Folkfest Week

 Anyone that knows me, knows how much I LOVE the Springville World Folkfest. It is an event each year when folk dancers come from all over the world to dance on the stage in Springville.  I have grown up with the folkfest, and it is something that really makes me happy.  What's even better than going EVERY night (yes, I do that) is actually hosting dancers in your home.

 We have had dancers from Thailand, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia(that is how long we have been hosting), Belgium, Poland, Albania, and New Zealand again. After we all graduated, my mom became part of the Folkfest Board rather than a hosting family.  

Because I no longer worked, my mom and I wanted to host again thinking my kids would LOVE it! All we had to do was get my dad on board!  With some convincing we were able to host!!! Out of the 7 countries that were able to get visas to come we end up with Australia. We all had a good laugh about it, but it ended up being an AMAZING week. My kids ate up EVERYTHING folkfest! 

So this post is to quickly show what we were able to do with our guest! Our dancers names were Kiehana, Hannah, and Cindy. They all live in Perth, but the two younger girls are from the Broome and the Kimberly region.

They arrived Sunday afternoon, and it was a pretty low key day. 

Then Monday we took them to Bridal Veil Falls.  

Already by this point, my little lady's man had attached himself to Kiehana.  

On the car ride home from the falls he leaned over and said "Kiehana, I think you are beautiful". 

From left to right

Cindy, P, R, me, Kiehana, Hannah, and Jared

 We took the little hike to the bottom of the falls.

Which we actually had never done before! 

 Then we came home and introduced them to S'mores.

 We also had our wonderful neighbors who volunteered to host dancers 1 hour before they arrived (bless their hearts)!!!

 Then it was the street dance. 

The groups teach a few counts of a dance to the crowd. 

It is always a blast. 

I had to leave early because my little man was tired and mean!

 The Americans teaching boot scoot and boogie!

 Tuesday was a picnic with all the host families and dancers, but it was cut SUPER short because of the rain! Hence, no pictures! Then shopping!

Wednesday we went to Park City. It was actually CRAZY rainy. It kind-of ruined our plans and we had to make some quick changes to see things inside. So we hit up the Olympic Park.

 They actually had some aerialists jumping into the pool which was cool to watch. And we also saw 10 year olds doing ski jumping. 

 They rode a motion ride.  Then walked down main street in Park City.

 And like I said before, even when we aren't hosting I LOVE going every night, because the dances are different almost every night!

R was already a huge fan, but I think this was the year that we won P over!

 Kiehana

 Some of the girls

 Hannah

 Cindy and her sister Karla in the brown and black.

 The first night, P waved the entire time the Australian group was on stage! 

It was so cute!

 Thursday, no pictures because we went to 7 Peaks Water Park.

Friday they performed at a retirement home. Then we hosted an Australian group BBQ for the dancers and their host families. 

Saturday we hit up Temple Square. 

My kids were best friends with the girls by this point. 

 Then we headed up the mountain to Snow Bird. 

We rode the tram to the top (Cindy was seriously this scared)...

 ...took some pictures...

 ...hiked through the beautiful wild flowers, which we found out Kiehana is deathly afraid of butterflies, oops not the best places to go...

 ...and rode the chair lift back to the bottom.

 On the final night of the Folkfest, Australia's group invited their host families to get dressed up and painted, and join them on stage. R took this VERY seriously. It was SO great! I do have to say she looked so dang cute! I snapped this picture while she was waiting for their cue to go on stage. 

 R and Cindy on stage

 They even pulled my mom up

These were most of the dancers, both from Australia and their host families.

This is R with Cindy and Hannah, and 2 of our neighbors kids. 

Christian and Porter.

 I actually have a love/hate relationship with hosting. 

I LOVE hosting and HATE saying goodbye.

Almost EVERYONE was crying. P handled it by acting mad and wouldn't do anything except lay on my shoulder.  R surprised me. No tears...that is to say until we got home, then she had a total meltdown. She still had her paint on her face from the night before, and she refused to get in the shower because it would come off. 

That night we had family over for dinner and they all 

reenacted the Australian group at the folkfest.

I even had to paint their faces like them!

P acting like Phil who plays the didgeridoo.  

I am more than over the moon that my kids were able to experience the Folkfest. Their relationships they made, the culture (yes they were from Australia, but Aboriginal culture), and the memories are priceless. I just wish that we could be around to do it next year. Who knows?

Also, I am more than happy to say that our amazing neighbors who jumped up and volunteered with only an hour before they arrived are more than excited to be a host family next year. They are sold on the idea and LOVED every minute of the folkfest!