Minnesota: Lotsa Family

The Treptow Family FarmLast week Jason and I enjoyed our first trip to MN as a married couple. We attended a mini-family reunion/wedding shower at my aunt's house, cruised the Mall of America with another aunt, toured Blue Earth with Grandpa Beyer (who was the athletic coach there for 30 years), took a boat ride with my godfather and hung out at the family farm with Grandpa Treptow. It was a WONDERFUL trip, not only because I got to share it with Jason, but we both enjoyed hearing tall tails and stories about our loved ones. (Rahn and Kat, wish you were there!) We have a great respect and admiration for those who have come before us, providing for the family through love and hard work. We wouldn't be where we are today without the sacrifices of our parents, grandparents and great grandparents. We deeply love our family support system of parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. Thanks aren't enough!

The first day of our trip we flew into the Twin Cities and crazy Aunt Peggy took us to the Mall of America. (I love purple too!) Being the largest mall in the U.S. we spent 6.5 hours just walking around! We got Grandpa Beyer a motorized scooter. Amusement park in the middle of the mall.
The Treysons at Lego Land.

Aunt Peggy and my Mom showing the camera their "best side"
Beep Beep, Grandpa Beyer enjoys his motorized mobility!

The next day we headed to Blue Earth, MN where Grandpa Beyer was athletic director for 30 years. We toured the community listening to Grandpa's memories coaching football and raising three boys. That evening, the class of '62 invited him to their reunion and he got to catch up with old friends.

Here we are at Beyer Field, named in honor of my Grandfather. He said it use to be a football field but now they use it for sledding and ice skating in the winter.

We also visited the iconic 60 foot Jolly Green Giant, HO HO HO. My dad use to drive truck for the factory, delivering veggies from the field to the plant. Supposedly he proposed to my mom in that capacity and she said, "Get a real job" so he joined the Air Force.

While Grandpa was at the reunion, Jason and I took a boat ride with my Godfather Scott, his brother Rahn and dog Susie. It was a wonderful evening.




The next day we went to my Aunt Susie's house (Gary's house too) and enjoyed an old fashioned, western, country hoe down (despite the lack of sheep). I didn't do a great job of taking pictures that day. Too busy trying to catch up with everyone. Katie, please send more! My Aunt Susie, I'll always be your BabyCakes!The cousins gather apples.The guys sit around. Jason and Scott play bean bag horse shoes. Cousin Kristie and Nelson (?) her pet iguana with his own room...

That evening we spent the night at the family farm and in the morning I toured Jason around. Not as active as it use to be but Grandpa still has his cows and a new puppy named Duke.

The Treysons with Grandpa Treptow:

What have we been up to?

Trey in Jason's cowboy hat!

Since the last posting, we attended Cheyenne Frontier Days, the U.S. oldest rodeo. We spent the entire day in Cheyenne, walking around the booths, cheering for the cowboys and listed to a concert by Big and Rich that evening. They are really good live. Jason bought me a pair of hand painted earrings and a beaded bracelet from the Native American “village”.

The craziest event at the rodeo had to be the wild horse "round-up". Essentially, a bunch of "wild" horses, i.e. not saddle broke, are led into the arena and teams made up of three men have to catch a horse, put a saddle on it, get a teammate into the saddle so he can ride it once around the track. They have a five or six minute time limit. This of course is a fiasco. Adding fuel to the fire, the start time is announced with fireworks and a gun shot! I was cheering for this team.But this guy won.

The day after the rodeo, we photographed and documented for posterity a friends wedding. Pictures can be viewed at http://www.wyomingphotographer.com/ Jason is still working on the video. For the past two weeks I’ve been pulling double duty at work covering for a co-worker who is serving jury duty. (Thank God we’ve got a vacation coming up.) Working at the front desk you hear all kinds of things from the visitors. “Are we going to see inmates inside?” – No, we closed as an active prison in 1903. “Can you take us on a tour?” – No, I’m the only one working today, I have to man the visitors center. “How much can we pay your husband to be our tour guide for the week? – No answer for that one. It’s also a great place to get positive feedback about the exhibits and restoration efforts.

Jason and I head to MN for a mini- Beyer-Treptow family reunion and country cowboy-wedding shower (a belated one for us) at the end of the week. We’ll be gone for four days and hope to come back with a lot of great photos. This will be Jason’s first trip. With so many cousins, aunts and uncles to meet, I’m sure it will be one he’ll remember for a long time!