In December the Chinese Lantern Festival came to the Washington fairgrounds, but I wasn't able to work it into my schedule. I was delighted to see they were coming to Utah in April while we were visiting.We picked the warmest evening of our vist and came early so I could get some clear pictures of the lanterns. We left Allison home with mom since I was expecting a bigger crowd, but when we got there I regretted it. There was plenty of open space she could have run around in.
The lanterns are more beautiful in the evening, but the brightness against the dark sky typically produces fuzziness in pictures. The artistic detail is better represented in the daytime.
Here are my boys with the terracotta warriors and the neat grasshoppers and lions.
Dragons, deer, and jungle animals. It all looked really good!
Cute little animals and Tyler with a teapot guy.
Pandas and more for my happy little Tyler
The dragon centerpiece was awesome!
Very pretty camels, parrots, and yellow birds along the edge.
The under the sea arch was really neat.
There was a show around 6:30. First up was Chinese yo-yo.
That was follwed by a juggling comedy duo. They were good jugglers but not the best actors.
This guy was probably my favorite. Chinese vase juggling.
Towards the back we found a huge fish, kissing birds, snails, and jellyfish
We had dinner at the food booths then most people went and watched the TV in Mike's car while I stayed out with the boys. Ethan said he wasn't cold though it was definitely a bit chilly. I took a bunch of pictures of Tyler and Ethan just being adorable together.
Cute boys with animals
The elephants looked cooler at night but I couldn't get a picture from the front at night. Too many people were watching the 8pm show.
Spinning lights and cute boys.
Boys, bugs, dragons, and frogs
Mike joked around with Tyler that the tall, skinny lady was Shannon.
I kept taking pictures of the dragon because it just kept looking better and better as the sun set.
Here are the kids dancing on the stage before leaving. Oscar and I stuck around to get pictures in the complete dark. Tyler wanted to stay with Ethan, so we took one last picture of him with the giraffes before they left for home.
Everything looked so much more beautiful in the dark. Picture taking was harder though. I'd get about 10 blurry pics for every good one you see here.
The color changing frog was extra neat in the dark.
And the overall scenery just kept getting prettier.
The festival opened at 5 even though it wasn't dark until almost 8. I'm surprised they would open with so much daylight left. It was the same in Washington, but that was in December when it starts getting dark around 4:30pm.
The center dragon was looking awesome at this point. Pics of people with dragon not so much.
Dragonarama!
And the under the sea arch was even more impressive.
Oscar and I tried to imitate the kissing birds.
And a few last pictures before we took off.
