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!

Vote for Crile and Get a Taste of WY

Our friend Crile is in a Microsoft Office contest to get his home office remodeled with Vern Yip. Visit his website, watch the WY flavored videos and VOTE FOR CRILE!
http://www.cometowyoming.com/

Rodeo!

The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, formed in 1936 under the name, “Cowboys’ Turtle Association” (not sure the history of that one), has over 9,000 cowboy members and supports over 650 rodeos a year. We went to one last night as part of Laramie’s Jubilee Days celebration. Each year, following the 4th of July, Laramie celebrates Wyoming’s statehood (1890). Jason and I love the rodeo. We went both Friday and Sat. night. As always, it was a good show. I’m excited to share these pictures with you, a first for me as I’ve never taken my camera to a rodeo before!
I’ll try to do my best to match the photos with the PRCA description of the event.

“Bareback Bronc Riding: A bareback rider places himself smack in the middle of a 1,200 pound twisting, bucking tornado and aims to make it through an 8 second ride without benefit of a saddle, reins or stirrups. His only handhold is on the leather and rawhide rigging placed around the horse just behind its shoulders. Judges award up to 50 points for each horse and rider. They watch for the bucking pattern and power of the horse, as well as the rider’s strength, control and spurring action. As in all rough stock events, the rider is disqualified for being bucked off or touching himself or the animal with his free hand.” Stay on for 8 seconds and you're doing good! Not sure how this guy ever managed to stay on!
“Steer Wrestling: In steer wrestling, rodeo’s most telling test of leverage and strength, a contestant attempts to topple a steer averaging three to five times the bulldogger’s weight. With his ‘hazer’ riding parallel to the steer to keep it running straight, the steer wrestler must catch up to the steer (which is given a head start), lean off his horse at top speed and secure a firm grip on the steer’s horns. Once on the ground, the steer wrestler plants his feet, brings the steer to a stop and wrestles it to the ground. A rodeo judge stops time when the steer is on its side with all four feet pointing in the same direction.” Step one, jump off a perfectly good horse Step two, apply brakes
Step three, wrestle steer to ground (sometime step three takes awhile)Step four, victory! Now repeat!

Steer wrestling, also known as bull dodging was invented by a black cowboy named Bill Pickett around the turn-of-the-century.

“Team Roping: Team roping is the only rodeo event where two cowboys compete as partners, sharing victory or defeat. The ‘header’ ropes the steer’s horns and rides to the left. Then the ‘heeler’ goes to work, roping both of the steer’s hind legs in one of the most difficult maneuvers in rodeo. The ropers must ‘dally’ (wrap their ropes around the saddle horn) after their head and heel catches. Time stops when both horses are facing the steer with ropes dallied. A 10-second penalty is assessed for breaking the barrier (which gives the steer a head start), as well as a five-second penalty if the heeler catches only one of the steer’s hind legs.”
“Saddle Bronc Riding: Rodeo’s classic event is an exercise in style and fitness that demands near-perfect timing. To earn a score, a saddle bronc rider must remain aboard a pitching horse for 8 seconds. And to earn a high score, he must ride with the grace and fluidity of a dancer. The cowboy uses a PRCA approved saddle with stirrups and a six foot braided rein which he holds in one hand only. Saddle bronc riders are disqualified if they touch themselves, the horse, or their equipment with their free hand. A perfect saddle bronc ride (never yet achieved) would earn the contestant 100 pts.” I know it looks bad, but both cowboys were able to walk away (neither was "seriously" injuried!)

“Tie-Down Roping: Tie-down roping, which can be traced directly to the ranch work of catching calves for branding or medical treatment, has evolved into one of the most professional rodeo’s quickest and most exciting events. The calf gets a designated head start into the rodeo arena and must trip a barrier string before the cowboy and horse can begin their case. A cowboy who ‘breaks the barrier’ by leaving the roping box to soon is assessed a 10-second penalty. Once in the arena, the roper must ‘catch’ his calf with a lariat, dismount and run to the calf, drop the 300 pound animal by hand to the arena floor, gather three of the calf’s legs, tie them together with a six foot ‘pigging’ string and throw up his hands to signal the end of the run.”
“Women’s Barrel Racing: Barrel racing shows off a horse’s agility and speed, as well as a rider’s skill and control. Horse and rider speed around a cloverleaf pattern of three barrels, starting and finishing at the same point. Tipping over a barrel during a maneuver will cost the rider a 5 second penalty and running an incorrect pattern can lead to disqualification. Electronic timers are used to record elapsed time between start and finish within hundredths of a second.”

Step one, at full gallop, race towards the first barrelStep two, circle each barrel without knocking them over

Step three, race towards the finish lineThe average for time for barrel racing at last night's rodeo was between 17 and 18 seconds.

Hope you enjoyed the rodeo! Buttoms up (for the ladies)!