Conner's First Birthday!

We had such a fun time celebrating Conner's first birthday! We were in Utah for Kimberly's wedding, so we were able to celebrate with a lot more family than we otherwise would have. We chose a water themed party since Conner loves EVERYTHING to do with water!

This is the sign we had on the front door.

An overview of the food table.

I labeled everything with a water themed name. I have fun with theme parties :) Notice that some of the foods are served in sand buckets and the pasta salad even has a shovel instead of a serving spoon!

Submarine Sandwiches

Sea Shell Pasta Salad

Salt Water Taffy

Ocean Water (it was Ammon's creativity that decided to put the octopus in the drink! I loved the way it turned out!)

Fan-SEA Cupcakes

Octopus Dip and Chips

Fishing Bait

Catch of the Day (gummy sharks and sweedish fish)

This is the smash cake I made for Conner. I thought it turned out pretty cute!

Conner's not too sure what's going on...

 This video is fun to watch because it shows Conner from the beginning when he wasn't sure until he was digging in! You can also hear the excitement of all the kids! But we also got pictures :) Conner mostly just played with the cake. He ate a little bit (we got some good pictures of him eating), but not much.

Most of the kids who were there (family and friends)

The kids sang to Conner one more time before he took a quick bath!

Conner was pretty spoiled, he received a lot of awesome presents! You'll notice in the background of these pictures that we made a time-line of pictures of Conner, starting with newborn and one each month after.
From the Jessen Family

From Jace Powell

From Great-Grandpa and Great-Grandma Fisher

From Grandpa and Grandma Eggett

These are the birthday presents that Conner got that didn't travel to Utah with us:

(well, except the Octopus)

From Daddy and Mama

From Kendall and Melissa Powell and Family

From Grandpa and Grandma Dietz

From Elise, JD and Maia

Later that night our family went to the Provo Mall (just for fun, not actually for Conner's birthday). The kids got to ride on the carousal!

Then we went out to eat at Red Robin (YUMMMM!)!

Painting

I saw an idea online for letting your kids paint birthday paintings, so I decided I wanted to give it a try! We used non-toxic paint, because we know Conner - EVERYTHING has to go through a taste test. Sure enough, first thing he did was try the paint. I was planning on keeping his hand away from his mouth, but it shot up there so fast I couldn't catch it in time.

I cut out Conner's name in vinyl and then painted over it with white paint (so if any paint bleeds underneath the vinyl, nobody will ever know because it's white!

What  a happy boy!

So proud! 

Next up, bath time!

After the paint was dry, I peeled off the vinyl and vola! The finished product!

Galveston and Kemah Boardwalk

We decided with it being a 3 day weekend, we needed to get out and see the sights of Texas! We chose to go to Galveston on Saturday and Kemah Boardwalk on Sunday. We packed the 2 days with tons of fun!

In Galveston we spent the afternoon at the beach. We brought toys to play in the sand, but Conner had no interest in playing in the sand. He wanted to be in the water the whole time!

Conner RUNNING to the water!

A video of Conner walking into the water. He had been to a different part of the Gulf of Mexico before, but this was his first time walking into the water.

Conner and Daddy playing in the Gulf of Mexico!

We spent the night in a hotel on the south side of Houston, and then on Sunday we went to Kemah Boardwalk. Kemah is kind of like a carnival that never moves. We had a lot of fun!

Conner and I took a ride on the train!

Conner loves his new found freedom of walking. He gets to go where ever he wants by himself! Well, as long as Mama and Daddy let him... He always walks with his hands up by his head. I assume it's faster to catch himself when he falls with them up there.

Conner got to play a "pick a duck and win a prize" game. 

He won a stuffed elephant!

Ammon played this game. He rang the bell 3 times and won a monkey stuffed animal!

Daddy and Conner with their prizes!