Trip to Utah - Part 1

We had a fun summer but then life happened - a very busy life - and we got out of the habit writing about our experiences. We’ll try to catch up quickly.

After we got back from our trip to Eastern Europe we had about 10 days to catch up on things at home and then we took a 3-week trip to Utah to visit our family there. This was probably the first time when we had so many adventures getting there. Chicago experienced a huge rain storm right before we got there and was so backed up that they canceled most of the flights out including the flight to Salt Lake City that we were supposed to take. They rerouted us trough San Francisco but the flight wasn’t until the next morning, so we had to spend the night in Chicago. When we got to San Francisco, the jet-way wouldn’t connect to our plane for a long time so we missed out flight to Salt Lake City. United didn’t have any flights out for the same day which all six of us could be on, so they bought us tickets on Delta. Finally 30 hours later than expected we made it to Utah!

Gingerbread cookie gift from Lufthansa, which was celebrating 25 years of service to Astana.

Waiting for our flight to Frankfurt in Astana's new airport terminal

Chicago - waiting for our flight after spending the night in a hotel after our flight was cancelled the day before.

We had a lot of fun with our family and friends there. This time around we decided not to take any additional trips anywhere else but just stay in Utah. I think by July we were already tired of all of the traveling we’d done so far and just wanted to stay in one place for a change.

I think the first outing we did was to the convention center in Sandy to see the floats that were going to be participating in the 24^th of July Parade in Salt Lake City. There were so many fun floats but most of us voted for one particular one that ended up winning the first place!

Looking at floats with Oma.

The varieties of floats were very interesting.

This was the winning float.  It had a working flour mill and sawmill on it.

One of the most fun things we did while in Utah was getting together with our long-time friends Nicole and Steve and their family that we haven’t seen in 5 years. We lived in Iowa City together and became fast friends! Our kids went to the same school, even the same class. Then life took them to Texas and us to Las Vegas first and then to Kazakhstan. This was the first time when at least for one day we ended up at the same place at the same time! We decided to get together at one of the parks up the Provo Canyon, and it was like those five years never happened! We love you, guys!

Kids doing kid stuff together.

Having fun hiking on the trail together....it's a very developed trail.

The adults being grown up.

Great picture of the crew together.

The kids sat at their own table when we went to eat.

Nicole and me - five years and we haven't missed a beat.

The same day we met with Steve and Nicole, we went to the Spanish Fork Rodeo and we brought Oma and Burl, Shellee, and Brennen with us. We went to this rodeo 2 years ago and really enjoyed it, and this time around was no different.

Waiting for the action to begin.

Bronco busting!

Barrel racing was awesome.

Bull riding never disappoints.  The bulls were very aggressive.

The next few days was the Willardson Family Reunion most of which we spent at various places in Ephraim. Cousins had fun swimming at the Palisade Park, and fishing at the Community Canyon Reservoir as well as well as playing games at the hotel, eating at the Fat Jack's Pizza (now Roy's Pizza) and the next day having a lunch and a talent show at Ben’s house in Springville.

Boy cousins - our girls not pictured :) - at Palisade Reservoir

Girl cousins minus Tess (working cherries) and Aubree (on her mission in Peru).

Ephraim canyon on the way to the community reservoir.

At the skyline - we missed the turnoff, and hit the peak of the mountain where there was still snow in July!

Fishing at Community (Spring Hill)

Picnic lunch at the Ephraim Park - playing pioneer bingo with Oma.

To be continued...

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!