Lunar New Year 2023

The Lunar New Year was on January 22 this year. Year of the Rabbit.

The night before, the mall had fireworks which the kids listened to.

Jr. Jr., Jr., Nichole, and I made a trip to Salt Lake City the evening of the New Year while Jeremy made Chinese food for us. We then ate that yummy food for the next few days. 

We went for an event at the Conference Center. It was cold and snowy while we were in Salt Lake City and we walked a lot because I didn't want to pay for parking on a Sunday and I didn't realize how many free spots were closer to our destination. It's been a while since I've been up to Salt Lake City.

Jr. Jr. did get his first ride on TRAX, though.

On a trip to the Orem Library another day, Jet and I saw the dragon the librarians made for the Lunar New Year. Some of the scales had been decorated by children at the library.

Jeremy got to build some balloon sculptures.

We have yet to eat fortune cookies because I keep forgetting to get them out of the pantry. But here are a couple fortunes Jeremy got.

Luz de Las Naciones

Who wants to make a trip to Salt Lake City?

I do!

Saturday, we made a trip to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.  We went for "Luz de Las Naciones" cultural event called "My Family. Mi Herencia."  It was "an evening celebrating families, heritage, and latino culture."
Now I don't have latino roots like a lot of people who were in the conference center that night, but I sure can appreciate beauty and there was so much beauty in that event and in the culture represented.  Again, all of us on Earth are children of God so we do have that common heritage and that is also beautiful. 
It was a beautiful night with a beautiful program.  We enjoyed watching it live but they are rebroadcasting it on lds.org right now.  Here is the link.
Jeremy had the opportunity to build some giant (10-14' tall) balloon puppets for this event.  They danced on stage with the other dancers.  That was a lot of fun to watch (and can be seen on the broadcast).  He also built a balloon bouquet like a balloon vendor would hold to hand out balloons.  The balloons looked helium, but they weren't.

There was so much talent to see that night- great music, great singing, great dancing, great balloons, and everyone else who put so much work into it.  Well done on the sound and lighting and sets and just everything.  I'm so glad we went, even if the kids didn't get to bed until really late that night.  We had to stick around after the show for Jeremy to get some of his gear to bring home, then he had to find us in the auditorium (you know the Conference Center is huge, right?) when they made us move from the place he left us when he went backstage (they were really nice about it, though- they were just trying to clear the auditorium after the show).  He kept coming back onstage from backstage and looking around for us then going backstage again.  I was worried he was going to leave a different way and we wouldn't know how to find him.  Finally he came down off the stage and we chased him down before he left.  Phew.  Then we had to drive all the way home and eat something.  Yeah, it was a late night.  But it was so cool.  I am so glad we went.

Skyscraper Day 2012

Today, September 3rd, is Skyscraper Day.  We started off our celebration last night by reading a book called, "Just Me and 6,000 Rats: a tale of conjunctions," written by Rick Walton, illustrated by Mike Gordon and Carl Gordon.  In it the main character and 6,000 rats take a trip to the big city and see the skyscrapers. 
Around here, the big city is Salt Lake City, and we don't go there very often.  Jeremy does more often than we do for shows.  Well, it just so happened that he was scheduled to twist balloons today at City Creek, the new mall in downtown Salt Lake City.  He'd been wanting to show us the mall anyway and since today is also Labor Day, the kids didn't have school.  So... we all made the trip to Salt Lake City to see the skyscrapers on Skyscraper Day.

The mall is neat.  Besides the normal shops you would find at a mall, it also has a creek running through it and different fountains, some of which were designed by the same people who created the Ballagio Fountains in Las Vegas. 

Every hour on the hour one of those fountains shoots water in time to music (like the Bellagio Fountains do). 

 (See the skyscraper in the background of that first picture?  Yep.  It helps the celebrating when the mall is surrounded by those buildings.)

Another of those fountains is like a splash pad encouraging kids to play and get soaked, and help Mom be creative when she is not properly prepared with enough clothes for them to change into.

Next time, I need to remember to change them into bathing suits before sending them into the water (and bring an extra pair of shorts for Nichole).  I think I underestimated how wet they were actually going to get.

Nichole was bummed when I made her get out, but Jr. was shivering from being so wet and I really wanted to get him changed into something a little warmer.

Jr. Jr. was too intimidated by the water so he had fun climbing up a side that was slanted and sliding back down.

 He also had fun just being cute while Jeremy made balloons nearby.

 

The kids and I also did some wandering around the mall, but the water was the highlight.

When we got home, we watched some of Batman: The Animated Series because Gotham City has skyscrapers and we watched The Muppets because Los Angeles also has skyscrapers.

Yeah, fun celebrating.