Minnesota State Fair

Minnesota State Fair is better than Christmas and my birthday combined!! What is better than practically living with all your best friends and being surrounded by some of the best animals in the state and on top of that, there’s all the excellent food and outrageous pranks (like quarters glued to the floor, right Kirby?)
The first few days, I was in the Leadership Center and Chapter House as well as helping out in the CHS Miracle of Birth Center and Photo Booth. While in the Chapter House, I was excited to hear about FFA alumni's experiences back in the day. We also gave away fabulous door prizes each day of the fair. My favorite part was meeting up with current members of FFA whether I just meeting them or catching up with since the last time we met.
Next few days the only place you would've found me was the dairy barn. Our family brought 15 head of Brown Swiss and Milking Shorthorns. Let's just say that our Swiss crop this year has room for improvement for next year's fair... But it was sweet to have extra help on show day from Kirby. He exhibited my Spring Calf, Polka Dot who is now his favorite animal of all time. Our Shorthorns were the show stoppers for us. Our 3 Year Old was Grand Champion Milking Shorthorn and went on to be named Supreme Champion of the Show!! What was especially special about this accomplishment was that this cow traces back to my mom's 4-H projects.
The last few days of the fair I was infected with the '4-H1N1' and missed out on the excellent FFA dance and livestock shows. I hope all of you that were there danced a little for me.

State Leadership Conference for Chapter Leaders (SLCCL)

State Leadership Conference for Chapter Leaders themed ‘The Amazing Race Destination: Leadership’ was a week of fun, friends, discovery, and service for the about 130 members present.
For a select few, however, it was all about the pranks…. ;). I don’t want to mention names, but their initials were Alex Murdock and Kelsey Mussman. Shaving cream, rainbow shorts, and mattresses were involved in these acts of trickiness, but they quickly learned that they can’t mess with the best when it comes to pulling excellent pranks…
One of my favorite parts of the week was Thursday morning service projects. I was on the squad removing invasive species from grassy areas at Deep Portage. Pulling weeds is fun enough in itself, but it was a huge bonus when we located all kinds of wild raspberries and strawberries along the way. It wasn’t too long until we were busted by the man (AKA the nice lady who explained which plants to extract) and we weren’t really allowed to practice our hunter/gatherer skills.
I made countless friends throughout this week and learned a great deal about what motivates them and that in turn made me reflect on why I do what I do. Everyone has their own way of learning and gathering information, but my favorite way to gain knowledge is through conversation with others. Thank you to all you members at SLCCL for sharing a piece of you with me. It was a blast working with all of you!