A week of pure awesome

Where do I even begin? This past week has been jam packed with so many wonderful things... I don't ever remember having so much fun for so long!

We went to a Skillet concert!!!!! I knew it was going to be a good concert when they opened with one of my favorite songs, Whispers in the Dark. You also know you got your money's worth when you leave without your voice because you were singing/yelling/screaming so much. (Er, not that I would do that... ;))

This is a QUATER of the FIRST building.

And then theres convention, the best part of the entire week. There were 23,000 rabbits this year. 23,000! I was able to make quite a few new friends this week, they are such an awesome group of people. :) It was 'pretty neat' to see kids from Maryland, Washington, and Texas sitting next to us at lunch! They even had people coming from Canada, Japan, and Malaysia!

The rabbits were pretty cute too. :) (I apologize for the quality of these pictures, they were taken with an iPod).

A baby Holland Lop grooming itself

A Tort Netherland Dwarf

A friendly little Jersey Wooly

And I gave into my obssesive, rabbit buying addiction got a new rabbit!

I *think* this is her. I have about 7 different pics of jr. choc ES on my ipod, haha! Thank you Nathan!

And then there was the youth banquet. It. Was. Awesome. We ate, we watched the awards ceremony, we danced, and then we hung around and talked for a while. :D

Speaking of awards, I took three rabbits and all three placed at the top of their classes! (1st, 3rd, and 4th!) You could have knocked me over with a feather; I NEVER would have expected that they would have done that well at the NATIONAL CONVENTION!

And what is the perfect way to end such a great week? With a free frosty and fries from Wendy's of course!

Life is good. :)

~ Abby

Of convention, cameras, and competition

Have you ever heard of the American Rabbit Breeders Association? Its kind of like an AKC on for rabbits. There are over 47 different breeds, and each breed has what is called 'a standard', which is basically a description of what a perfect rabbit of that breed would be. (Sometimes referred to as "The Bunny Bible" :P)

                                                     A small sample of some of the breeds.

Anyway, once a year the ARBA puts on a National Convention. This is the largest rabbit competition in the world, and where you go to compete with the proverbial 'top dogs'. (Errr, I mean, top rabbits that is). At any one convention, you can expect up to 30,000 rabbits!  But just as importantly, they have youth competitions: judging, royalty, showmanship, and breed ID.

                                                  This explains the youth contests a bit more. :)

Guess who qualified for a breed ID team this year?! Yes, moi. :P I've never competed at a national level, so I'm kinda unsure of what to expect... But it'll be fun nonetheless!

And guess what?! My camera is working again! (It hadn't been working for the past week and half... I was very sad). I had been using my brother's old camera, which looks like this:

                                                               Isn't it great?! *rolls eyes*

But its been such a blessing that its working again... I didn't exactly have $500 to blow on an SLR. Plus, its working just in time for me to take pictures for a photography contest I signed up for a while ago! Isn't that such a God thing?

~ Abby