Cousin Party!

This year, our Annual Cousin Party was held at Brandon & Melissa's house, in Sunset, UT.

As is tradition, we had Little Caesar's pizza for dinner.

We set up our tents in their back yard and got ready for some fun.

When it got dark, we got on our pjs, and gathered around the fire pit. We sang camp songs like, "Going on a Bear Hunt", "Sugar, sugar", and "There was an Old Man named Michael Finnegan.....begin again".

The highlight around the campfire, was when some of the uncles, aunts and Grandma Smullin got up and shook their booties, when it was their turn to dance.

Then it was time to watch last year's Cousin Party video thanks to Grandpa's hard work. The kids made their own "trail mix" and sat down in the front room to watch.

There were a few technical difficulties, so we ended up watching it with no audio. It was still great fun!

In the morning, Melissa started the day off with a game. If you found a yellow paper heart, she would draw 3-4 names to pick out prizes. The game continued until everyone got a prize.

"Good Morning Jak-jak!"

Jak was the lucky guy that got to draw the names. He was quite popular with the kids that morning, "Jak pick me, pick me!" Abree was soo happy when he finally drew her name. She quickly chose silly string for her prize.

For breakfast we had fruit and cereal.

"Yum!"

After breakfast, we took down tents and loaded sleeping bags and pillows into our cars. We needed the whole backyard for games.

First game, "Pull the Flag". The older girls definitely had the advantage with this one, but the younger ones learned a few tricks and hung in there when they played it again and again.

The spectators

More spectators

Next, blanket races.

" Goooo Treyson!"

"Whoa, hang on Colton!"

Then bean bags were passed out to play, "Pick up Your Room". The kids were divided into 2 teams. There was a rope to divide the yard. Each team tried to keep as many bean bags off of their side, by throwing them to the other side, until time was up. The team with the least amount of bean bags, at the end of time was the winner.

I got BEANED a few times, as a spectator. It didn't hurt bad, but definitely surprised me.

Sarah Anne

Jessica and Abree couldn't get enough of this sweet little cousin. So cute!

Next up was a picnic in the park and a hike.

Melissa gave each cousin a disposable camera to take on the nature hike. The kids were thrilled!!! The adults started making guesses on how long it would take for all the film to be used up. Some of the kids had pictures left by the end of the hike, but not many.

Cute Lex trying to figure his camera out.

It was a warm day, but the trees and shrubbery provided lots of nice shade to hike in.

Some silly cousins I found along the way.

This was a BEAUTIFUL trail.

I started out in the rear of the pack and somehow ended up at the front of the pack by the end. I was informed I was the 9th one back. We drank our water bottles as we waited for the others to arrive.

We saw Grandma Smullin at the top, coming down. The kids yelled, "Grandma you're almost here.....Don't give up.....You can do it!" --I think Grandma was WAY too committed by then and didn't plan on giving up, but it was so sweet of them to encourage her.

" Whew, made it!"

When we got back to Melissa's we were all HOT and sweaty.... time for a water fight!

Uncle Nate even got in on the water action.... fully dressed. It took him quite a while to get completely dried out after that.

We ended the evening with a family BBQ.

Thanks to Melissa and Brandon for a fun Cousin Party.