Kite festival

Okay, so I'm still surprised I got only two comments on Disneyland suggestions. Please, keep 'em coming. Those were great ideas, and I'd love more ...

Anyway, this weekend we got to attend the first-ever kite festival in Spanish Fork. (Actually, I think they eventually settled on the name "Sky Spectacular" but whatever.) What is it about kites? They really are just exciting! They put to use some of this crazy wind we constantly have in Spanish Fork.

The festival was planned as a kick-off event for nine HUGE (>400 feet) wind-powered windmills/turbines that will create energy ... although not energy that we will use here in Spanish Fork. (They are owned by a different company than what we use in Spanish Fork.) We're still waiting for all nine windmills to be going at once, but they are exciting to see (behind Shayla in this photo from our hike to the cross):



Anyway, we decided to go to the festival on Friday to try to avoid some of the ribbon-cutting ceremony crowds on Saturday. They had free kites for the kids to make that were just cool, and they worked really well. We went up with Hilary and her girls, so here are the kites they all made:


We were on the ridge of the mountain, and we got some pretty good wind. The kites were easy to get going, so the kids LOVED them! Here are my kids flying around with theirs.

Zachary:


Tyler:


Shayla actually got her kite into the air a few times, but I included this photo since you can see her cute little face. At one point I saw a woman sitting down clicking tons of pictures of Shayla. I figured she was probably a reporter, but just in case I called Shayla over to me. The woman then came over and said she was indeed a reporter and asked if she could use Shayla's pic in the newspaper. I love when other people realize how cute my kids are. :) Anyway, she did look cute trying to fly that kite, just like my boys (who the reporter also snapped a few pics of):


(This part for Hilary only: Look at the kids' kites they were giving to the kids on Saturday! I'm so glad we went on Friday!!!)


They had some really huge, cool kites there with expert kite-flyers. Unfortunately on Friday there wasn't tons of wind, so they only got the octopus up for about 30 seconds, and they never got the 100-foot cat in the air. However, I was quick enough to get a pic of the octopus, and I went back on Saturday to try to catch the cat, but it wasn't even there on Saturday. (You can see it on the ground by the octopus):


However, on Saturday there was a kite of a woman swimming that was just AWESOME! She really looked like she was swimming, and gracefully at that. Being in the blue sky and seeing the mountain behind her almost makes it really look like she was in the ocean with rocks she was scuba diving around. Oh, and I nearly forgot to mention that there were two small shark kites attached to her to look like they were following her:


Here are Tyler and Zachary in front of a little cove of kites they had:


They also had guys on jet skis on the reservoir to do kites over the water. That was awesome to watch. When I look at these pictures, I relate very well to John Denver's song, "Rocky Mountain High." How can you not LOVE living in the Rocky Mountains when you see pictures like this?


Because the event was a kick-off for clean energy, they also had all kinds of other vendors there, including Smart Cars and others like it:


I also had my first chance to ride a Segway. I've always wondered what it would be like to ride them, and they really are easy. (I guess this depends on whether or not you usually keep your balance. I do, so it was easy. I think I've found an extremely fun way to be lazy! :) The police departments around here are getting into buying them for crowded events. Doesn't make sense to me, but they sure are a fun way to spend tax-payers' dollars! My boys were bummed they couldn't try one (you had to be 16), but Tyler got a picture of me on one:


We're sure hoping that next year they have the event again. I know they were overwhelmed by the response -- when I went back on Saturday morning I had a brief conversation with one of the organizers, and she had been up until 2 a.m. printing off more maps (of vendor locations) and getting supplies to make the alternative children's kite after running out of the cool ones my kids got to make. I guess on Friday alone they had 1,700 cars. What do you expect when it's a really cool event in a beautiful location and is totally free?!? I think next time they'll get it ... hopefully! :)