Photo Gallery: Mud Fun

What do you get when you mix a group of 8-year-old boys, dirt and plenty of water? A mud run birthday party, of course.

This year, Kim and Jeff Johnson's family had planned on celebrating each family member's birthday at Disneyland, but when their son Carter's birthday fell during a blackout date on their season passes, the family got creative.

Once the idea for a mud run popped into Kim's head, she got busy searching for ideas online.

"I'd never done one, or even seen one, so I started searching on Pinterest for some ideas," she said. "There were a few ideas on there, but not a ton, so I started looking up official mud run sites to copy ideas."

To keep things inexpensive, she modified the things she saw online. Instead of using a backhoe to carve a ditch in her backyard, her ideas involved large inflatable pools and other inexpensive items she could get at a hardware store, she said.

She also got help from other moms, who donated Slip 'n Slides and pools. One friend donated a truckload of clean dirt and another friend gave them some used tires to use in an obstacle course, which consisted of a couple "army crawls," a football style tire hop, two Slip 'n Slides covered in mud, two inflatable pools filled with mud, two string "lazer" mazes and multiple spots where friends and neighbors tossed water balloons and sprayed silly string and water from hoses at the participants.

"The boys had an amazing time and many parents, who stayed to help the entire time, thought this was an event the boys would remember the rest of their lives," Johnson said. "The cleanup is something I'll remember the rest of mine."