The Green Show

Final vacation of the summer... Utah Shakespearean Festival!!

Unfortunately, we didn't go to an actual show, but we were able to attend the Green Show, a pre-show that we like to attend yearly.

This year, the theme was Irish, so there were lots of Irish dances and songs.

I want so bad to Irish dance after seeing this...

Before the show, there were ladies dressed up in cute dresses selling delicious pastries. I took a picture of this lady to remember what the dress looked like. I thought they were neat and I want to wear one like it someday.

Inside the building, there was a display of costumes for each play. This one was for, "The Comedy of Errors." I really like dresses designed in this fashion.

I thought this was a cool painting displayed for, "The Woman in Black."

Outside there was a little waterfall, so we played with my camera to create some fun pictures.

I love this one with my family behind the waterfall. It looks so colorful.

I hope someday I can go to the Shakespearean Festival and see one of the shows. Maybe Romeo and Juliet... that would be most exciting.

Idaho and a Night at the County Fair

Welcome to Idaho!

A few weeks ago, my family and I visited my great aunt Carol, and great Uncle Doug in Idaho. We had a pleasant time visiting them, and I think they enjoyed seeing us. Their backyard was beautiful and held many wonderful adventures.

The first adventure was the see-saw. It's homemade, wooden, and not only does it do it's see-sawing work, it spins too. So much fun!

At one point, Savanna and Karissa fell off the see-saw and their bottoms got wet because of the grass. By the end of the day, Savanna, Rebecca, and Karissa were wet.

Aunt Carol was kind and dried my sister's pants in the dryer. They had to find a substitute for their pants, so Karissa used her blanket.

The second adventure was the amazing backyard. There were so many beautiful things to see. This is a minature water wheel.

There were so many beautiful flowers EVERYWHERE around the yard. These were my favorite.

They of course had a huge garden that included yummy looking corn...

There were apple trees and plum trees...

and raspberries! The raspberries were simply delicious! Rebecca and Karissa enjoyed picking them and finding the rare yellow/orange raspberries.

There were two humingbird feeders, and they were visited quite often by the little birds.

While eating lunch, I found this adorable bunny and turtle playing tic-tac-toe on the table.

The third adventure was inside the house. For some reason, I remember this HUGE light switch from the last time I visited, about five years ago. I guess I thought it was so cool that it stuck with me. Notice how big it is compared to the book.

This one just cracked me up... "Our Family Tree"

After exploring the house, I went back outside to find Karissa and Rebecca playing in the water that was irrigating the grass. After a little persuading from my sisters, I joined them in walking in the water. There is nothing like the feel of walking on grass in 5 inch deep water. It felt so weird, but awesome at the same time!

Our final adventure was the County Fair. I admit I wasn't too excited to go at first, but soon after I got there, I found myself not wanting to leave. It was so exciting going to a real, country, county fair!

An exciting part of the fair was seeing a Hypnotist. I have never seen one before, and it was very entertaining to watch hypnotized people. In this picture, the man was acting as Shania Twain and went down to the audience to meet 'her' fans. Very entertaining and funny.

Overall, Idaho and the County Fair turned out to be a fun summer trip.

Yellow!

My mom and I had the opportunity to volunteer at Summerfest this year. Summerfest is a little festival where many dancers from all over the world come and dance. There are booths set up with artifacts from exotic countries, and there's foreign food to eat as well.

My mom and I signed up to be at the check in area nearest to the stage so we could watch the dancers. Unfortunately, the dancers were having a two hour break... during the exact two hours we were volunteering. Bummer. Thank goodness I brought my iTouch and mom and I played hang-man, until people showed up.

At the end of our volunteer time, some people entered the stage. This group of people was doing some kind of chant. I personally like the dancers a lot better. I'm assuming other people do as well because there wasn't much of a crowd for the chanters.

At a smaller stage near one of the booths, a man was playing a didjeridu. It's hard to explain what it sounded like, but it sounded kind of like wind through a hollow tree.

For lunch we got Navajo tacos. It tasted pretty good, but I kind of felt sick afterwards from eating such a big scone.

I Picniked this photo of my mom and me. She told me we looked yellow and I told her it was supposed to look like that so we'd match our bright yellow shirts. We had a great time. I hope we can volunteer again next year, and watch some dancers.

A Grand Dream

On August 6th, Melissa and I had the opportunity to volunteer for Utah Fast Pass. Utah Fast Pass was the program who sponsored the trip Melissa and I took to Washingtion D.C. this past June. We thought it would be appropriate to volunteer as some small thanks for the amazing trip. We went to the ballroom of The Grand America Hotel to stand by auction items and answer people's questions. During the auction, very important (and I'm assuming very rich) people attended a dinner being held by Utah Fast Pass.

Before the auction, Melissa and I went outside to see some of the cars Utah Fast Pass had been driving through various cities in Utah to raise money. Melissa and I found our favorite cars (I'm no good with car names, but my favorite was a shiny silver one). There was even an awesome red Ferrari we gawked at.

We went back inside the ballroom and soon people started entering the ballroom, placing their bids on various items. It was crazy to see how high some of the bids went. A diamond ring was auctioned off for $21,000 dollars! For the first 5 hours, it wasn't so exciting, and I admit my feet began to ache from standing so long. Melissa and I took take turns going to the bathroom to sit down for a while to rest. It was the most magnificent bathroom I have ever seen. There were four sections to the bathroom, and one of the sections was as big as my bedroom! I felt like a princess, and I was only in the bathroom! Imagine what I would feel like in a bedroom!

Anyway, the last two hours of the night were the most exciting, but the craziest. The live auction was being held, which was very exciting, but things got all mixed up with who won what auction item, and people were taking off with their things without checking out. By the end of the night, I was very tired, and Melissa and I were well ready to go home to our comforting beds. Although we love our own beds, Melissa and I wished we could have stayed in one of the hotel rooms. I'm sure they are very fancy and I would love to stay in one of them sometime. Melissa and I decided we would stay in one for our 18th birthdays as presents to each other. Until then, I'll dream of being a princess, in an elegant gown, staying in a 'Grand' hotel.

A Bad Haircut Means a Fresh, New Look

Tip of the day: Never cut your own hair.

Guess I'll have to live with no bangs for a couple months.

Wigwam

Last week I went backpacking with my dad, sisters, uncle, and cousin. We ventured into the Uintah Mountains, to Wigwam Lake. It was only about a two mile hike in. The lake was very pretty and we spent the next two days fishing, hiking, and my personal favorite, reading Harry Potter aloud around the campfire (of course, reading in a British accent).

On our hike, we went through a field that reminded me of the mountains on The Sound of Music, at the end, when the Von Trapp family crosses the border into Switzerland. I wanted to sing, "The hills are alive, with the sound of music!"

Poor Sammi tried sleeping while we fished, but the mosquitos kept bugging her.

Fly fishing. Dad's new favorite thing to do.

I tried fly fishing for the first time, and caught four fish! I like fly fishing better than normal fishing, because with fly fishing you have to constantly be doing something. In this picture, the fish moved right before dad took the picture, and I thought I was going to get fish slime on me, so I kind of freaked out.

Pretty wild flowers were everywhere in sight. This flower is called Little Red Elephants, because of the tiny trunk and ear like features.

We ate delicious fresh fish every night for a snack, then read Harry Potter around the fire. On this night, we made a HUGE fire. It was almost as tall as one of us when we were standing.

Packed up and ready to go home.