Holi - Festival of Colors - Take 10

10 years going to the Festival of Colors! I must love it. ha ha. It's true. It is a fun festival that for some reason I haven't gotten sick of and I continue to find people to go with me every year. Not sure how much longer that will last. Last year, I went with Stacey. This year Kyle went with me. I love that about Kyle. He is always up for whatever adventure of festival I want to go to.

Every year my face looks different. It is like new art every year. ha ha. This is what my face ended up looking like this time.

Kyle and I enjoyed hanging out and taking pictures. It's what we both love to do. We stayed for a couple of throwings and then went home to clean up. Always a fun and positive festival.

This year, this was my best shot. And guess what? It ended up getting featured on WeRUtah Instagram account. It has A TON of followers. Since they have featured me a couple of other times, they gave me my own hashtag. ha ha. I felt special. Happy Spring! Happy Holi!

Holi - Festival of Colors - Take 9

This last weekend I was back at the Festival of Colors. Can you believe I have gone to the festival for almost a decade? I can't. I didn't go last year, otherwise this would be 10 years... but here is the post of the last one that I went to.

This time I went with Stacey. It was his first time. We didn't spend a ton of time there... we mostly just went with an agenda. I actually convinced Stacey to do dancing through Utah with me... and this was one of the places on my list of places I wanted to get in the video, so we went to one color throwing and then we danced and then we left. Still fun though, but it's always a fun time with Stacey. I'm just thrilled he agreed to do the video with me and that we have started!

I didn't take this picture... but I LOVE it. Great capture from someone else that took it at this years festival.

I didn't take a ton of pictures this year, but these ones are my favorite from this year. I have never gone in all white before, but Stacey and I both did for the video. People LOVED putting color on our all white clothes... people can't resist. We were all colored in no time. Stacey decorated my face. Ha!

Holi Crap! I Didn't Go!

Yesterday was Holi.... also known as the Festival of Colors. I had it in my calendar. I always do because I always go. I don't need a Facebook reminder telling me when it is because I have gone for so many years... I know.

However, this year I didn't go. *See what I did there? With the title?... Clever I know*

I partially didn't go because I couldn't find anyone to go with me. The older I get... the more I feel like my friends are over it. I would always be up for going... however, I have been so many times that I didn't put that much effort into begging anyone to come with me. So I skipped this year.

But I always celebrate in my heart... because I do love the festival. Getting messy with color is fun, but I also love that it is a welcoming of Spring and a Festival where people join together and just share the love. Everyone there has smiles on their faces. It's a happy Festival. 

So maybe next year I will be back. Maybe my Holi days are over. Guess we shall see what life throws at me next year. Until then... Happy Holi everyone! Spring is here!!!

Photo of the Week 213

Another picture from the Festival of Colors. I loved the way the Hare Krishna Temple looked against the white mountains.

Holi - Festival of Colors Take 8!

It's that time of year again. A time that I love. The time when Winter comes to a close and we welcome SPRING! It's lighter longer. It's getting warmer. The earth becomes alive again... and... the Festival of Colors happens!

I know... I blog about it every year. There is nothing new about it I can tell you. I will say that I have been trying to do new things every year. Last year, I made a video of it for the first time. Well... this year I didn't even go in. What? That's right, I wanted to attend this year as a photographer on the outside taking pictures. Still getting to go to the festival and celebrate and be part of the fun without getting all messy this time (even though I have loved that in the past). I just wanted to try something different this year.

I almost didn't go, but I convinced my friend Ellis to go with me as a photographer and thankfully he agreed. This is all the color we got on us this year.... just because people can't resist someone who is all clean. I didn't mind getting a little on me. I think I would have felt like I wasn't there if we didn't at least have a little color.

However, not as fun as getting in there and all colored up. Here are my Holi faces from the past 7 years.

Ellis and I had a lot of fun taking pictures of the event. That is one of the reasons I asked Ellis to go with me. I knew he would appreciate wanting to go as a photographer and not only be okay with that, but really enjoy it. The event is so popular now, that they went from throwing the colors once in the afternoon on Saturday, then twice on Saturday and Sunday, then to every two hours on Saturday and Sunday and now every hour on both days. Thankfully I know the drill and know what to expect and how long it is going to take to get there and how to avoid some of the traffic. Ellis and I avoided most traffic and got an awesome parking spot and got there JUST in time for the throwing but decided to stick around for the next hour and take pictures of people and the next throwing. Ellis got some cool shots. These were my favorites of his.

And then some of my favorites. I also made a GIF of the throwing. Cause I'm cool like that.

Happy Holi everyone! Until next year...

Festival of Colors Video

So you know how I have a GoPro now? Well... I thought it would be fun to take to the Festival of Colors this year. So I did.... here is my video of the Festival.

Holi - Festival of Colors

 

It is officially spring. Why? Because Holi - The Festival of Colors has happened. I feel like I don't need to explain this event anymore. I go every year. You know the drill. This time Vicki was the only one that wanted to go with me. We went early to avoid the crowds. It was awesome... as usual. Here are some pictures of us all colored up.

P.S. This year I brought my GoPro. I took lots of video... I will be making a movie of the event and will post it later. Be excited. :)

Flashback Friday 58

Today I thought I would continue with my Festival of Colors theme and flashback to the first year I went. March 2007. I went with my good friend and roommate at the time, Monica and a couple of her Minnesota friends (Sarah, who was in town and Katie).

We had a lot of fun... obviously since I continued going back, but I remember we didn't get there in time to buy color. Back then... they actually ran out. It is amazing too because I look at these pictures and it almost makes me laugh because it was not crowded at all compared to what it is now. Back then.... a lot of people still had never heard about it and so what you see in these pictures is all there was there... pretty amazing how fast the word spread. It is now the largest Holi Festival in the Western Hemisphere! It is also amazing to see how I look at the Festival then and now. I get more and more color coated on me every year. Makes for harder clean up, but makes for better pictures.

Photo of the Week 109

I have shared this picture before... but not as a photo of the week, so I am using it again. Plus... I put it on Pintrest and it gets new pins almost everyday. So I figure that means it is an awesome picture. I like it anyway. Nice little action shot from the Festival of Colors a couple of years ago. Thought it would be fun to do a Holi Festival picture since I just went this last weekend.

Holi Festival

*This is the only pic on here that I didn't take. I LOVE it though, so I had to post it on my blog picture taken by Erin Pritchett @ EKPritchett Photography*

It is that time of year again... Spring! And what is my favorite way to welcome spring? By going to the Holi Festival aka The Festival of Colors at the Hare Krishna Temple in Spanish Fork.

This was my 6th year going. Every year it gets more and more crowded. The traffic is insane. This year was the first year they charged admission... so you paid to get in and then paid for the bags of color. Regardless, I only put $10 which is well worth this good time to be had. This year was especially fun because I went with a group of people that had all never been before. It is fun to experience it with people for their first time. They now through the colors every 2 hours all day long. We were going to try and make it to the 3pm throwing, but we didn't end up leaving until 2 (which people didn't believe me that we would have to leave by 1:30 at the latest to make it by 3 because of traffic) so we missed the 3pm throwing and stuck around for the 5pm throwing. It was a blast.... as always. To make things even better, we had awesome weather that day.

Here is our before picture. We didn't start out completely clean because on your way in people throw color on you... so you have plenty of color on you long before you reach the temple.

And then they count down and the colors are thrown.

And then after we looked like this.

Every year it is fun to go because just just never know what you are going to get. The festival brings such a fun crowd. When I first showed up, this guy came up to me and said WAIT and it looked like he was going to grab my face... but instead he had some color on his thumb and he ran his thumb across my forehead with the color while he slowly said "Simba" like it is said by the monkey in the Lion King. It made me laugh so hard. I also love not knowing what I am going to look like in the end. I feel as though I show up as an empty canvas in the beginning and then leave has a different piece of artwork every year.

                                                             *My singing BFF Wes*

A lot of people just like going once and then never going again. Obviously not me... I never get sick of it. So.... I guess that means I will be seeing you next year Holi Festival. Thanks for a good time. It was real. Until next year. Peace out.