Year: 2018

We went up to High Springs to camp at Oleno State Park again. The weather was a bit chilly the first day but warmed up nicely. We had a great time at the campground identifying trees, plants and critters to study for the forest ecology contest. They have a really nice nature center. It is small but there are so many amazing treasures inside!

On Saturday we had the final state archery tournament of the year. I really enjoy this one since we get to shoot 3D again! I shot fairly well but not well enough for 1st place. I did however end up in second so I was still very happy. We celebrated our friend’s, Maleah, birthday with cake and song. What a bunch of amazingly wonderful goofy kids!

We went out to Play City to Fancy Farms for a 4-H Fundraiser and volunteer service. We picked over 100 quarts of berries for the food banks. We also picked 20 for us to bring home and make jelly with!  So many strawberries! What a fun service project!

We enjoyed a trip to Fossil Fest at the state fairgrounds this weekend. Dad drove down to Venice to help Grandma and Grandpa with something. I shopped very carefully. I looked for the best deals and bargains on things that I wanted. I was a very wise shopper. B and I did the fossil pit a few times. I got lots of new fossils from the pit!

The time changed this weekend. I am NOT having it! When B does his weight training class I usually bring games to play with my friend. He wasn’t there this week so I just played Jenga by myself and built all sorts of gravity defying towers. Being silly with Dad. I am getting a bit big for piggyback rides!

We had our 4-H Forest Ecology meeting this week t Mocassin Lake Nature Preserve. We saw a beautiful white peacock in the wild too! We learned a lot about the preserve and then took an excellent hike to see different plants and trees and learn about the wildlife that they have on the premises. I loved the bird of prey area with all the rescued birds. We spent some time over at EPCOT while Dad was out of town on a work meeting. We enjoyed the Flower and Garden Festival. I LOVED all the topiaries! We got to stay over one night at a hotel! It was super fun at the pool and playgrounds. I loved the huge pool and a giant water slide! B was tired and went back to the room to clean up and I found out there was unlimited s’mores on the pool deck area! I called B and told him to get back quick! We enjoyed many many s’mores!

We had a great time and really enjoyed out little get away. We stopped at Ikea on the way home since the traffic was horrible! We brushed our teeth after all the yummy treats!

We had a super fun service project with our 4-H club today. We went to Maderia Beach and helped to clean trash out of the sand dunes. We collected over 100 lbs of trash in an hour. We also did a citizen science project of microplastics! After class we went to Grandma Susie’s and went swimming. We ended up hunting bugs instead! We had some down time and family board games this week. The weekend wrapped up with a day down in Manatee County for 4-H working with Keep Manatee Beautiful to do a state park clean-up. Our group collected nearly 500lbs of trash! After the cleanup we enjoyed an educational hike around the park and learned about how they are trying to restore the park to a more natural state. They have a huge invasive and non-native plant issue. We also worked more on our bismuth block. We used the old grill burner to head the bismuth and tried to make crystals. We didnt have the best of luck but it was a lot of fun trying!