Fiesta Days Rodeo in Spanish Fork

I always wanted to go to a rodeo but in all my years of living in America, I've never been to one. This summer while we were vacationing in Utah, they had a couple of big rodeo events, and so we bought the tickets to the Fiesta Days Rodeo in Spanish Fork.

New Rodeo stadium in Spanish Fork, Utah

The Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo is held every July and has been a Fiesta Days Tradition for over 70 years. World champions compete using a back-to-back format. The twelve fastest contestants during each morning move to the evenings performance allowing the audience to see the best contestants each night as well as a potential event winner any given night. Spanish Fork Fiesta Days Rodeo was also voted the #1 Rodeo in the Intermountain Area in 2014. Pretty cool!

Nika, Brennen, and Lina watching the rodeo.

It doesn't matter what we are doing, these two are always having fun.

We went with our family, my sister-in-law and my nephew on July 21, the first night of the Rodeo. The stadium was full! We got there about 45 minutes early, so we could find some parking and were entertained by mutton bustin' done by little kids (some of them were as little as 5-year old!)

See the flying hat!

See the flying boot and the flying kid!

This one won the competition! We noticed that if the kids rode backwards, they could hang on a lot longer.

All the sheep that lost their riders would gather together in one spot.

Then the Rodeo started with the opening ceremonies.

Rodeo committee and royalty

Bringing the American flag

The first event was Bareback Bronc Riding where the rider attempts to stay on the bucking horse for 8 seconds without touching the horse with his free hand. It was pretty impressive.

Here are the guys getting the rider off the bucking horse after he stayed on it for 8 seconds.

Then they had steer wrestling in which a horse-mounted rider chases a steer, drops from the horse to the steer and wrestles it to the ground by twisting it's horns.

Team roping in which there are two mounted riders The first roper is referred to as the "header", the person who ropes the front of the steer, usually around the horns, Once the steer is caught, the header must dally (wrap the rope around the rubber covered saddle horn) and use his horse to turn the steer to the left. The second is the "heeler", who ropes the steer by its hind feet after the "header" has turned the steer. Team roping is the only rodeo event where men and women compete equally together in professionally sanctioned competition, in both single-gender or mixed-gender teams.

Saddle bronc riding.

Women's barrel racing is a rodeo event in which a horse and rider attempt to complete a cloverleaf pattern around preset barrels in the fastest time. It is usually done by women.

Look at that sharp turn!

And finally bull riding. It was really hard to get a good picture of this particular event because riders didn't stay long enough on the bull (and we didn't have a really good view of them).

Run for dear life!

They also had a rodeo clown who was actually really funny and entertained us in between the events.

One of my favorite shows was the one with Texas longhorns performed by “One Armed Bandit”. The rider rounded up these beautiful animals on the top of a huge trailer!

They are beautiful and mighty beasts!

I just love the pattern on their backs

Holly cow! Really!

We had a great time!

I took this picture at sunset during the rodeo. I just love it!

Utah Jazz Summer League

One of the things I have missed about living in Utah is watching Utah Jazz games.  Yulia and I went to a few games together after we were married.  We enjoyed watching them on television when they played.  During graduate school I couldn't afford to have the NBA league pass that would have allowed me to watch games from Iowa.  I thought about getting League Pass last year, but since the games are 10-13 hours behind my time, they come right at the time that I am starting work.  I may get the pass so I can watch the games on delay this year.

Watching the game!

The Jazz re-started their summer league (the former Rocky Mountain Review) this year.  I bought tickets for the six of us plus my nephew Luke, who is a big basketball fan, to go to the first night of the summer league.  The tickets were very reasonable - about 8 dollars for lower bowl tickets for two games.

We left Payson at about 3:00 and picked up Luke in Springville.  We drove to Salt Lake and parked at the City Creek Mall.  We ate Chick-fil-A for dinner and then had to wait out a torrential downpour for a few minutes.  When it had mostly passed, we caught the TRAX train to the Energy Solutions Arena (The Old Delta Center) for the game.  We were part of the first 5000 fans so we each received a nice water bottle.  Our seats were good - about twenty rows up behind one of the baskets.  The arena is really nice with new big screens that made catching replays very nice.

The kids are really into the games!

We missed about 10 minutes of the first game - Boston vs. San Antonio, but were able to watch the rest of the game.  The kids had a lot of fun.  After the first game, Yulia took the kids and bought them Cotton Candy and Popcorn to eat - they were in heaven!  We were really excited to see the Jazz team.  We were able to see Dante Exum before he got hurt (and he later tore his ACL playing for Australia, so he'll be out for the season) and Rodney Hood.  The game was very exciting and the Jazz beat the Boston Celtics.

View form our seat.  Look at how nice the screens are.

First game; Spurs vs. Magic

So much cotton candy.  Such happy kids!

Sophie working hard at finishing her cotton candy.

The stadium filled up quite well for the Jazz game.

More action from Jazz vs. Celtics

More game action.

Halftime entertainment was the Jazz dunk team.  They go off trampolines and are quite impressive and fun.

Summersault dunk!

After the game we walked back to City Creek and drove home - we were home by about 11:00.  It was a very fun time.  The kids got to experience the excitement of the basketball game - they loved the Jazz Bear and were yelling at the other team.  During the first game they chose to cheer for Orlando over San Antonio so we could cheer against each other.  We had a great time.  It's something we would like to do again if we are in town during the Utah Jazz Summer League.

Summer Vacation in Utah - Hike to Grotto Falls (Payson Canyon)

Sometime in July we went on this awesome little hike to Grotto Falls which happened to be located on the Nebo Scenic Loop, which is just a 10-minute drive from Payson where we were staying. I first found out about the Grotto Falls from an article that listed the six most adventurous family friendly trails in Utah. This particular trail is short (about one mile round trip) and easy enough even for a 3 year old child but adventurous enough to be exciting even for the experienced adults. The entire hike you have to cross the tree trunk bridges over a rushing small river until you finally arrive at the beautiful waterfall. We loved it!

Hiking to Grotto Falls

Crossing the river over the tree trunk bridge.

And another crossing (I love this worried look on Nika's face, she is our worrier)

And some more river crossing.

And some more crossing!

And here we are - the Grotto Falls!

Here is Spencer giving instructions to Nika on how to take a good picture of the two of us.

This hike has two different areas to view the waterfall. You can see it from the bottom and also from the top. You will have to scramble a bit to get to the top but it is a great adventure of its own, and we gladly took it. 

Lexa climbing to the top of the fall. It was a pretty steep climb!

At the top!

A view of a waterfall from the top.

I love these beautiful pine trees all around!

Climbing down was a bit more difficult but exciting.

Lexa and Sophie - our little adventure buddies.

Skipping over the rocks

 I am really happy we discovered this short trail and I highly recommend it to any nature lovers out there. It has a lot to offer and it will only take an hour or two out of your busy schedules. Bring your kids, bring your pets and just have fun!