.

Erik

ps. It's amazing what you can find on the net. Here's a Norwegian comedy skit about tech support in the Middle Ages. Enjoy

The Discovery of Hands . . .

The last couple of weeks have been really fun to watch Anja. She continues to do a little rolling here and there (she's now figured out how to go from her stomach to back---back to stomach was the week before), and is discovering that her hands can do some magic. She also loves to practice standing . . .

. . . but after all of that physical exertion, it's time to sleep.

Digging out

The Twin Cities got smacked with another big snowstorm (as most of you are well aware). It was fun to get a snow day and spend a long weekend at home. We ended up with around 16-18" of new snow and while we weren't able to get out and enjoy it as we should, we still had a good weekend. The photos on the right are "during" and "after" pics. The trailer provides a pretty good reference point.

Town home life deprives us of the benefits of shoveling, so we spent the weekend digging out our office area. As I was going through some grad school stuff from last semester, I came across a fact sheet produced by the Basic Educational Coalition. The data below is from 2004, but is still staggering. I'd be willing to bet most of the demographic data hasn't changed. I'd also bet that while progress was being made on infrastructure improvements, it has either been stalled or even regressed at this point.

In Iraq Today

• 40% of the country’s 24.5 million people are under the age of 14.1
• 44% of men and 75% of women are illiterate.
• 31% of girls and 17.5% of boys do not attend primary school.3 In rural regions, 50% of girls are estimated to be out of school.
• Those who do go to school leave early: 40–50% of children drop out between Grades 1 and 6, and 30–40% drop out between Grades 7 and 9.5
• 80% of the 13,000 primary and secondary schools in Iraq require significant reconstruction due to structural damage and deterioration.
• Some 3,000 schools were looted following the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime.
• Security concerns continue to keep children from school. Kidnappings have increased, making travel to and from school hazardous, while bombs and unexploded ordnance have killed students in school yards.
• In most primary schools, the school day has been divided into two—and sometimes three—shifts due to a lack of teachers, resources, and facilities.11 In 2000, the Iraqi Ministry of Education estimated that more than 6,000 new schools would need to be built to eliminate double shifts.
  
  http://www.basiced.org/images/iraq.pdf