2014 Willington Craft Fair
Come support us at the 2nd annual craft fair at the Willington Library tomorrow, December 6th, from 9 A.M. to 2 P.M.
http://jnrfarms.us/news/farm-
http://jnrfarms.us/news/A little about our endeavor:
http://jnrfarms.us/news/about-
A Recap Of UConn Hockey’s First Month In A New Era
At the beginning of October, UConn hockey started a new era by officially joining Hockey East. This season means some big changes for the Huskies as they will transfer to the top college hockey conference in the nation and also move to a new off-campus home, the XL Center in Hartford, and will also play five games at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, which will be considered their secondary home. The Huskies are now receiving more publicity and are gaining a larger fan-base. Hence, the Huskies are finally achieving their goal of becoming a top college hockey team by joining the top college conference, something they have always been striving towards and moving towards. In college hockey, teams are divided into three divisions, with Division-III being considered the lowest division, and Division-I the best, and with each division having several leagues within them. Until 1998, UConn was in Division-III before they made the jump to Division-I in only one year. The Huskies adjusted right away, posting 20 wins the first year and won the league championship the next year. In 2003, they joined the Atlantic Hockey league, where they would stay until last year. With a history of continuing to move to the next highest level, UConn had been long vying for acceptance into Hockey East, but had never been accepted because they weren’t good enough. They had only had one winning season in 10 years, in a much simpler league than Hockey East, so Hockey East viewed UConn as clearly unqualified to join.
That all changed in 2010. A year after only earning 7 wins, the Huskies improved thanks to the arrival of some high-scoring freshman, and their goaltender Garret Bartus who became near invincible. They finished the year with a winning league record, made it to the semifinals, and got home playoffs for the first time in four years. They started drawing larger crowds to their games with seeing four games where over 1000 people attended compared to the previous season’s dismal attendance records. So while the season was a big improvement overall, most people thought it was just a fluke, while on the contrary the Huskies only got better. The next season the Huskies posted 16 wins, the program’s most since 2007, earned home playoffs for the second straight year, and made it to the quarterfinals. Some player records were also recorded with Cole Schneider setting a record for the most goals and points in one season and goalie Garrett Bartus recorded a school record 5 shutouts. For the 2nd straight year as well, the Huskies attendance continued to rise, with the Huskies getting two sellout crowds during the year. This was big since the Huskies hadn’t even sold-out one game since 2007. Also, for the first time ever, the Huskies beat a team ranked as one of the top 20 teams in the nation, beating No. 19 Air Force in the playoffs, 3-1.
That summer, UConn announced that they had been granted membership into Hockey East and would join officially in the 2014-2015 season. This meant some big changes with the Huskies now offering scholarships, and also having to move from their on-campus home the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum, to the XL Center in Hartford, until a new rink is built on-campus, since the new league required a larger seating capacity. The new league also meant tougher opponents, but the Huskies had two years until they joined Hockey East to prepare. Just as the Huskies future seemed bright, the 2012-2013 started out in turmoil. After only five games, head coach Bruce Marshall took a medical leave of absence, leaving assistant coach Dave Berard in charge of a team with a 0-4-1 record and who only scored 4 goals in their first five games. To make matters worse, Bruce Marshall stepped down as head coach in early January. Now the Huskies had a big problem: there was only two years until the Huskies joined Hockey East in which they were supposed to be training to become a better team to deal with better opponents and now they didn’t have a head coach.
Ironically though the 2012-2013 season turned out to be the best season UConn had had in over a decade, and what Dave Berard did with UConn was amazing. The Huskies picked up 19 wins, the most since 2000, went to the semifinals, got home playoffs for the quarterfinals, and finished the #4 seed in the league. Two key players in this success were Trevor Gerling who scored 12 goals after only scoring 1 the previous year, and totaling 25 points, and Matt Grogan, who in December took over the job of starting goalie from Garret Bartus and was amazing going 14-4-3 on the year. The Huskies hosted Robert Morris in the quarterfinals after earning a bye of the first round by finishing in the top four. They swept Robert Morris with 4-1 and 4-3 wins, something not many people expected them to do. Unfortunately they would be eliminated in the semifinals by Mercyhurst in a 4-1 loss, pampered by bad luck. Still, it was a major improvement over even the past two years, and showed the team was definitely starting to play the way the needed to in order to be in Hockey East. Also for the third year their attendance and fan-base continued to grow larger, exhibited by an over-capacity, boisterous crowd on senior night, to see the Huskies skate to a 4-4 draw with Sacred Heart.
Despite Dave Berard’s great one year tenure as interm head coach of the Huskies and the success he guided them to, he didn’t get hired as the new head coach. Instead, UConn hired Mike Cavanaugh, the now former associate head coach of Boston College who was at that position for 18 seasons, and a man UConn saw as well-equipped to lead UConn into Hockey East. The Huskies finished with a similar record to the previous season, sporting a 18-14-4 overall record. However, the Huskies unfortunately did not achieve the same amount of success in the playoffs as they had had in the past three years, losing in the quarterfinals. The Huskies finished 4th in the league, so they got home ice for the quarterfinals and got a bye of the first round. Since they finished in 4th they had to play Robert Morris for a second year in a row, except this time RMU would win. A bad-luck 4-3 loss to Army late in the season in which the Huskies scored 3 goals that were discounted, put the Huskies in 4th instead of 3rd which would have seen them play Niagara, whom the Huskies would have a had an easier time beating. Still the Huskies had a successful season. They created a new record for confrence points during the AHA era with 33 and tied the record for conference wins with 15. It was also the fourth year in a row that UConn’s attendance continued to rise, drawing a sellout crowd to senior night. The Huskies also set a program record attendance in December. The UConn Hockey Classic was to be played in Hartford at the XL Center for it’s final year. The Huskies played Sacred Heart in front of a record crowd of 2500, only for the new record to broken the next night when UConn beat UMass, 2-1, in front of a crowd of 2700. This season also capped the Huskies most successful four years in Division-I with 68 wins in those four years. The season also celebrated one of the most influential senior class in program history: Goalie Matt Grogan, who posted 25 wins after taking over the position of leading goalie mid-way through the 2012-2013 season, and set a program record for GAA (Goals Allowed Average) and most saves in a game; Brant Harris who set the record for Division-I career points with 112; Jordan Sims who picked up 101 career points and finally Billy Latta who garnered 98 career points. These seniors led the Huskies from the bottom of the league to be a championship contender every year and be good enough to enter into Hockey East.
That brings us to the beginning of the current season. On October 5, 2014, the Huskies played Dalhousie in an exhibition game at their old on-campus home, the Mark Edward Freitas Ice Forum, to unofficially begin the Hockey East era. The Huskies won 3-1, in front of a surprisingly small crowd of only 800 people; a larger crowd was expected since it was UConn’s only on-campus game all season. The next game was their official season opener at Penn State, and the game that would officially begin UConn’s Hockey East era. The environment favored Penn State thanks to a noisy crowd of 6000 people at Pegula Ice Arena, and the Nittany Lions fed off the energy, using it to outshoot the Huskies 13-5 in the first, but neither team could find the back of the net, as UConn’s netminder Rob Nichols kept Penn State off the board with some fantastic saves. In the second, it would be the Huskies who would strike first. As the Huskies came up the ice on an odd-man rush, Brent Norris tried to pass to Evan Richardson, but his pass was deflected where it was picked up and shot in by Patrick Kirtland to put UConn up 1-0. This was the first Husky goal in the Hockey East era and as a Hockey East team. Unfortunately, Penn State would tie the game not long after as the Nittany Lions scored on a Penalty Shot to make a 1-1 game heading into the final stanza. In the third, the Huskies would once again take the lead. With less than five minutes to go in the game, Spencer Naas blasted a shot from the blue line through traffic in front of the net that would find the back of the net, putting UConn up, 2-1. The Huskies would hold the lead until Penn State scored with 48 seconds left in regulation when the puck was thrown toward goal and bounced in off a Nittany Lions’ skate. This goal sent the game to overtime, where Penn State held a 5-2 lead in shots but neither team found a game-winner. Since no one scored in overtime, the game went to a shootout. Penn State scored on their first attempt, along with the Huskies’ Evan Richardson. In the second round, neither team scored. In the third round, Rob Nichols stopped Penn State’s attempt, but Shawn Pauly scored for UConn to pick up the shootout win.
The next game was also against Penn State to finish the weekend series. Except this game was much different because it was all Penn State. The Nittany Lions built up a 2-0 lead after just one period of play, and then made it 3-0 early in second. The Huskies would respond to make it 3-1 when Spencer Naas banged home a rebound for his first collegiate goal. That would be all UConn would get as Penn State would score three more in the second and one more in the third for a 7-1 win. The next weekend the Huskies traveled to Merrimack for their first ever Hockey East conference game. There was a ceremonial puck drop before the game. The Huskies would strike first late in the first period with a goal by freshman David Drake, for his first collegiate goal. The puck was attempted to be cleared by Merrimack but stopped by Drake on the blue line who then let a slap shot go that would find the back of the net with seconds left in the period to give UConn the 1-0 lead. The Huskies would use strong defense to hold this lead all the way until the third, where unfortunately Merrimack would tie it. With their goalie pulled, Merrimack shot the puck through traffic in front of the net on goal, which Rob Nichols would save as well as the first rebound but the second rebound would be put home to tie the game at one with a little over thirty second left in the game. The game would go to overtime, where Merrimack would complete the heart-breaker by scoring the game-winner for the 2-1 overtime win.
The next game the Huskies had their unofficial home-opener since they were playing at their secondary home, Webster Bank Arena, where they were taking on Quinnipiac, who was ranked the 15th best team in the nation. Despite this the Huskies struck first. Jacob Poe received the puck on the blue line during the power play, and he fired a shot through traffic and his shot would be tipped home by Evan Richardson to make it 1-0 UConn. The Huskies went up by two when the Bobcats misplayed the puck behind their own net. UConn dumped the puck into the Quinnipiac zone, and Quinnipiac’s goalie came out to get it, and he dropped a pass to one of his teammates who was being trailed by Pauly and Gerling. The Bobcat player missed the puck and Pauly skated around the net but his wrap around attempt was denied but the rebound bounced over to the other side of the net where Gerling put it home to give UConn the 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. The Bobcats would retaliate quickly to start the second with a goal only 37 seconds in to make it 2-1. Later in the period however UConn regained their two goal lead. Freshman Corey Ronan carried the puck into the offensive zone but lost the puck in the corner, but he battled to regain possesion. He then sent a pass to Patrick Kirtland right in front of the goal who sniped a shot onto the back of the net to put UConn up 3-1 to go into the final period. Quinnipiac would control play in the third outshooting UConn 16-5 but couldn’t solve Nichols in the period, and UConn would tack on an empty-net goal by Jesse Schwartz, his first career goal, for a 4-1 win over No. 15 Quinnipiac, which was their first win as a Hockey East team and of the season, and it came in front of 1435 fans.
Next, the Huskies traveled to Vermont to take on the Vermont Catamounts in a Hockey East confrence game. Vermont was then ranked the 17th best team in the nation; UConn had never beaten Vermont coming into the game. After a scoreless first period, Vermont would take a 1-0 lead in the second when a Catamount sniped a shot into the top left corner of the net on the power-play. Vermont would extend the lead to 2-0 in the third when Rob Nichols made the save on a shot but the puck trickled out through his pads and was shot into the net by a Vermont player. UConn would get their first goal of the game a little over the eight minute mark. Corey Ronan would pass the puck straight across the ice to Trevor Gerling who roofed the puck into the top of the net past goaltender Brody Hoffman, to make it a 2-1 game. Despite out-playing and out-shooting Vermont they would lose by that score. The Huskies’ record dropped to 1-3-1 with the loss and 0-2 in conference play. Despite the record, UConn has been more impressive so far this season then most people thought they would be.
Stay tuned for next month’s recap of UConn hockey.
UConn’s Goal Vs. Merrimack
Trevor Gerling Takes A Shot On A Breakaway.
UConn’s Goal Vs. Vermont
Goal Celebration Vs. Vermont
2014 Youth Explosion
On September 28, 2014, my youth group at my church took part in a retreat-like event at St. Bernard’s School in Uncasville, CT. My friend Brianna’s youth group at her church also came to event and our youth groups took a bus together. Even though I talked with Brianna on the way up, it was still a really long bus ride; I think it was like an hour and a half. When we got their our youth groups went into the school auditorium, along with the other 700 kids at the event, to listen to the announcements about the different events going on during the day; then we listened to a Christian Band, the Jon Niven Band play a few songs. They were really good. Then we listened to two missionaries named Paul and Anna Albert and a priest named Father Louis Merosne talk to us about our faith, and all three were from Haiti. They all talked mostly about living our faith and not bottling it up, which I though was a good message; I liked the priest the most. After that, the youth groups were separated into three large groups, with each group going to go do a different activity.
The first activity my group did was to go to lunch which was really good because it was pizza, and also because I was really hungry since it was after 3 by the time I ate. Then something really odd happened because when I got up from my table from just a minute to make a phone call and came back just seconds later my youth group had apparently left, which I don’t know how they left in that short of time. Luckily Brianna’s youth group was getting ready to head to the next activity so I stayed with them since they took the same bus as my youth group so I wouldn’t accidentally miss the bus. From there we went and got in line for Reconciliation, but there was a really long line and only two priests, so we didn’t get to do that. However, we then went and got in line for the Feeding Children Everywhere event were all the teens who came to the event packed thousands of meals to send to the needy people in Haiti. That was fun but it made me realize how lucky I am to eat three meals a day while the families we are sending these meals to only get one meal a day if they are lucky.
After this, we went into the auditorium to have Mass which was neat because there was around 15 priests and deacons there and the bishop of our diocese, Bishop Cody, who said the mass. When Mass was over, that marked the end of the Youth Explosion. Before Brianna’s youth group and my youth group had to leave though, Brianna and I got to take a picture with Father Louis which was cool. Then we all got on the bus and started the hour and a half bus ride home. On the bus ride home, I fell asleep which was funny because then Brianna and her friend Angel took pictures of me sleeping, and things got really crazy when Angel started acting silly. Overall, the bus ride was fun though. I had a great time at the Youth Explosion!
Avengers: Age Of Ultron
It’s here! The trailer for Avengers: Age Of Ultron! It looks awesome!
Comedy Of The Month: The Epitome Of Hyperbole
Here is a video of the comedian Brian Regan performing his skit “The Epitome Of Hyperbole”. It is hilarious, hope you enjoy it.
The 2014 Big E
For the third year in a row, my family went to the Big E. Here are some pictures of some of the things we did throughout the day.
Really Cool!
So Cute!
Had so much fun at the Big E! Hope we go again next year!
Fun At The Farmstead Fair
September 19 was the day of the set-up for the 3rd annual Farmstead Fair and I went and helped set-up with my friend Brianna and her sister Madison; the fair is hosted by the CLCC Greenhouse, which Brianna and her family are involved with, on the fairgrounds where the 4-H Fair is held. So part of the time I spent at the set-up was helping out in the greenhouse. After we finished in the greenhouse we went into the Gold building and got some chairs out of one of the closets, for the tables under the pavilion on the fairgrounds. After that we went back to the greenhouse and worked in there a little more, and then we went and set-up garbage cans around the fairgrounds. That turned out to be a lot of fun because we got the idea of rolling the barrels to were we wanted them, which led to me racing Brianna twice and Madison once to see who could get their barrel to its spot first. The best part though was when Madison got in one of the barrels and Brianna and I pushed her along. It must have looked funny for the people watching us do it. Shortly after that I had to leave, but I was going to go to the fair the next day.
The next day my family and I went to the Farmstead Fair. When I got there I just talked with Brianna and her friend Sarina and helped them work the announcements at the fair. Then Brianna’s other friend Marissa came over and we all hung out for the rest of the time. We all had a lot of fun during that time. Then we all did an announcement at the end; after that my family left around 4, and my family went and got pizza at Willington Pizza, using a gift certificate we won in a raffle at the 4-H fair, and had that for dinner; the pizza was really good. I had a lot of fun in those two days.
In Less Than 7 Months, The Avengers Will Assemble Again
10 movies have been made in the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise and movie number six was The Avengers. Now after four more movies, the Avengers will hit the big screen again on May 1st, 2015 in Avengers: Age of Ultron. For this post, I’m am going to rate all the movies starting with my least favorite and finishing with my favorite. So far even though 10 movies have been made they all continue to be excellent, funny, and very entertaining, so it has been very hard to say which one I liked most and which one I liked least. Here are my ratings below; see if you agree with them.
10. Iron Man 3
After the events of The Avengers, Tony Stark is dealing with panic attacks from his experiences in the movie The Avengers. In the midst of his stress, new enemies arise, in AIM, which harbors the new Project Extremis, and the Mandarin. After an attack that leaves a friend badly wounded, and all his armors destroyed or nonfunctional, it is up to Tony Stark, not Iron Man, to save the day, and save those whom he cares about.
Iron Man 3 was good but very different, since the conflicts of the movie where mostly Tony Stark fighting the villains, not Iron Man. While that made it different, that is why I like this movie the least because the title character was not in the movie much, ironically. Still, the humor, the action, and the storyline made the movie good, just not great.
9. The Incredible Hulk
After an experiment that went astray causes Bruce Banner to become the Hulk, he has to stay on the run from capture from the U.S. Military for five years. After five years in Brazil, Banner is found but twice is able to fight off the military before he is eventually captured. As soon as he is captured, a new threat arises in the Abomination, and it is up to the Incredible Hulk to stop him, since he is the only one who can.
The Incredible Hulk did a much better job than the 2003 movie Hulk did in portraying the Hulk. The Hulk is really just a misunderstood superhero, even though he can go on a rampage when provoked. Still, although this film improved on previous portrayals, it still didn’t portray the Hulk correctly showing him as more of a monster, and only a hero only on few occasions and always “by accident”, but he was overall portrayed better. Also, this movie was the first Hulk movie to have the Hulk fight a super-villain, which was better than what the storyline was in previous movie which was always Hulk vs. the U.S. Military. Overall, the movie was decent and certainly better than any past Hulk film.
8. Iron Man 2
After revealing to the world that he is Iron Man, Tony Stark finds out he is dying, and has less than a year to live. In the wake of this realization, a new enemy arises, Whiplash, but whom Iron Man defeats. Not long after, Whiplash is broken out of prison by Justin Hammer, the leader of Hammer Industries and a rival company of Stark’s. Hammer gives Whiplash new technology and a new suit to help him deal with Iron Man, in return for giving him the secret to the arch reactor. This time, when Whiplash attacks, Iron Man teams-up with War Machine, Black Widow, and his bodyguard and friend, Happy Hogan, in order to take his enemy down.
7. Thor
Thor, prince of Asgard, son of Odin, is next in line for the throne, until his father casts him to Earth and strips him of his powers, due to Thor’s actions of rashness and disobedience, in attempt to teach him a lesson. Meanwhile, his brother Loki takes the responsibility of the thrown when Odin falls ill, and starts to unfold a plot against Thor. In order to stop Loki, Thor must learn his lesson so he can regain his powers and return to Asgard to save it from his brother’s schemes.
6. Captain America: The First Avenger
Hydra, led by the Red Skull, uses advanced technology and the mystical cosmic cube, to start shifting the tide in WWII in the Nazis favor. However, after a super soldier serum changes Steve Rogers into Captain America, he joins the war. Captain America soon comes face to face with Red Skull when rescuing a captured army unit, but they meet again in a final showdown, in which neither will escape unscathed.
5. Iron Man
Billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, head of Stark Industries, lives in the public eye and loves the fame. Things change though when Stark is in Afghanistan displaying a new missile he wants to sell to the U.S. Military, but the convoy is ambushed with Stark being wounded and captured. Pretending to be building a missile for his captors, he builds a suit that enables him to escape and be rescued. When he returns home he improves the suit and uses it to attack the terrorists who captured him. Afterwards, he learns that these terrorists are in league with someone from Stark’s own company, and a friend, but someone Stark will have to stop by becoming Iron Man once more.
4. Thor: The Dark World
Set after the events of The Avengers, Thor is busy bringing order back to the Nine Realms after the destruction of the Rainbow Bridge and the havoc his brother Loki has brought. Once peace is restored, all of a sudden, an old enemy returns, Malikith and his dark elves who look to destroy everything in the universe, and return it to its empty state. Using advanced technology and the aether, an infinity stone, the Dark Elves cause destruction in Asgard, and cripples it after an attack and then sets out to attack all the other nine realms. In a desperate attempt for survival, Thor must call upon his imprisoned brother Loki for help stop their foes.
3. Guardians Of The Galaxy
Peter Quill, nicknamed Star-Lord, is a human who was abducted by the alien Xandu and his henchmen when he was a kid, but now works for him. One of Star-Lord’s missions is to steal the orb, and object that is coveted by many and its great power is unknown. Star-Lord barely escapes with the orb after he is attacked by soldiers of the villainous leader of the Kree empire, an alien race, Ronan the Accuser. Later on, an assasian named Gamora, working for Ronan, and a daughter of Thanos, the cosmic villian who was behind the alien attack on New York in The Avengers, sets out to take the orb from Star-Lord; however after both Gamora and Star-Lord are captured after a fight, along with Rocket the Racoon and Groot, by the Nova Corps, an intergalactic police force. They are sent to a Nova Corps prison, where the quartet also meet Drax the Destroyer. After the five break out from prison, they find out what the orb really is, and must form an alliance in order to keep it from falling into the wrong hands.
2. The Avengers
For the first time ever in film history, Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow team-up to form the Avengers, at the time of a crisis, under request from Nick Fury, Director of SHIELD. After Loki forms an alliance with Thanos and the alien race the Chitauri, and he comes to Earth, Iron Man and Captain America defeat him and capture him. However, after the Chitauri invade New York by entering our world through a portal created by the Cosmic Cube, it is up to these six heroes to put aside their differences and team-up to save Earth.
1. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Trying to adjust to living in the modern world, Steve Rogers is trying to live a normal life, and has joined SHIELD to try and protect the world. After stopping the pirate Batroc and his henchmen when they take over a SHIELD battleship, things start to go array and secrets start to come to light. When a SHIELD colleague comes under attack twice by the mysterious Winter Soldier, Captain America has to try and stop him. However, the next day the greatest enemy yet is revealed and it has been hiding in the least suspected place: right within SHIELD.
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
I just love the Hobbit series! Sadly, this December the last Hobbit movie comes out. I will miss going to see them in theaters; the last two years my dad and I have gone and seen the first two movies, both times right after Christmas, so it is like a Christmas-break tradition that I will miss. I am looking forward for it’s coming out though. Here are the trailers for all three Hobbit movies. Enjoy!
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies
My First 4-H Fair!
This year my sister and I participated in the 4-H for the first year, so the upcoming fair was our first as well. The 4-H fair events started Friday, August 1, 2014, when a dance was held on the fairgrounds. I went to the dance with my two friends, Alex and Seth, and it was actually my first dance. My friends and I only danced to three songs, all line dances, because to my surprise no one else really danced. The next day was fair set-up but neither of my friends were able to attend. I was very busy in the four hours we were there and there was a lot to do. I helped to clean out the judge’s booth for the horse show, I helped to set up the pavilion for the tractors to go under, set-up the tractor pulling pad, and set-up part of the cow area in one of the barns. I also got to talk to my new friend Brianna which made the set-up more fun. It was raining out most of the time so needless to say the weather wasn’t nice but I still had fun.
The next week on Wednesday and Thursday I had to drop off my two tractors, and my other 4-H projects. On Friday the 4-H fair started. After 10 o’clock I was judged on my two tractors. The way the judging worked was the judge would come and go person by person and talk to you about the work you did on your project and you would show him each step you did. My Ariens Tractor got 3rd place in the display of parts class and my Husqvarna Tractor got 2nd place in the reconditioned engine class. My other 4-H projects were judged the day before. I got first for a wooden bench I made, a candle holder and a cutting board and second for a wooden sign. I also got second for one of my drawings and my glass collection, three seconds and three thirds for photography, and a third for a wooden ornament and jewelry. I didn’t realize how much I entered until we started packing things up for the fair! There also was an obstacle course competition and anyone in the Piston Pushers could compete. I thought I did really well but I didn’t place because they only give ribbons out to the top four spots. It was still a lot of fun though.
For the rest of the fair I just hung out with my friends Seth and Brianna who were also 4-Hers. With Seth I mostly just talked to him since we don’t see each other a lot anymore and spent a lot of Friday with him so it was nice getting to just hang out with him; I also paired up with him for the senior Olympics though. Then I did the parking booth and watched the tractor pull, which Seth was involved in, with Brianna and then we just hung out for most of Saturday and Sunday, including watching our sisters do the junior Olympics. Also on Saturday my sister Rachel, Brianna, her sister Madison and I played Frisbee tag before the Olympics it was a lot of fun. I was being chased the whole time because Madison was out to get me and then they all teamed up to get me, which they eventually succeeded in doing. Having friends also involved in the fair made it a lot more fun!
Then the only other event I was involved in for the rest of the fair was when I participated in the 4-H senior olympics on Saturday night. First there was a wheel-barrel race which my team lost because we had the older kids (not to mention our team had a flat tire on our wheel barrel). The person I was pushing was my friend Seth and it was so hard to push him especially because we were in an arena filled with shavings! The next competition was a watermelon toss. The teams had to pass a watermelon greased in olive oil under their legs to the person behind them and the watermelon had to make it all the way down the line for a team to win; my team won by a hair. The next contest was an egg contest. You couldn’t touch the egg with your hands so it was extremely difficult. At first my team tried holding with our neck and passing it to next person who would try and grab it with their neck but that didn’t work so we put it in a hat and had to bite down on the hat and pass it to the next person. It was kind of nasty but it worked except that we dropped the egg when we almost won and the other team stole our idea and they won. The last contests of the night were two tug of wars. In the first one, anyone who wanted to could join in. That was fun but my team once again lost. The second tug of war was boys vs. girls. The girls had the distinct advantage because there was basically two times as many girls as boys and we were winning until they started pulling us so that some of the boys started getting knocked down in the front and we would have lost if it wasn’t for our anchor, which was the older and bigger kids, and Seth and I were with them. We all counted to three and our team all pulled at once and that big tug caused a lot of the girls to fall so we won shortly after. After that my family and I went home but it had been a lot of fun.
Sunday was a slow day and it went by really quickly. We were sad for it to be over because it was so much fun; can’t wait for next year’s fair, and hopefully it is just as fun.
Me With The Judge
Receiving My Ribbons
My Friend Seth Competing In The Obstacle Course
Me Competing In The Obstacle Course
On My Tractor
Rachel, Her Friend Madison And My Mom At The Lemonade Booth
My Friend Brianna Judging The Alpaca Borrowing Class
Seth Competing In The Tractor Pull
Seth On His Tractor Next To Our Club Leader Mr. Hoffman
Seth In the 2nd Round Of The Tractor Pull
My Wooden Bench
My “Peace” Sign, Cutting Board, And Wooden Candle Holder
My Sister Rachel And My Friend Brianna
Getting Chased
Rachel, Madison, Brianna and Me Playing Frisbee Tag
Me Pushing My Friend Seth In The Senior Olympics Wheel Barrel Race
Tug Of War!