Final Celebrations of Summer

The past week has been full of festivals, concerts, parties, and trips to the zoo, the county fair, and Lagoon as we wrapped up the summer.

Rara and Papa took Ryan to the county fair, where Ryan’s favorite thing was the “critter booth.” Ryan held a scorpion and a tarantula, but Rara and Papa also got into the action holding a very large snake.
On Saturday, August 16, we made a trip to Hogle Zoo and to the Italian Festival with our friends, Kristin and Abby. We rode on the new carousel, and loved seeing all of the animals. We were able to see the white crocodile again…we thought he’d be gone by now! The Italian Festival was a lot of fun. We had awesome lasagna and pizza and gelato. Ryan and Abby had fun on the bouncy slide – Ryan showed his adventurous and entertaining side, as usual. Speaking of entertaining, Ryan learned a little bit of the Italian national anthem when we were in Italy. He has learned to burst into song at opportune moments. We had been talking with an Italian grandpa at the festival. We knew he’d like Ryan’s rendition, so Ryan sang for him. The little grandpa grabbed Ryan’s face in his hands and started jabbering in Italian, then kissed Ryan on the top of the head. It was really cute. Italian Grandpa gave us a couple of Italy magazines.

Ryan found another opportune moment on Monday, August 18, at the World Stage Concert at the Utah Cultural Celebration Center. Even though it was the Native American concert, there was a man there selling gelato. As it became our turn to order, Ryan burst into song. Mr. Gelato started saying, “Bellisimo!” and then asked Ryan what his favorite gelato flavor was. Ryan got free gelato for his song! I’m tellin’ ya – if you ever need to borrow my kid for free Italian stuff, let me know! (Oh, he also sings the “Humuhumunukunukuapua’a” song for free Hawaiian stuff.)

The concert was wonderful. It was Nino Reyos, the Native American flute player who has performed all over, including during the opening ceremonies of the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake. He played a few pieces, then emceed the rest of the evening of drum circles and dancing. There was an amazing hoop dancer that mesmerized the kids. It was fun to have Celina and her kids there again. Ryan and Giovanni took money up to the hoop dancer on stage, and then all three kids (Ryan, Giovanni, and Cecilia) danced with the dancers. They had a lot of fun. Ryan also finished level 4 in swimming, but the pictures of his last couple of days of class are on my new camera! I'll post them after I have time to figure out how to upload them. :)

Now we’re ready to get back into the routine of the school year!