Brown Family Cousin Camp

This year we decided to hold our first annual Brown Family Cousin Camp so we gathered all of the cousins together to spend 3 fun filled days at Grandma's house!  Our theme this year is Brown Family Olympics!!

THURSDAY

OPENING CEREMONIES:  For opening ceremonies all of the kids put on their Cousin Camp t-shirts and  made flags to represent themselves.  Paxton's was mostly scribbles but then he asked his dad to draw a few of his favorite things on there: basketball, football, baseball...you get the idea!

 Tegan was sleeping so Andy got to decorate his flag!

 Once the kids were done with their flags, we had an Olympic parade for Grandma and all of the aunts and uncles...unfortunately it was raining so we had to do it in the house!

 Paxton and Tegan modeling their Brown Family Cousin Camp t-shirts!

 The first of many awesome cousin pictures!

Paxton (2), Ofeina (8), Tegan (1), Ami (6), Alyssa (6), Misi (4), Meilani (3 Months), Mana (2)

 The flags!!

SWIMMING

Our Olympic event for Thursday was swimming! 

Poor Tegan couldn't do to much in the water because he recently got tubes in his ears so he swam a little with Jessica but mostly hung out on the side of the pool with mom!

 At first Paxton was not too excited about swimming but once he got into it he quickly won the award for most improved swimmer!

 He learned how to kick from the side of the pool...

 Float on his belly...

 Jump off the side of the pool...

 and dunk his head under the water!!

FIREWORKS IN A JAR

That night for craft time we attempted to make fireworks in a jar...unfortunately the kids got a little bit carried away with the food coloring and most of their jars turned into a big brown mess!

Paxton's turned out pretty good and he got a lot of cool colors in his jar!

MOVIE NIGHT

After a long day full of fun activities we sent all of the kids to the basement for cousin movie night...surprisingly they stayed down there and watched the whole movie!  They must have been just as exhausted as we were!

FRIDAY

OLYMPIC GAMES

Friday morning we gathered all of the kids together for the Brown Family Olympic Games!  We knew ahead of time that things could get a little bit competitive with these kids so in order to make it fair we set some ground rules...1. No Whining!!, 2. Everyone Participates, and 3. Everyone Wins!  After each event the kids got to put a sticker on a chart for finishing or participating in the event!

 Ofeina demonstrating the Javelin!

 Then we did Gymnastics!

 Next was the shot put!

 The kids loved the races...I was only going to have them do 1 race but somehow 1 race turned into about 5 and by the end of the races all 3 rules were being broken so we had to stop for a snack break!

 Paxton doing the discuss...somehow his ended up behind the starting line!

 The kids were pros at the hurdles!

 At the end everyone got a gold star sticker for a job well done!  Paxton was pretty excited about his sticker!

 Paxton in front of the Cousin Camp Olympic poster!

SNACK TIME

That afternoon (after lunch and a long nap!) we got the kids together for snack time!  

 The goal was to make Olympic cupcakes like this...

 We ended up with Olympic cupcakes like this...but they were so proud of them!

 And according to Tegan they were mighty tasty because he managed to eat about 3 of them!

SATURDAY

HOME DEPOT

On Saturday morning we got the kids up bright and early and headed over to the kids workshops at Home Depot!  They had about 8 projects to choose from and Paxton picked a football table which was really supposed to be a football stand!

Paxton screwed it together!

 and painted it!

FAMILY BIRTHDAY PARTY

We ended cousin camp with a cousin birthday party!  The kids got party hats, presents, and a birthday cake to celebrate all of their birthdays throughout the year! 

 

 This picture is so funny to me because it pretty much shows each of their personalities!  After this picture we sent all of the kids into the dining room to do play doh with Grandma and we thought "if it is this crazy with only 8 kids what is it going to be like when we are all done having kids and there is 20-30 grand kids?

We had such a great time at cousin camp this year!  Thanks mom for being such a generous host and for making it possible for your grandkids to have great relationships with each other!

Fourth of July

I LOVE the 4th of July...I love it even more when we can spend it in Richfield with my family!  This year we decided to start the 4th by participating in the Liberty 5K...I say participate because not to many of us actually ran the whole way but at least we finished and we weren't last!!

 I had decided to take push the boys in the stroller...it was a good idea until we got to the uphill part where it took me, Jamie, and Jessica to push them up.  Then towards the end they started getting antsy and were bugging each other...luckily Andy (who finished the race 18 minutes ahead of me) came back and pushed them until the end!

 Here we are waiting for the parade on our favorite spot right in the middle of Main Street!   

 The Richfield parade is pretty well known for their candy...no one goes home empty handed!  Paxton was pretty excited to get his bag full of Frooties and salt water taffy!! He even managed to snag a few otterpops which was perfect because by the time the parade got over it was HOT!!

 Once Tegan realized that their was food involved he insisted on being let out of the stroller!  He even managed to pick up a little candy stash of his own!

 Usually, after the parade, we go to the park, find a patch of shade, and eat lunch at the various food booths around the park.  This year we decided it would probably be cheaper, easier, and cooler to walk across the street to the Chinese restaurant for lunch.  My mom though that it was pretty unpatriotic to eat Chinese on the 4th of July but it was so so good!

 My other favorite part of the 4th is watching the fireworks with my family while eating homemade ice cream...I look forward to it every year! 

 Tegan and Meilani had already had enough of the celebrations and crashed before the fireworks started.

 Unfortunately because of the wildfires around the state the city decided to launch the fireworks from the watertower instead of up on the mountain so we couldn't see them as well as we usually can.  Luckily we had bought the kids some red, white, and blue glowsticks and those kept them pretty entertained for the rest of the night

He's Walking!!

Well it looks like staying in a hotel for a few days was the magic trick that helped Tegan finally learn to walk!  He had a ball walking from the beds to the dressers to the chairs...all within a 3-5 step distance.  Once we got home from the family reunion he took off!  Good Job Buddy!

Trafalga Lehi

We decided it was time to start taking advantage of our Passes of all Passes so we took the boys to Trafalga Lehi to see what kind of fun we could have there!

Poor Tegan is too small to do anything so he spent most of his time in the stroller eating marshmellos and watching people!

First we went to the "Race Cars!"  Paxton is barely 36 inches but he is so skinny that the seatbelt wouldn't tighten all the way and they almost wouldn't let him ride the ride.  Luckily they did a brake check and decided he was good to go!

 Paxton loved it!

 We also played a lot of Skee Ball (truth is I played a lot of Skee Ball and they watched!!)

 Paxton and Tegan loved the the bowling and they actually scored in the 70's which is pretty good if you ask me!

 Finally, Pax and Andy went on the Lighthouse Ride...again Pax is so little they weren't going to let him on the ride but they finally decided that he would be okay (since the ride goes like 5 feet in the air) and again I was surprised...he actually liked it!

OWLS Game

Paxton is going through a major sports phase right now and has been begging to go to a baseball game and a soccerball game for awhile now.  Luckily the OWLS were playing this week so we decided to go to a game fully expecting that we would make it through a few innings and then head home!

 I was pleasantly surprised that, with the help of these giant otterpops, we made it through the whole game!  The boys were so good and Paxton was actually pretty into the game!  He kept yelling out random baseball terms like strike, pitcher, bat, and run at the most random moments but by the end he was starting to get the hang of it! 

 There was one think about the game that Paxton did not like...Hootz the Owl!  The minute Paxton saw him he tensed up and said "Oh No."  During the game he asked us about every 10 minutes where the owl was and was not satisfied until he could see where the owl was.  I finally told him that the owl had gone to bed and we couldn't see him anymore but that didn't stop Paxton...he would still ask where the owl was then he would answer himself by saying "Oh right owl sleeping, shhh mom he sleeping."  He is a funny boy!