More Summer Concerts and Festivals

I know…I’m SO behind! We’ve been having so much fun DOING things that I haven’t had a chance to blog about them! Here’s a quick update of some of our fun activities the past couple of weeks.

On Monday, August 4, we continued the Worldstage Concert Series at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center with Kristin and Abby. This concert was “Jimmy G Pop,” who was hilarious! He had some pretty funny songs about respect and other necessary life skills. The kids loved his creative clothes, hats to match his songs, and lyrics. Ryan and Abby danced (and played air guitar) and laughed the whole time, and Kristin and I laughed the whole time watching them!
It was also the community night against crime, so Ryan and Abby enjoyed meeting MacGruff.
August 7-9 was the 20th annual Summerfest in Bountiful. It is amazing to think that it has been going that long. We were reminiscing that we were a host family for some of the dancers from the very first year, and we continued as hosts for a few subsequent years. We remembered the year that we hosted the Greek dancers – everyone thought that Marc was one of them! Everywhere we went, people would come up and start talking to him in Greek! I’ll see if I can find some pictures from those years. That was a lot of fun.

This year, we attended Summerfest on both Friday and Saturday. The countries have different programs each day, and there were a couple that we wanted to see again. We were particularly entertained by a little boy with the Greek group. His name was Lambrose. He was absolutely adorable! Our favorite performers were the Greek group and the Costa Rican group.

We also enjoyed eating a couple of meals there. It’s always fun to try some of the new foods they have in the booths there. A friend and former co-worker and his wife own a Scandinavian gift shop in Centerville. It’s always fun to see him in his liederhosen.
Ryan’s favorite part of Summerfest is the Children’s Art Yard. He always enjoys making fun projects there. This year he made a wreath crown, like those that were given to the athletes at the 2004 Olympics in Greece, a Chinese dragon, and some Chinese character paintings. There is always face (body?) painting available. This year Ryan chose a Chinese dragon up his arm!
During Summerfest, there was also an International Convention being held. Part of that was the display of a Chinese brocade loom in the South Davis Recreation Center. Every day as we went for Ryan’s swimming lessons and my workouts, we checked the progress of the work on the loom. It was amazing!
We were also able to see one of the Olympic torches on display!
Monday, August 11, was another fun concert in the Worldstage Concert Series. Kristin and Abby were unable to attend, but we had been spreading the word about these fun concerts, and were joined by some other friends! My former co-worker, Celina, and her kids Cecilia and Giovanni joined us, as well as Celina’s nephew, Antonio (from Cancun, Mexico!). I hope Celina doesn’t mind me sharing this, but a couple of years ago, Antonio’s family lost many of their possessions in a hurricane. It was right before Christmas. Many of you know that right before the holidays every year, Ryan and I go through his toys and choose some to give away. Most years, we have taken them to a women’s & children’s shelter here in Bountiful. That year, we took the opportunity to send some of Ryan’s clothes and toys to Antonio. It was SO fun to meet him in person and know that we helped him and his family get back to normal after such a devastating event!
The concert was “The Soul Survivors.” Michael, who introduces the performers each week, kept stressing what a famous group they were (although we had never heard of them). They were great, and we had a lot of fun dancing to all of their music.

The kids decided that they wanted to go right down to the stage and dance. They all took the cameras and had fun being paparazzi.