Summer in the West!

There are some things that being in the West is really enjoyable. Some of those include hiking in the mountains and the endless fields of grain.

I was able to spend several hours hiking in the mountains just behind the while temple in Provo. The two jagged mountains meet in a steep cavern and there is a small stream that brings out the melting snow. I had fun hiking and having a great conversation among the shade of the trees.

I forgot how blue the sky in the desert can be without all of the humidity and clouds to grey the scene.

Next to the sky tall mountains there are acres and acres of green crop fields. Last week I made the trip from Utah up to Idaho. Talk about mountains and fields…it was endless. Although the sunsets and sunrises were beautiful—another part of living in the desert that I had forgotten.

Rexburg, ID LDS Temple

So those of you that are looking for an outdoor place to visit—you are welcome to enjoy the mountains and the sunsets with us. 

Provo City Saturday Farmer’s Market

Lady Hiva and I both needed our Saturday  market fix, Istanbul really spoiled us. We were so happy to find out that Provo City does a Farmer’s Market on Saturdays in the big city park in the middle of town. We decided to go check it out.

It may not be as crowded or full of fresh vegetables as the market we enjoyed in Istanbul, but it had some vegetables and some really great prepared food. There were crepes (cheaper than Farmer’s Markets in Northern Virginia), fresh French macarons (two different booths of them) that were so delicious, popcorn popped fresh (wasn’t my favorite, but Lady Hiva was so happy they sold large bags of it! I may never understand), and we had some homemade tamales made by a small Mexican family who had set up a cute little table for us to enjoy the food under a tree.  Other foods we could have enjoyed had we not eaten right before we went included a brick oven pizza truck, cotton candy, chocolates Hawaiian Shave Ice, and a taco truck.  

We had so much fun walking around and seeing the booths manned by families who have worked to provide food or craft products. It was amazing to watch them proudly talk about all of the details of whatever they have to sell. We admired wood crafts, smelled scented candles, looked at some…creative…art and listened to the groups of elderly people playing music. 

We had a good time. As the summer moves on we hope to see more vegetable and fruit options—again we realized that besides the quirkiness at times, we thought that moving to Utah may just be alright after all.

Sand Castles By the Lake

This weekend there was wonderfully sunny weather! (for most of the weekend anyway, it did rain so much there was flooding problems). We took advantage of the warm weather and went to the Utah Lake Festival.

This annual festival is geared towards bringing people to Utah Lake—the large fresh water lake in the valley south of the Great Salt Lake. There were booths for children, fishing, educational booths and activity after activity.

Tau’aho loved playing all the games they had at the booths and was entranced by the tractor hay ride and the many little fisher people in the area. I had to laugh as we walked around and overheard the families converse about fishing. From the little boys who were so excited to tell their dad that the fish he caught were “cute!” to the parents who were trying to convince their children that the patience required to catch a fish is actually worth it. I had to sympathize with these kids because I was always one that became bored and ended up swimming before long—much to the exasperation to the dedicated fishers in the family who claimed I was ‘scaring the fish’ my retort was that I was scaring the fish TOWARDS them!

I also heard two young teenage brothers fishing and must have been there for awhile because as I walked by the youngest said, “I am determined to catch one!” The oldest one laughed and said, “I am determined too, buddy.” What a great brother.

Lucky boy loved the sun and the sand. He destroyed the castles that several children left in the hours before us and then liked learning how to dig with a shovel. But most of all he liked to throw rocks into the water.

Utah Lake is not nearly as sparkly or clear as the waters of Hawaii or as breathtakingly beautiful as the Bosphorus, but it is nice to have a body of water nearby to enjoy. We liked the festival, there were plenty of children and one thing about being in Utah is they know how to entertain children! hehe…while this move has been a constant culture shock, there are some reasons we are really grateful we are here. Some of that is being around family. We have had water balloon fights with cousins, rode horses with uncles and pet baby puppies with grandma.