Fun Things!

I wanted to write about a couple of fun things Mike and I have been to in the past couple of months.

First, we went to the Festival of Colors back in March. It was so much fun! The music was great, everyone was so fun and nice to each other.

                         

Here's what their website says about the history of it:

"Holi is the Festival of Colors, a traditional Indian holiday celebrated in our own innovative fashion.  By far our biggest festival of the year, during Holi 2011 50,000 revelers flooded the temple and grounds for 2 days day of brightly colored powder, mantra, music and a bit of "holi" mayhem.

The Holi Festival takes its name from an evil witch who lived thousands of years ago. Her name was Holika. She had a boon not be burned even if she stepped into fire. She misused this benediction to burn many babies by carrying them into fires. However, when she tried to do the same to a five year old Krishna devotee named Prahlad, she got burned instead, while Prahlad emerged from the fire unharmed. Prahlad's constant habit was to chant the names of God, Hare Krishna Hare Krshna Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. Thus taking shelter of the Lord through His Holy Names the Supreme protected him." Read more at http://utahkrishnas.org. 

Just a few minutes after we had entered the vicinity of the Krishna Temple

After the throwing of all of the colors!

This was such a fun thing to do, and I would totally recommend it. People even brought their little kids to it! I really want to go next year too. (Hopefully I can convince Mike to go with me again!

A couple of weeks ago, we also had a really fun date night! I've wanted to go hang out downtown for awhile now, and we had the perfect opportunity. First, we went to Lamb's Grill on Main Street. I remember going there when I was younger with my mom before we went and saw a ballet. I've always wanted to go back, and we finally did! The atmosphere inside was so fun, with dim lighting, fun booths, and a lounge singer serenading us throughout the dinner. 

Outside Lamb's Grill

We then took a walk down the block to Keys on Main. It's a dueling piano bar! Basically you write down what you want the pianist to sing/play, and if you give them more money, they're more likely to play your song. If you hate the song, you can outbid the previous bid and have them play that song instead. It got a bit adult towards the middle of it, but the artists are so hilarious, and so talented that they can just play things just at a moment's notice!

Drinking my Miami Vice! (Strawberry/Pina Colada-non alcoholic, much to our waitress' dismay :D)

I hope that Mike and I have lots of fun date nights ahead of us! If anyone has any ideas they would like to share about what you do, please let me know!

Institute, Here I Come...Again!

So, I have really waited until the 11th hour to register for the teacher training for the Suzuki method this summer. I am finally doing it though! I've put it off for so many years because I was afraid of going through with it, and also being judged.  I started playing when I was 5 years old, and I've always felt that I had to live up to some expectation of what others felt about my so-called "talent". I really think now is the time that I need to have a little faith in myself as so many others do.

Me at one of my first institutes

I still am quite afraid though, because I haven't sent in my audition tape yet.  I have to play a couple of songs and the Suzuki Association of the America's has to approve it if I'm going to get credit for the class. I'm just going to try to get qualified to teach the lower books, and that means I have to play two songs from Book 4.  This may sound easy, and it should be, but I am having a hard time finding my fingering and my technique is not up to par. I'm just hoping I'm being rough on myself and it will all end up being okay.  It's just awful to think that when I was in 2nd Grade, I was able to play these songs perfectly, and now at age 26, I'm having a rough go of it. Here's to hoping everything will turn out for the best! Wish me luck!

Pizza and Dominion and Zombies, oh my!

Tonight Mike and I had a couple of neighbors come over to play some games!
First, we had some great pizza from our backyard pizza neighbors, Mountain Mike's. 

Then we introduced the Jackson's to one of our favorite games, Zombies.  It's a dice/board game where you try to collect 20 zombies or reach the helipad for safety to win the game. K won that one...

Then the Jackson's introduced us to a really fun card game called Dominion. There's a lot involved with it, so I'm not going to go into details here, but I really liked it!  L won that game.  Apparently our house is good luck to those that visit it!
Fun family night all around!