A FaCe FuLL oF CHaLK aND a MiLLioN SMiLES

To anyone looking for a reason to visit UTaH, look no further. Just go ahead and book your trip for the last weekend in March; I promise you won't be disappointed! That's the weekend that houses what we call the HoLi FeSTiVaL (or the FeSTiVaL oF CoLoRS). Watch and keep reading and you'll see exactly what I mean :)

This year I went with BReNNoN, some kids I met through him just over a year ago, JeReMy and PHiLiP, and then my roomate SaRaH. We got there around 11 which I guess was early enough to get rockstar parking! After a little walk, it was straight into the center of a ginormous group of jumping/crowd surfing people! Note to self: DoN'T WeaR FLiP FLoPS iF you WaNT To JuMP aRouND iN THe CRoWDS! Sounds like common sense right? Yeah well I must not have been thinking.. haha :) Anywho, after Philip, Jeremy and Brennon took a ride crowd surfing we kinda lost them, so Sarah and I went to grab some colors.

Do you know how hard it is to find three people in a group of thousands when every last person is plastered in colors, and therefore looking the same? HARD! Lucky for us Philip wasn't hard to find.

The robed guy in the shades, that is Philip. 

He could be found crowd surfing, dancing to the tunes coming from the stage in the center of this giant hill, or doing things like this... please enjoy. 

Just in case you were wondering, yes that is a trash can, yes there was still garbage in it, and no I most definitely did not get in! Anyways, back to the point, while standing at the top of the hill looking for those three, and with no signs of them anywhere, here come Philip running, out of the large group of people also at the top of the hill, and all of a sudden doing summersaults down the large hill of mud. And that is how you play "Where's Waldo" at the Sri Sri Rahda Krishna Temple!

We had so much fun! After some time down in the crowds, we hiked back up to the top of the hill and found ourselves in the center of a giant mudslide! I didn't go in at first, but lets face it, who goes to the Festival of Colors to stay clean? Thats what I thought.  (sorry I scream a lot, in real life, but especially in this next video)

Before we knew it it was 1 'o' clock and time to throw the colors! Brennon and I booked it to the bottom where the stage was to get right in the center. Crazy, breathtaking (but really), and down right insane pretty much describes it.

Just add 4x as many people in the same amount of space. That's
what it looked like when we threw the colors

In the midst of all the craziness, I had lost Sarah. Just call her right? Wrong, my phone was dead! Just go wait where we were gonna meet if we got separated? Wrong! We just kept missing each other. Call on Brennon's phone? Wrong and wrong. A) I don't have her number memorized, and B) Brennon had taken off asap to get to his sister's birthday lunch. 

So what did I do? I walked back to the car, shoeless none the less, and frantically hopped on the freeway to find the closest store that sold car chargers. Only one exit up and there was a little mobile store. I ran in, covered from head to toe in chalk and mud; and shoeless. Then the kind man at the counter says, "Well you're the most interesting customer I've had all day." Yeah, I can see why he would say that. Well he had a charger and thats all that mattered. 

Well I ran back to my car, plugged in the charger, plugged in my phone and vuala, NoTHiN'! At this point I think I have completely killed my phone, so I jump back on the freeway to go to Walmart to buy a new one. Then I figure out you just have to twist the charger to make it work. And there ya go, now I have a working phone! 

I finally found Sarah, we jump in the car and while sitting in lots of lovely traffic, I decide I want to go back and play. KaeSi and CaNDaCe, my cousin, were there and Brennon was heading back with his fam. So.. Sarah and I stop at Shoko, get some real shoes and go back. Round two wasn't quite as fun, and we couldn't find Brennon's gang, but still worth it non the less. 

Lesson Learned: iF You HaVeN'T GoNe, GO!!!