Timpanogos Storytelling Weekend in August 2014

Y'know, I've never been to the Timpanogos Storytelling Festival until this year.  You'd think I would have been to at least one event, seeing as I grew up in the birthplace of the festival, but even so, I've never been, not even for a school field trip.  Anyhow, I thought that I would give it a try, and it sounded like a good opportunity for my kids to have an educational field trip.  So, at the end of August, after public school had begun, my girls and I packed up for a week-long excursion to my hometown, Orem. 

The festival ran from Wednesday through Saturday and it was fantastic, and such a great experience for us all.  Because we homeschool, we got in a for a slightly discounted rate, too.

We invited Steve's parents to join us one day.  Steve's mom took us up on the offer and joined us for part of the day, then Steve's dad came to pick her up after lunch.  We saw jugglers.

And puppet shows!

The girls enjoyed the stories, also. 

We met up with Joe and Missy's family for dinner one night.  We went to Costa Vida, a first for me.  It was yummy food.  Lily liked the chips and queso, and I liked my pork salad. 

And I liked getting to share this meal with some of my darling nieces and nephews.

One night, we got to go to the Scera Shell Outdoor theater for a night of "bedtime stories."  It was really fun.  My girls actually were really good listeners and even when I thought they weren't listening, they would laugh and respond at the witty remarks/jokes. 

We stayed at my dad's house, and enjoyed our time visiting with my dad and Debby when the time permitted.  We even got to give Abby a bath.  My girls were in heaven!

My dad always spoils us with yummy food. The girls enjoyed the breakfast of pancakes with whip cream and chocolate sauce!

Then, the festival concluded with an event called Laughin' night. Dad and Debby had tickets to that, so we all went together. It really was so funny! We loved hearing Antonio Rocha talk about his experience on a safari in Africa. There's also a really talented little boy who talked about is dad eating chicken wings and his eyes swelling up.  There were also some storytellers that used music along with the storytelling, which was really cool.

We went to bed happy. Then we woke up happy to these tasty breakfast sandwiches known as the egg Mcdaddy!  My dad made these at a youth conference, when I was a youth, and they were a huge hit with all the kids at that summer camp.

We celebrated Malia's birthday, since she was out of town for it. Lily and Amara and Malia put on a play for us on the side yard, and then we had cake and ice cream.

Happy birthday Malia!