Minnesota- Maxiawesome

Matt and I got to spend the weekend in Minnesota with his extended family. We stayed with his aunt and uncle near the old family homestead between Swanville and Long Prairie, and were bombarded with a constant stream of cousins. The particular reason we went this weekend was a combination mother-in-law's birthday (happy birthday!) and family reunion. And not just the bonanza of first cousin's who were constantly dropping by the house to chat with us, but the second and possibly third cousins on Matt's grandfather's side of the family. We met a lot of people, enjoyed hot dishes and salads and cookies bars, and did some patently farmtown type things- which was fairly touristy of us.

Really, we rolled up like a pair of ignorant city slickers, blithely letting our GPS guide our rented Prius out of the Twin Cities and up into truck territory. It was so charmingly small town that when I told someone at the reunion we had driven past Betty's childhood home, she said, "Are you driving a black car? I am so glad to hear know that was you! I thought it was odd that someone would creep along our road so slowly!" Because, yes, a distant cousin lives on the old family homestead, and yes, they were home at the time of our drive-by. Charming!

We enjoyed the Todd County Fair, which displayed arguably better 4H projects that the ones we saw in WA, although fewer total animals. We also went up the the Brenard Raceway to watch one of Matt's cousins drive in a stock car race. He won his heat, and moved up to third in his league! And we got to enjoy all that smugly from the booth. The highlight for me was touring the dairy farm, which has been in the family for at least a couple generations, currently in the care of a first cousin. They have 100 head of dairy cattle, and keep on a few boys for beef, maintian many acres of feed corn, and some chickens for the household. It was really a case study for a modern family farm- some aspects were mechanized, but it was small, house on site, only a few hired hands.

It was a very mellow weekend out in the quiet country, we enjoyed catching up with Matt's mom and getting a break from the city. I'll post pictures soon, but I wanted to share the fun we had now.