4-H Congress!!

Well Tuesday was a hot and busy day! Corey and I traveled to Raleigh to meet Amber at a local high school (Avery something or another) it was right near NCSU (where her and Caitie and other 4-Hers are staying in dorms for the week) to see Amber compete at state level for her presentation on egg incubation.

We left bright and early at 5am, stopped for a scurumptious breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Rocky Mount and arrived at the high school in Raleigh promptly at 8:06 am. Amber was already there and signed in to do her presentation.

It was a huge high school! I'm talking at least 5, 6, 7...maybe 10 Plymouth High Schools put together! It was really nice! Her class room was #2204 or something like that if that tells you anything!! I definately got my exercise walking around the school! Presentations started at 8:30 am sharp! Amber wanted to be first and so she was! She did an awesome job!! I'm so proud of her!! She competed with 3 other girls her age. They were all awesome!! We left the room for the judges to make their decision and Amber was completely in her element with these girls! They talked about chickens, turkeys, ducks, etc....they were fun! Amber already met them the day before as they all competed in the Poultry Judging contest that was held on Monday. They are also all going to PSSI together the first week of August...and one of the girls will be Amber's roommate...so they talked about all kinds of stuff....(definately nothing I talked to my friends about when I was her age)...but it was awesome!

Amber ended up winning the Bronze metal!! (3rd place) I'm so excited for her! She is tickled because 1)this is her first year presenting and she placed and 2) if you win state Gold (1st place) you can no longer compete in that category at state level in that particular age level! She wants to do another poultry presentation next year...go figure! (I don't know if any monetary award is attatched to anything but the Gold winner but she's learning so much and having a ton of fun!)

I didn't get to see Caitie on Tuesday, they were doing workshops all day long at NCSU. Yesterday, they worked on a service project. They packed food in a big warehouse to be sent to feed people in Central America. Tonight they have a dance and a banquet and tomorrow around lunchtime they should be home!

Tim is planning to cometo see them next week!

I'm hoping to get Amber's room ready for her for a surprise...it will be a surprise for Amber and Caitie when it's done...as the poor girls have had to share a room for a year now!

I also have a great appreciation for all the dedication the girls have to our animals...it takes me and Corey 2-3 hours total to feed all the animals each day...not to mention the added time it takes to clean up after them...YIKES....can't wait until they come home!!