This summer I learned and experienced a lot of new things. I realized I was braver than I thought. I never thought I would be able to jump off of the high cliff, and when I met those alpacas, I was nervous at first to go in with them, but I did it. Not only did I learn new things about myself, but I also learned new things about other people and objects. At the auction I learned lots of things with my dad about machinery and reasons for barns being built on hills. At the quarry, I learned that I jumped off of cliffs from the first marble quarry in the United States! While building the tree house I learned many new techniques of using tools and building structures. Not just did I build structures, but I also built new friendships this summer. At Lake George, I became friends with Sally, and became closer friends with Luke, Blake, and Brooke. While I was swimming to the island, I realized that I was really tired, but once I got there I was happy as well. I was worried that I wouldn’t finish, but once I did I felt so good. I felt so many emotions at the same time.

This summer I discovered if you really want to do something, you can, but you just have to go for it. The summer of 2016 has prepared my for sixth grade and I am ready to see what happens.

My birthday was on August 16th and my mum said she had a surprise for me. She made a call and the said it would happen the next day. I had a great birthday and I was so excited for the next day. The only hint I had was that we needed closed toed shoes. I woke up the next morning, got dressed and we all got into the car.

I did not recognize where we were going at all. Gwen didn’t know either, and when we saw the sign that said “Breezy Hill Alpacas” we freaked out! We both are obsessed with alpacas! So we met this guy named Dave, and he took us to the pasture with the males. We couldn’t go in with them, because they are aggressive. We walked over to the females and we saw like five on the hill. Dave started to call them over and they stared at us like deer on a street. He kept calling them and they all stampeded over and you could hear the running of hooves. It was so funny.

The alpacas when they came over.

He introduced us to some of them, and he showed us this little guy.

This is Hermey. He had a piece of grass stuck to the side of his mouth.

After, Dave said we could go in the pasture with them. He gave us some treats and we fed the alpacas! It was so fun! It is basically like feeding a horse. After we fed them we saw this guy with bangs!

The guy with bangs is in the back.

So we just pet and talked with Dave in the pasture some more. I pet the girl named Wildfire and she was extremely soft! My favorite was still Hermey!

A closeup of Hermey with the grass stuck to his mouth! :p

Next we went and felt the alpaca fur off of the alpaca, and it is really cool, because it is not greasy like sheep is. So if you have 10 lbs. of sheep fur vs 10 lbs. of alpaca fur, with the sheep fur you would loose 5 pounds because of the grease, but with alpaca fur you will end up with still 10 pounds! He also showed us the shop with the yarn. The yarn was made from all of their alpacas, not other ones mixed in. They even had the picture of the alpaca they used for the yarn on the side! It was really awesome, and I can cross that off my bucket list!

During the first week of July, we took a trip the Manchester, VT.  On the way back we saw the Quarry. A quarry is a deep pit kind of thing, were rocks are extracted. This quarry stopped being used as a quarry in 1915, and was then filled with water. It was turned into a place where you could go and cliff jump. We had also gone to Lake George a couple weeks after out visit to Vermont, and we had really enjoyed the cliff jump we found there, so we decided to go to the quarry. The quarry is the oldest quarry in the United States, and the first marble quarry in the states.

The sign with some history.

When we went in there were cliff jumps ranging in size. We started at the smaller ones. The water was a nice temperature and it was really fun.

Me and my dad jumping off of the smaller ones.

We just continued to make our way higher and higher. We decided to go to the other side and try those jumps.

Swimming to the other side of the quarry.

Our goal for the end of it was to do the highest one which my dad estimated was around 25 feet. It doesn’t seem like much until you get up there. On one of the jumps you had to climb up a wire instead of the ladder, and it was kind of like rock climbing. Before we knew it we were at the second highest jump. I just went for it and it was really fun. Then Gwen, and Daddy went too. We made our way to the highest one.

Walking over to the highest jump

Some people were doing flip off of the highest one, and it was crazy. I kept hesitating for about 10 or 15 minutes. There was another boy about my age who was hesitating too. I finally just went for it. You can’t really explain how it felt. It felt like I was in the air forever, and I actually had real time to get into position, and get ready to land. I did it and it felt good and was super awesome. The other kid kind of grunted when I jumped off, because he was like Now I kind of have to do it. Gwen and Daddy didn’t end up doing it because it was getting crowded and we were getting cold. It was a super awesome day and I was proud of myself.