Once Upon a Time

Grandpa Jensen was a storyteller. He took me to places that most children only read about. I've climbed the beanstalk with Jack and sat and watched as those elves made shoes in the cobbler's little shop. When the Bremen Town musicians scared the robbers out of the old, vacant house, I was right there with them, screaming and hollering at the top of my lungs. I honestly believe that a little tailor can kill three giants with one blow! And in a canyon not far from Happy Valley lives the creature of Shiny Mountain. I've seen him and so have my brothers and sister. Ask our cousins, they've seen him, too.
Today was the first day of the annual Timpanogos Storytelling Festival. Each year the fifth graders from our school are invited to attend, so this year I was able to attend with our youngest daughter.
In addition to storytellers, there are jugglers, women spinning yarn, puppeteers and singers.Looks at these kids eagerly awaiting the stories to begin. That's my cutie in the striped shirt. I wish I could have taken pictures of the children while the stories were being told, but no cameras are allowed during the stories. They laughed and giggled the whole way through. We were first treated to a Japanese folktale by Eric, a local youth storyteller, and then were taken to the tops of the Andes by the Storycrafters. The last two stories were told by a stand up comedian turned park ranger, turned storyteller, named Bobby Norfolk. His comedic stories and sound effects had us rolling in the aisles!
Eventually the fun had to come to an end. Here are the kids as they head back to the bus.
This is the view of Mount Timpanogos as seen from the park in which the festival is held. And remember a couple of days ago when I mentioned an artist named James Christensen? The picture at the top of this post, Tales Beneath Timp, was painted by him. It's a cropped version of his painting titled Once Upon a Time. I like to imagine that the storyteller in the picture is my grandfather. He truly lived among faeries, elves, goblins and princesses.