Owen's First Birthday Party

Eager to open presents!

For Owen's birthday party, we met up with some family at the Grand Harbor Resort in Dubuque. My parents came, as well as Ryan's mom, stepdad, sister, nieces, uncles, aunt and a few cousins. Needless to say, there were 6 kids 5 and under there, so thank goodness we picked the place for its water park! The water park is very kid friendly, and there is one slide that is completely dark and fast that was really fun for the adults. We took Owen swimming in a regular pool one time, and he's been in a couple of baby pools, but he was never a big fan. On the other hand, he LOVES to take baths, so we were curious to see how he would react to the baby pool. His first reaction: Still not a fan. The water in the baby pool was a little colder than I expected, and I think that is the problem for him, because I took him over to the hot tub (which I was thinking might be too hot, but it really wasn't) and he was fine in there. Eventually, we went back to the baby pool, and I set him down and walked away a little bit. He wasn't too happy, but I just kept backing away from him when he would try to walk to me, and eventually, he figured out that the pool is fun! He started walking around, splashing, and even crawled through the really shallow end. There were a couple of times that he fell while walking and dunked himself, which was a little scary to me, and I thought he would have a fit, but it didn't really seem to bother him very much. There was even a little kid slide that I took him down a few times, and he really liked that. I was very happy that he had a good time, and I think everyone else did too.

After the water park, it was time for some pizza and snacks, and then on to the presents! The little kids all gathered around, of course, but they were pretty good about not taking over the presents. Here are just a few pictures showing what he got:

A rocking chair with his name on it from Grandma Angie and Grandpa Dan,

The Night Before Christmas with Grandma Diane and Grandpa Dan's voice recorded reading it,

blocks and Weeble Wobbles from Great-Grandma Nancy,

and a cell phone in the shape of a dump truck from Great-Grandma Kuehl (which was the winner for the night).

Plus, he got bath toys, pjs, a football shaped pillow with a sleeping bag inside, a new car seat, and I can't even remember what else. He got a lot of great stuff, though!

After presents, it was time for cake. He got his own small cake, and instead of a candle on top, there was a Frosty the Snowman topper that plays music. He was a little hesitant about the cake at first, but eventually, he started in on it. I thought he'd get a lot messier than he did. 

 

Everyone else enjoyed a football cupcake-cake (a cake made from a bunch of cupcakes) and we hung out for a while and the kids played with Owen's new toys, while he was pretty occupied with the balloons my parents brought and his new cell phone.

The next morning we headed back down to the water park for about an hour before packing our car up to the brim with new stuff, grabbing some food at Wendy's with Ryan's family, and heading home.