Nesting With Grace

by Brooke Christen

12 Things in our Backyard that make it Extra Fun!

May 28, 2025

My goal for our backyard has always been to create a space where we could host friends, and family. A place where the kids could be active and want to bring their friends. A place they felt comfortable, that was safe and a place for lots of fun! Sharing 12 fun things we have and why!

First of all, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Hopefully one or all of these things we did in our yard will give you inspiration to enjoy your outdoor space. Our yard is one acre, so we were able to pack in a lot! Also we didn’t do this alone, our friend Tom has a landscape company that we worked with to do majority of the bigger projects (LMS Landscape).

Get all the details on the exterior of our home HERE.

1- Pool and Slide

We had a pool in our Connecticut home so we knew when we moved back to Utah we wanted one here too. We can use our pool (depending on snow) usually from March-October. I would say it’s our families favorite backyard item! Details on our pool here.

Pool Slide

Pool Basketball Hoop

Pool Favorites Here

No pool, no problem! There are many ways to keep cool this summer. A few of our favorites HERE.

2- Outdoor TV

Our favorite is weekly family movie nights and in the summer it happens more than once a week. Maybe you live somewhere that you can enjoy the warm weather year round, for us in Utah, summer nights are everything! We don’t get many bugs (high elevation and dry) so we love to watch movies outside. We have this TV, and put this cover over it to keep it from getting ruined.

Another great option for a smaller group is THIS Rolling Cordless TV. The picture is very clear on it! We like having this to roll into a guest room, put by our game table or bring outside.

Print Favorite Summer Movies HERE

3-Gas Fire Pit

S’more’s are a family favorite! There are so many ways to get that fun experience and it doesn’t have to be hard like heading to the mountains for a campout. We have a gas fire pit in the backyard, anyone can! This fire pit is nice, you just attach propane to it. We keep our s’mores in a cooler bag, easy to store and easy to grab and go! Details on our backyard, pergola, fire pit, furniture and more HERE.

All our favorite S’mores recipes here!

4- Grass Space for Soccer and other Sports

A little grassy area to play! Ella has a lot of her soccer training stuff here, but we also love wiffle ball, water fun and backyard games!

5- In-Ground Trampoline

I love finding any way that I can to encourage outdoor play! One of the things in our backyard that gets daily use is our trampoline. The kids never seem to tire of it. Listening to them be active and having fun together will never get old for me either! How we buried our trampoline HERE.

6- Yard Games

Kevin got this tetherball from friends for his birthday and it has lasted us so long. We have replaced the ball which is easy to do. Gets used often!

Most backyard games are games that any age can play. Perfect to make sure everyone feels included.

Backyard Games Here

7- Outdoor Kitchen with Pizza Oven

We are really happy with our outdoor kitchen! We have an outdoor pizza oven, pellet grill and flat top grill. The only thing I wish I would have pushed more for was an outdoor sink!

We use our pizza oven once or twice a week in the summer! Kevin will make the dough or buy the ready made dough from Trader Joe’s. There are a few ways to make pizza outside, a portable pizza oven, in the BBQ grill , or a pizza oven like ours. See all the details on our outdoor kitchen and pizza oven here.

8- Sports Court

All of us knew we would enjoy a basketball court, pickleball court and even a futsol (soccer). A place where the kids could be active and want to bring their friends! After discussing the layout with our landscapers we found the perfect spot for the sports court and luckily we had just enough space in our backyard! Get all the details on our Sports Court HERE.

A bracket is a great way to get everyone involved print bracket here!

Favorite Sports Equipment and Organization Here

9- Places to Relax

These poolside daybeds are new, similar to having a hammock! (unfortunately I can’t see it in stock to order again, it was from HERE). We love the comfort of being able to read a book, take a nap or just lounge.

We’ve had a hanging daybed since we moved in (our Hanging Daybed with cream cushion, or this daybed is less without a cushion). I layered a bunch of these stripe pillows, stripe on stripe, just says FUN!!! I did swap the cream cushion with the stripe cushion we already had on a daybed by our pool. It’s everyone’s favorite spot to relax and chat.

We like that this swinging daybed is in a shady spot.

10- Garden

We love our raised garden beds! Three is the perfect amount for us to manage. Our landscapers used these 8′ L x 4″ H Cedar Posts. The garden boxes ended up being 8.5′ L x 4.5′ W x 18″ H. We do have sprinklers built in the garden boxes, that helps a lot!

We like to plant vegetables to make homemade salsa. A salsa garden! There is nothing quite like a homegrown tomato! We planted a couple varieties of those. We plant basil with our tomatoes because (we think) they make the tomatoes taste better and keep pesky bugs away that harm the tomatoes. All the details on our garden and greenhouse here.

11- Gym

We didn’t originally have this home gym when we moved in. There were three trees removed from where our home gym is now. We decided since we now had the space, we would want a building for our home gym, and move it out of the garage, to free up garage space.

Kevin and I workout everyday at home. Sometimes the kids join us. I love having this big open space! Kevin does some sports medicine and training here (he has a master in Sports Medicine, and has a workout app HERE). Our outdoor gym details here.

12- Sauna

Our Sauna is new, and pretty hidden back behind our gym Kevin has used it the most. It’s from here. Lot’s of health benefits from using one!

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Comments

Sandra says

May 31, 2025 at 9:39 am

This is perfection!!!

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