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Cinqo de Mayo at Snoqualmie

By Adrian Rasmussen, 4^th grade, Beacon Hill Elementary

One Friday morning on the day of Cinqo de Mayo, I had pink eye so I didn't go to school.  I went up snowboarding instead, so I could compete in the Cinqo de Mayo costume contest.

Only God knew my future now.  I took a deep breath, hopped in the truck, and headed up to the slopes.   I rode for about an hour then sped down to the lodge.

The second I went into the lodge, I froze! There was hard competition! There was a Mexican wrestler in a speedo!  There were identical twins with mustaches and sombreros!  There were Mexican cowboys with ponchos and sombreros! Which one was my dad?  But worst of all, there was a woman wearing a Mexican dress, a X.X.X. sombrero and she had a real chihuahua! "Oy vey," I moaned.

I was doomed! I looked over at the $300 black Capita snowboard.  I said to myself, "It shall be mine!"   Me and my dad wrote the names of our characters on a sign-in sheet.

Me, my dad, and the five other opponents stepped outside as if we were ready for battle.  The people who were outside eating were the judges, meaning when it's a certain person's turn to show off their costume you’d make some noise for them if you liked it.

My heart was pounding!  I glanced at my chest just to make sure my heart was still inside.

It was my turn first.  The announcer mentioned, "Next up on the stage: ZORRO!" The crowd ROARED! My confidence level shot up like a rocket! I just stood there in disbelief making no performance whatsoever.   I won that round.  "Time for the second round." I thought.  It was my turn; I stepped up with full confidence and screamed, “ZORRO!” The crowd went NUTS!

The announcer jogged over and gladly presented 3rd place: three lift tickets for Alpental, 2nd place: unit bindings, "and finally what you've all been waiting for, the winner of the Cinco de Mayo 2006 Costume contest is, drum roll please…"  The crowd banged the tables.  The bang of the table made shivers down my spine.   “ZORRO!”  I ran at the Capita and held it up in the air!

I rode for the rest of the day and everywhere I went people screamed, "ZORRO!" "ZORRO!" "ZORRO!"