Lindon Days 5K

Dennis and I had been wanting to run another 5k, but up until Saturday hadn't been able to. I was going to run without paying money just for the experience and to time myself. Dennis always pays so he can get a shirt (one of these days I will make him a quilt out of all the shirts he has acquired). But today, when I found out the price was only 12.00 and that included the shirt I decided what the heck. I start out running, then do quite a bit of walking, and run again when I catch my breath and feel like pushing myself. I do this the whole 3 plus miles.

Usually I have been the one taking pictures of Dennis while he runs, so this is quite a change. BEWARE - I look awful without my hair done and no makeup.

I finished in 35 minutes and 23 seconds and felt really good. Notice the lady running behind me - it was my goal to beat her and I'm glad I did because......


......I took first in my age group 50-60 year olds. WOOT, WOOT!!! Only in a small town race would that ever happen. The second place runner in my category was the lady who was right behind me. It was worth the extra effort to push myself at the finish. (Huge pat on the back for me - Yeah Baby)

The 2 runners and 1 run/walker

Springville World Folkfest - GOODBYES

Sunday, August 2

Parting is such sweet sorrow!!! Whoever wrote that hit the nail on the head. They had to be there at 8:30am to be bussed up to Bountiful for their Summerfest activities. We exchanged emails and hugs and said our goodbyes. I didn't cry until the directors of the Folkfest had the host families sing "Until We Meet Again", then the Koreans were ushered on the bus and they were gone.

GOOD BYE DEAR FRIENDS - TILL WE MEET AGAIN!!!

Springville World Folkfest - Day 6

Saturday, August 1st

Today there was a swimming and pizza party at the Springville pool for all participants and host families at 10:00. My girls were super excited to go. After a quick breakfast we headed to the pool and while everyone swam (My Koreans, Alisha and her two boys, and AnnaLynne (David had to leave yesterday to go back to for work), and Amanda and her 3 kids. The Mexicans didn't swim. I didn't swim either, I figured I would be there if Amanda needed help with her little ones, which she did. Her children are not little fish like Malinda and Alisha's are. At 12:00 out came the pizzas (there were like 150 of them) and they were devoured within minutes. We had a good time just chilling, eating, and visiting.






Hye Jin, I wish the picture of the other girls had not been blurry


After all the morning fun was over we stopped by where Dennis was working and gave him some cold pizza. On the way home I took them to the Dollar Store so they could buy (Chinese made) trinkets to take home with them. Then we headed home to chill until 4:00 when they had to be at the Springville High School for dinner and other evening activities that were only for the dance participants. So Dennis, I, Alisha and Amanda had 4 hours until we had to be back to the closing night ceremonies (actually 3 hours given the 1/2 hour trip each way). We found the performances tonight for the most part were repeats of dances that were performed sometime during the week. The highlight was an encore performance of the Chinese 1000 Buddha hands. That was my all time favorite performance of the entire week. The Koreans played the same music (at least it sounded like it to me), but for tonights performance all the kids had their drums tied to them by some of the sashes they wore. The poor things were wearing their drums for hours as they were close to the end of the program. They told us (rather showed us through language barrier sign language) earlier that their shoulders get really sore. Some of the Korean girls are such tiny little things and their drums are pretty good sized.


But it was spectacular to see them marching on stage playing their hearts out. It was a bittersweet moment when the folkfest ended. On the one hand we were glad for all the driving to be over and ready to get back to a normal life, but sad to know that our new friends would soon be leaving and we would never see them again.

As was the case all week, they fell asleep in the back seat on the way home. I would have thought them utterly exhausted and would go right to bed. Wrong again. They went down to their room and I went about folding the clothes I had washed and dried for them to pack. When I took their folded laundry downstairs, they made a fuss that I shouldn't come into their room, so I stood outside the door until one of them came and got the clothes. I caught a glimpse of them sitting on the bed writing on the cards they had bought at the store that afternoon.

A while later they came upstairs and told us to sit and gestured to the couch. Then they brought out gifts. Each one in turn presented us with a gift and a thank you card. After reading the first card the other two girls told us "not read now - tomorrow". It embarrassed them to have us read the cards in their presence. We in turn gave them each a journal and told them it was for them to write about their experiences here in America. We all hugged each other and headed for bed as it was going to be an early morning wake up call in a few hours.

Springville World Folkfest - Day 5

Friday, July 31

We got to sleep in again today. Thank heaven for small miracles. They did have a performance at the park at noon, but another small miracle, it was at a park only blocks from my house. The girls were getting worried that we were not leaving a half hour early, but I kept telling them this performance was very close to my house. I don't think they understood. The Koreans and Belgiums were the only two groups to perform. That meant that Alisha had to be there also. Amanda decided to bring her 2 Mexicans and come watch. Then afterwards we all went up Provo Canyon and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. None of our guests had ever had an experience like this before and they all enjoyed it. Then off on a short walk to Bridal Veil Falls because the Belgiums nor Mexicans had been their yet. We spent quite awhile there. The highlight of the afternoon was when Porter (3 years old) decides to pull his pants down and pee right there in the pond at the bottom of the falls. Talk about humiliating. Amanda must have turned about 5 shades of red.

Baby R and Baby A (cousins) enjoying the picnic


Cousins K & L, both love to eat.


Hye Ji and Se Hyun enjoying a good old American SMORE!


Se Hyun roasting marshmallows


2 men from the Mexican dance group (not the 2 Amanda hosted), they just came along for the fun.


Some of the group at the falls

Amanda and Baby R who loved the water

Malinda and Baby A who did not like the water, but isn't this picture precious


Hye Jin and Little Miss L (Hye Jin took a real liking to L and they got to be good buddies)


I sure hope he is not drinking that (and to think that some little boys pee in it:))


Malinda, Annalynne and David (Belgiums) and Little K (she is crying because she wants to get in the water)


Hye Ji, Se Hyun, Amanda, Baby R, Little L, Tyler, Hye Jin



They had to be at the Arts Park at 6:45 and Amanda's Mexicans had to be there at 7:00 so I returned the favor (to Amanda) and took them all down so she could have a blissfully longer evening at home. Most countries had different dances every night and that made it worth coming down to watch. It would have been boring with 5 nights of the same thing. Some wore the same costumes all week, but most changed them up.
Again, after the performances, the girls fell asleep in the car on the way home, but were wide awake once we got home, and HUNGRY! I think tonight is when they ate ice cream, which was weird, as they ate hardly any sweets all week.

Springville World Folkfest - Day 4

Thursday, July 30

No rehearsals today, yeehaw! We got to sleep in and it felt WONDERFUL. We were informed on Tuesday that all groups had to have their own potluck with the host families and participants from each country. I think our group was just about the only one who actually did this, and it was so lame. Since we slept in(me until 8:00 and the girls until 9:30) we did not eat breakfast until 10:00. The potluck was scheduled for noon. I was excited FOR the potluck so I would not have to come up with lunch ideas today, boy was I WRONG! Because of the late breakfast, they did not eat anything at the potluck, and as soon as we got home, they were hungry. So white rice and kimchi today, and they cooked it, because I did not know how. I had no idea what to do today to kill 3 hours between lunch and time to leave for the evening. I asked them what would they like to do and they said "SWIMMING". Malinda and I took them to the Scera Pool. They were so cute - when I pulled into the parking lot, they asked "THIS POOL?" and I replied in the affirmative, then they said "THIS FUN". They seemed to have a good time. Malinda's babies had a great time. Little K loves the water and although at first hesitant about the slide, actually found that she loved it and kept going down it all by herself. Baby A loved it until she got sleepy, then the fussiness began. The Korean girls did not ACT like they were having fun, at least not the way American kids act. But they kept assuring me that they were having fun.
Apparently they didn't bring swim suits with them, so they wore some of their clothes.






They had to be at the Arts Park at 6:30 again tonight. So did Amanda's Mexicans, and she volunteered to take my girls down with her. It was HEAVENLY to have an extra hour and a half to do dishes and take a short breather before going to the performances (which start at 8:00 pm). THANK YOU AMANDA!!!

Springville World Folkfest - Day 3

Wednesday, July 29

Today I had to have the girls to another 9:00 am rehearsal. It lasted 3/12 hours. Amanda had to have the Mexicans to a rehearsal also, so we sat and talked until her people were ready to leave. When my girls were done, we stopped by the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few things, plus I wanted them to experience an American grocery store. The sad thing was I couldn't ask them how they felt about it. So many things I wanted to ask them and I couldn't, darn language barrier. While in the grocery store I had a really random experience. A college age girl came up and asked me if I knew what to buy to make strawberry pie. I told her, and then we each went our separate way. Later I turned the corner of an aisle and found her talking to "my girls" in KOREAN!!! I could not believe it! I wanted to take her home with me for the rest of the week and have her be my personal translator, but I didn't. I just asked her to ask the girls what they like to eat. I don't know if they told her or not, but she just said that on her mission she found that Korean's ate rice for almost every meal - plain white rice - and sometimes they had fried egg on top. So guess what we had for lunch. Plain white rice, with egg on top. But not fried eggs, the girls wanted to do the eggs, and they broke open 2 eggs, scrambled them with a spoon (weird, but they would not use the fork), then cooked it in a pan like we would an omelet, except rather than turning it over to cook the other side, they rolled it, then continued cooking it. When it was done, they put it on a plate, cut it into small bite size pieces with scissors. They poured catsup on the side of the plate and each girl ate their rice on their own little plates, but each would just take a piece of egg from the serving plate, dip it into catsup and eat. It was fun to watch them. They had asked me on Tuesday night for chopsticks, but I didn't have any just lying around, so we looked at the grocery store while there today, but they didn't have any either. I should have thought about it while at the Oriental market, because I know they had them there. Silly me!

After lunch, I took them to Bridal Veil Falls. They asked me what was Utah famous for and I could think of several things, but none of them within driving distance with our time schedule. So I came up with the Falls. It has been years since I have actually visited the falls. The water was SO SO COLD. But we walked around in it for awhile, then the girls just sat on some little rocks in the middle of the pool out in the middle of the sun, and make piles with the small rocks in the water. I sat on a large rock off to the side and watched their little shoulder bags that held their money and cameras (and was in the shade). My poor head got so sun burnt during the whole week.
Hye Jin, Hye Ji, Se Hyun





6:30 back to the Arts Park. Don't know why they had to be there early as they did not play drums tonight. Only the Korean dancers performed.
They were so cute. On the drive home at 11:00 at night they would fall asleep and I thought they would go home and go right to bed. But Oh No, was I wrong. They would groggily get out of the car, but by the time they reached the house, they were wide awake and rarin' to go, plus very hungry, so time to fix a snack. Can't remember what they had though. Finally, we went to bed at midnight and I have no idea how late they stayed up, doing who knows what.

Springville World Folkfest - Day 2

Tuesday, July 28 2009

All performers had to be at a rehearsal at the Springville Arts Park from 9:00 - 11:30. I sat in the car and read, while I waited. At noon there was a picnic in Kelly's Grove up Hobble Creek Canyon for all performing groups and host families. There was hamburgers, hotdogs, watermelon & cantaloupe, chips and cookies. I noticed that my 3 Korean girls ate the meat without buns, some watermelon and chips. No soda, even though it was available. While at the picnic we found out that the group from Mexico were all staying at one home - 23 of them, so the Folkfest was asking people if they knew anyone who would be willing to take some in. Amanda volunteered and after the performance that night she picked up Tomas and Luis. After the picnic we (the Korean girls, Amanda with her kids and Malinda and her kids) came home and the girls had so much fun playing with my little grandkids. After a dinner of Korean ramen noodles and Kimchi for them, and tacos for us, we headed back to Springville for the opening night performances.

Hye Jin, Se Hyun, Hye Ji, two of their friends holding Baby A at Kelly's Grove


Hye Ji , I called her the studious one. She always looked so serious, like she was concentrating so hard on her performance.


Se Hyun, I called her the natural. She always smiled while playing, and seemed like she loved what she was doing.


Hye Jin, I called her the young one, as she looked younger than the other two.


David from Belgiium (whom Alisha hosted)

Annalynne also from Belgium (whom Alisha also hosted). The Belgium group were flag twirlers and did some impressive routines.


These Chinese girls were awesome. It was the most amazing performance during the whole folkfest.

The whole night was so good that even the kids were mesmerized and sat still for most all 2 1/2 hours.