Trenton wanted a party for his birthday and Minute to Win It has become a favorite show in our house. The challenges proved to be a bit trickier than we thought, but the boys didn’t mind. It was quite hilarious to watch.

This Blows - The contestant must inflate a standard balloon, then release the air in a controlled fashion to blow a series of cups off a table.

Junk in the Trunk – With an empty tissue box attached to their waist, the contestant must shake eight ping pong balls out of the box without using their hands

Nose Dive – The contestant must use petroleum jelly on their nose to transfer five cotton balls from one bowl to another

Matchmaker – The contestant must deliver, one at a time, each of 16 or 18 colored candies to one of three or four stations. At the start of the challenge, each candy is individually placed under a plastic cup in the center of the stage.

Hanky Panky

- The contestant must quickly pull all the tissues out of a box of 160 tissues, one at a time, using only one hand.

Worm Diving – The contestant, using a moist Gummy Worm as “bait”, must fish a pretzel out of a fishbowl full of them, bring the pretzel to their mouth and eat the pretzel without using their hands or dropping the pretzel.

Paper Dragon – The contestant must unroll two rolls of party streamers with only their hands and arms.

Playing at the Lake

We also thought it would be fun to make “cousin shirts”, so we set up some freezer paint stencils and let the kids paint their own shirts.

. The girls painted birds and the boys painted fish.

They came out adorable.

The kids had so much fun with all of their cousins. Thanks Brandon and Lisa for a great time.

After our stay in Utah, we headed out to visit Uncle Brandon and his family in Fallon, NV. Uncle Chris and Aunt Lynsey came up with their kids making it a big cousin party. My kids were in heaven. Grandma and Grandpa Bird were also able to come up making the trip even better.

We enjoyed a fun day at the park.

One of Brandon’s friends owns a dairy farm and gave the kids a full tour. We saw how they hooked up the cows to the milking machines. (No, Cami would not take her hand off her nose to take a picture. It was probably all she could do to keep from losing her lunch, as she after the pic, she hurried outside to wait.)

Mac was brave enough to hook up a cow.

Kayden liked petting the baby calves.

It is quite obvious how Cami felt about the whole experience.

But overall, I think the kids thought it was kind of cool.

So as I was getting ready to leave Utah, I realized that I had been there for 2+ weeks and Kylie and I had not even taken a single picture together, so we had to shoot at least one before I left. Thank you Kylie and Aaron and Zoie for letting us stay in your home. We had a wonderful time and look forward to a possible time when we live closer and can hang out more:)

We were able to get a great deal on passes to 7 Peaks, so we spent A LOT of our time in Utah at the waterpark.

The kids thought it was the greatest place ever.

One thing you can see from just about anywhere in Provo is the big Y on the mountain. You can see it in this picture we took at 7 peaks.

When the kids heard we could hike to it , that was all they wanted to do. So the morning before we left, we made the hike as a family. Although, it was not a very far hike, it was very steep. We were all pretty grateful to make it to the top. I don’t know what I expected, but it was really a bunch of bumpy concrete. My kids had no problem, but the steepness of it kinda freaked me out. I kept having visions of my kids (or myself) tumbling down to the bottom.

Fortunately, we all survived and enjoyed a beautiful view.

We started our day with the Utah County Independence Day parade. It was so nice that Aunt Kylie’s house was less than a block from the parade route. We crafted some pretty festive outfits for the kids to wear. The girls loved the ruffle-flag shirts we made.

Even baby Zoe, sported a flag.

The boys wanted nothing to do with ruffles, so we tried another route. My first attempt at freezer paint was a bit ambitious, but I love how these Uncle Sam tees came out.

After the parade, we cooled off swimming with our friends. The kids particularly enjoyed the waterslide.

We spent out Sunday afternoon enjoying Temple Square in Salt Lake City.

The kids enjoyed a taking a tour of the Conference Center.

They also were excited to see the Temple their great-great gradfater helped to build.

The loving sisters.

The boys express their love for each other in a different manner.

The second week of our stay in Utah, was spent with sick kiddos in and out of the pediatrician’s office. What do we do when stuck at home? We craft!

The girl’s have been bugging me to sew something themselves. They both decided that they wanted to sew a purse, so I looked for a good pattern that used fat quarters. We decided on making Buttercup bags.

The girl’s enjoyed it and are looking forward to sewing some skirts in the future.

Also, excited to have my niece Zoie around to create for, I helped my sister make this adorable onsie and matching headband.

We have been blessed to have Trenton in our home for the past 12 years. I can’t believe how fast time flies. I am so proud of the young man he is becoming.

We celebrated in Utah with his favorite chocolate brownies topped with chocolate ice cream.