After county fair was done, I took a little break. Then, on the 14th of this month, I had a dance performance. It was a lot of fun and went very well. After the performance, Olivia came home with Rachel and I and we spent the afternoon hanging out. We decided that we wanted to go swimming but that we didn't want to go to the beach. So Rachel asked Mom if we could walk down to the creek behind our house. Mom said that that was fine, but we had to walk, no tractors because the ground was so rough and full of holes. We headed out, thinking, oh, this won't be so bad. Well, we were sort of wrong. The field behind our house had be burnt off last year and planted with new seed, supposedly some kind of prairie grass. What was actually there was 4 to 6 foot tall thistles. Not so fun to walk through. Thankfully, they weren't real close together, so we were able to avoid most of them. We made it down to the creek, and Rachel jumped in, thinking it was going to be deep (because it used to be). But, most likely because of the flooding last year, the creek is only about 2 feet deep in the spot we had selected. Needless to say, she hit bottom. Olivia isn't great with what she calls "dark water" (actually, you could see the bottom), so it took some convincing to get her in. But we all got in and had a fun time wadding around and splashing each other. We moved down stream and got to where it was deep enough that we could swim a little. After some photos, it was time to head home. We found the trail that me, my Dad, and my brother had made with our old van, and followed that home. The trek home was much easier, to say the least. When we got home, Rachel and Olivia did make-up before dinner, because we wanted to take some pictures. Olivia and Rachel posed at different places here on our little farm and I took pictures. Then we had a wonderful supper of hamburgers and watermelon. After the dancing, hiking and swimming, we were all kind of tired. We decided to watch a movie. We plopped down in my grandparents bedroom and watched "The Count of Monte Cristo". Then it was time to take Olivia home. :( We had a great day. Here are some of the pictures I took. (Olivia might just kill me for this, since she didn't get to "approve" them first.)
Olivia and Rachel in the creek
Splashing each other (Olivia might not like this one)
Picture time
Walking
Olivia
Rachel
Next, it was state fair time. Rachel and I did our Irish Step Dance, "Battle of the Sisters", Sunday for the Share the Fun show. Our family wandered the fairgrounds, saw the big boar, the big bull, and the big horses! Dad, Rachel, Jonathan, and Grandpa went home, but my Mom and I stayed at my great aunts house because I was doing my presentation the next day. On Monday morning we wandered the fairgrounds, then at 1:00 I check in to do my presentation. That didn't get done until 4:30, so we stuck around so we could watch the draft horse show. They had cart, under saddle, and hitch classes. I loved watching all the big horses and the six horse hitch was amazing. The show didn't get done until nine, so we weren't home until eleven, but I say it was worth the late night. (Mother might not agree with me, as she had to drive home) Then on Friday and Saturday, it was time for the Stitch This challenge. This was a 16 hour sewing competition where teams of four took apart a wedding dress and made it into a new wearable outfit. I was the model for The Fab Four. We got a dress with beading on the bodice and really liked it, so we worked with that part of it. We added strips of cobalt blue to the front of the dress, and silver straps. We also made a hat and completed the outfit with cobalt blue jewelry. This competition was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. My Mom and I again stayed at my great aunt's house. On Sunday, we wandered around the fairgrounds because I could pick up my refinished secretary after 7:00 that night. The lady in the 4-h office said it would be better to wait, and that worked out perfect because there was a free concert that I wanted to see. Julianne Hough was the free Sunday night concert. I really like her music. She is a new country singer, but her music so far is clean and a lot of fun to listen to. I didn't get to stay for the entire concert because I had to get all the way across the fairgrounds to pick up my secretary. I got to listen to about 50 minutes of the concert and really enjoyed it. Then my mom and I speed-walked across the fairgrounds. While I went to check out my projects, Mom went to get the van. Getting my secretary out went a lot better than we had expected, and we were on the road by 8:20. We got home at 10:30 and Rachel was still up. She had waited up to show me the cake she had decorated to look as close to the dress I had made during Stitch This as she could without seeing it. She did a great job and it tasted great. Thanks Rachel!!! Then I fell into bed and woke up at 6:45 to a new day, including school. YAH!!! We have a week of school, then we leave on vacation. That will be a lot of fun.
"Battle of the Sisters"
Major face-off time!
Getting ready for my presentation
Doing my presentation
My great aunt's candy apple red trike - love it!!!
Horse show pictures
This horse was trying to "eat" his handlers hand
Stitch This! The Fab Four
The wedding dress we got
Sewing
All done!
After the fashion show
Julianne Hough!!! :)
I hope you enjoyed reading about what I have been doing! I will be putting up more pictures from the horse show, Stitch This, and some other state fair pictures that I have.
Until next time, God bless!
'becca
