Holi Festival of Colors

Every year in Spanish Fork the Krsna Temple holds their annual Holi Festival of Color.   The festival is held in the end of March, and is free and open to the public.  Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter season on the last full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna, so you will want to check the exact weekend it will be held.
The spectacle of the event is unlike anything you will ever see.  The powered color that flys into the air, and covers everyone is truly amazing!  Most children will love going to this event.  Kids will love the energy, and enjoy that they can throw powder at anyone and everyone.  You will be covered from head to toe with color.  Going to to the festival is like taking a trip to the wild side, it's crazy, it's dirty, and a whole like of fun!

Krishna Temple
8628 S State Road.
Spanish Fork, Utah

Link 2012 Festival of Color:
http://www.utahkrishnas.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=100&Itemid=190

Link Krsna Temple:
http://www.utahkrishnas.com/

Tips:

• Wear white!  Why not! It displays the color the best, and your kids will get a kick out of the rainbow color your shirt, and face turns.
• Buy packs of color before the festival.  They DO sell out, and the whole fun of it is having color.  Colors go on sale the first of March and are $2.50 a package, or you can buy 6 for $10. 
• BRING water to drink. If your kids get color in their mouths it's icky, and they will want to wash their mouths out! 
• You could bring clear goggles to protect eyes from the dust.
• Make a day out of it. Plan on getting lunch or dinner at the festival.  Get drinks and enjoy the music.
• There is parking behind the temple or you can pay $2 a person to ride a shuttle from one of many areas.
• Plan on getting plastered with color.  If you don't like color dust in your ears, wear ear plus.  You can wear eye protection as well.  Getting it in your mouth and nose isn't too bad, just plan on it.
• The color won't come out of what you wear.  This includes shoes, and pants and jackets.  We left our coats in the car, and wore warm white clothing.  You might want to find clothing items that you are planning on giving away.  That way you can just get rid of it instead of washing it.
• Blond hair will dye the colors you get on it.  I wish I had a suggestion other than wearing a shower cap, but I don't.  I didn't mind my hair pink for a few days. 
• Take a camera you don't mind getting covered with dust.  I actually put mine in a plastic bag, and cut out an opening for the lense. 
• As a parent, I tried not to make too many rules for my kids. This can be a really fun event.  Try to allow the kids to have fun.  My only rule was "Don't throw color directly into someones face. Throw it above them, or near them, but don't throw in faces."  That rule didn't really stand, but don't ruin the day by getting annoyed.
• It can be really cold, dress warm.  The ground was also muddy and slippery, wear shoes that have good traction.    
• Think about taking extra clothes to change into.
• Take bottled water to wash out your mouth, ears and eyes.  
• Take garbage bags, sheets, or blankets to cover your car seats. 
• If you have a thing about getting dirty, DON'T GO.  It won't be fun.  

Above all HAVE FUN!  This can be such a fun and crazy experience!  RELAX and Just let go and enjoy! This isn't a time to keep clean, it's time to have fun! The whole point of the color festival is that everyone that has fun, and begins to look the same.  The color of your hair and skin doesn't matter anymore, you are all the same!

Resort Skiing

Utah has some of the best skiing in the world.  There isn't a better place to teach your kids how to learn how to ski.  Skiing is a perfect family activity.  You get to get outdoors, and you get to slide on snow, how cool is that!  As long as you have planned ahead for cold finger and toes, and make it something fun to remember you will have an amazing time skiing.  If you are teaching your kids for the first time to ski.  Plan to only make a few runs.  Skiing can be hard to learn, along with the cold and wet, kids can become really resistant to wanting ski.  We have been skiing with my children for over five years and here are some of my tricks:

• Plan to arrive early, it will take double what you expect to get yourself and the kids ready. 
• Layering your clothing.  On cold days plan on having multiple layers; base or termal, turtle neck, sweater/sweat shirt, coat.  If you get too warm take something off. 
• Even on sunny days, it can be extremly cold.  
• Bring goggles, face masks, and scarfs.  The warmer you keep your children, the better time they will have. 
• Use a ski edgie weggie for kids.  Best investment you can get for a beginner skiier.  http://www.amazon.com/Ski-Teaching-Products-LLC-Wedgie/dp/B001N0Y7ZU
• Would not suggest SkiTies to helps kids learn to ski.  If your child crashes, you can easily ski over your child, and injure them.  This is from experience!  
• Take a backpack!  Helps carry all your gear, including hand warmers.
• Take an extra pair of gloves for kids. They always seem to get them wet.
• Bring a water bottle full of warm water to drink.
• Always have a back up! If you are skiing with kid always have one adult stay behind everyone.  Normally we have one person with the pack and one person always behind the group. 
• Take a two way radio.  Sometimes, in certain areas you phone will not work, and you want to be able to get in touch with your group.
• If you think your child is injured, call the ski patrol and have them take your child down the mountain.  Don't be afraid to ask for help! At age 4 my child had a sprial tibia fracture. We knew he was hurt, but didn't know how bad until the xray.  Don't assume your child can still ski after a crash.
• If your kids get cold, don't push to go another run.  Go inside and warm up!  It's no fun to ski cold.  Kids bodies are much more suitable to the cold, and honestly their equiptment is not the same as adults.  You may not be cold, but if they are, make it a fun experience by warming up.
• A lot of times when it is snowing hard Little Cottonwood closes the canyon.   You might not get up.  If you are in the Canyon you might get stuck up there for hours!
• Bring treats and hot water in a thermas.  Make hot drinks and eat a snack after skiing.   If you are skiing at Alta, hanging out after skiing is really nice.  The lower ski resort, Snowbird, ends skiing at the same time, and you can be stuck in traffic for over an hour. 

Best Resort Skiing:

• Alta Ski Resort: Best Beginner skiing.  The slop of the beginner trails is the best for kids to learn on.  They are not too steep.  They have a green hill right next to a trees trail.  The older, or more advanced riders can ski the trees, while the less adventurous kids can still ski the groomed routes.  Good for kids. If you choose to skip ski school and teach your children yourself Alta Ski Resort is my top pick.  Alta has a Ski after 3 program.  The cost is $10 for the after 3 card, every day after that is $5.  You can also purchase a season pass for $25.  It runs from 3pm-4:30pm.  It is an easy way to take your kids skiing.  http://www.alta.com/pages/skifreeafter3.php 
• Solitude: Perfect for both beginner and advanced.  They have multiple runs that have both extreme runs, and advanced.  Their beginner runs are great, a little steep for the first years of skiing.  Good for children who are good at skiing.
•  Brighton: Best snowboarding resort.  They have rails, stairs, and a huge half pipe.  This resort is not a good resort to learn to ski at.  Your kids need to know how to ski before you ski here.  Not good for kids that are learning, there are too many out of control snowboarders!  I love snowboarding, Brighton has great snowboarders.  They are just not really careful around kids that are learning.  If you are teaching your child to snowboard, this would be a great resort.  They have long trails with easy runs.   Brighton has the BEST night skiing! 
• Snowbird: Best adventure resort.  This resort is steep! If you like steep runs, then this is the resort for you.  The tram is really nice to ride to the summit.  Kids need to be good skiers, or at least really like skiing.
• Canyons Resort: Great for both skiing and snowboarding.  Big wide runs make this resort excellent for both skiier and snowboarder.  Great for beginners.  Good for kids.  Canyons would be my top pick for teaching snowboarders.  
• Deer Valley:  Best skiing ever!  This resort has it all.  Most senic of all resorts.  Best variety of easy and advanced runs.  Quick loading on every lift.  Best variety of places to eat.   Good for kids, but is pricey if they only want to do a few funs! 
• Sundance: Basic resort, not a lot of ski runs.  Has some very senic overlooks.  You can infact see Robert Redford skiing here!!!  (a lot!)  Good for kids.
• Snowbasin: STEEP, Lots of variety of runs.  Wide open runs, lots of space!

HAVE FUN!