"The One With...A Road Trip to So Dakota"

This weekend Shane & I traveled to my hometown of Mitchell, SD (home of the World's Only Corn Palace) for the weekend for the Freier Family Reunion. We were all gathering together to celebrate my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary as well as my G-ma's 80th birthday and her healthy recovery from a year-long battle with ovarian cancer. It was a fun-filled weekend that went by way to quickly. Here are some of the highlights from the weekend:

We arrived in Mitchell Friday late afternoon and made our way to my aunt & uncle's hunting lodge where all the weekends' festivities were held. We all enjoyed an evening of kabob's & chislic (a family favorite) on the grill, cocktails and several of us participated in the "Best Koozie"and "Most Unusual Beer" Contest. My brother Chris won the "most unusual beer" with his home-brewed beer - which was surprisingly really good! A cowboy boot-shaped koozie ended up being the Best Koozie winner! My niece Joslyn (below) tried to join in the adult cocktail hour & my brother Chris thought this would be a funny picture - sorry mom :)

Saturday ended up being a really busy day for everone. We started the morning by all gathering at a photography studio to get a Freier family portrait taken. It was quite entertaining watching the photographer place us in spots for the photo while keeping the two 9 mos old babies in the family entertained. After all the photos were taken, everyone gathered in the lobby to settle the sitting fee while my sister, Shane and I took a few photos of our own :) Sitting there in the studio was a huge wicker chair which was hysterical to us because this was the same type of wicker chair that was used for my sister's 3rd grade photos as well as my senior photos (which I declined to use) and here it was STILL in a photo studio 20+ years later. We took one look at that and couldn't resist:

Don't you just love wicker as a back-drop??

After much fun at the photographers, we all headed out for a "trip down memory lane" and traveled a few short miles to see the home where my grandfather was born which was also my dad's home until he was seven. The people that own the home now was gracious enough to open it to us and give us a tour. It was fascinating listening to my grandfather share stories of him growing up in that house as well as my dad. The next stop was visiting my grandmother's farm that she grew up on as well as the park she would play in as a young girl. There was an old swing set there at the park and my nephew Tanner & I had to give it a try. He giggled the entire time we were on that swing and my sister couldn't resist a picture!
The next stop was the cemetary where my grandparents parents are buried and then back to the lodge for cocktail hour followed by a formal dinner honoring my grandparents. We started off the meal by all gathering around in a circle and had to say what we were all thankful for which was really nice. Grandma brought us all to tears by saying she was thankful for her health and for having all of us there in her life to support her during her battle with cancer. After dinner, we gathered in the living room and all of us got up and shared with my grandparents our favorite memories with them starting with their children & spouses followed by us grandchildren. It was so neat to hear everyones memories and it made us all feel so lucky to have been blessed by my grandparents love!

The evening ended by playing The Newlywed Game which was hysterical! Shane & I were one of the chosen couples as well as my grandparents, my aunt/uncle and my own parents. We all ended up in a tie at the end and my grandparents were down by a point so we all agreed the couple with the lowest score would win :) It was so much fun and a perfect ending to a wonderful weekend.

Sunday morning we made our way back to Kansas. We were sad to leave everyone in SD but were anxious to get back home seeing how we left the bulldogs in the care of our neighbors Dave & Gael. It was the first time we had left them home alone for that long so we were hoping we weren't going to come home to any disasters. Suprisingly, they did just fine and the house looked just like it did when we left. There were tons of wet, slobbery kisses and butt-wiggles to go around when we got home and we both felt relieved that they were ok.