We went on vacation this last week up to Idaho. Heather's side of the family had their family reunion up there. On our trip we also visited BYU and Ryan and Angeles.
Henry reading a book to Joy. So cute!
Heather using Ryan and Angeles' VR headset--playing beat saber.
Ryan, Angeles, and I playing Lost Ruins of Arnak.
Hanging out
While we were at BYU, in the bookstore, I bought a game. I've heard of the original, Quest for El Dorado, and this was a stand-alone expansion. It's called Quest for El Dorado The Golden Temples. Played it at the reunion and had a great time with it. Also played it with Ryan and he really liked it too. It's a race deck-builder and a lot of fun. [Note: Not to be confused with The Island of El Dorado, which I heard isn't that great.]
The Quest for El Dorado The Golden Temples
Visiting BYU
Sitting with Cosmo the Cougar
The BYUStore now has a slide inside for the kids to go down.
Picture in front of the Y.
Also, yesterday there was a big estate sale and they had over 600 games. I got about seven, including Labyrinth, which is now one of Henry's favorites. He asks me to play it all the time. Even when I'm in the middle of napping. It's really great because even Joy can play, so tonight all four of us played a game together. Definitely a keeper for this household.
"I want to keep that game forever and ever and never let it go." --Henry Perazzo
Playing Labyrinth
Heather ended up winning this game, but each of us has won at least once (even Joy).
Last weekend was our family reunion. Lots and lots of great-grandchildren running around. I really like the location (it was less than 45 minutes away from our house) so I think we should have it there every year instead of in California (a really long way away from our place). Plus, the cabins were so much nicer. But Camp Connery has so many nostalgic memories, you know? But on the other hand, most people that came to the reunion live in Utah anyway (pretty sure). But on the other hand, Connery was for a week and I'm not sure how long you can reserve River's Edge at Deer Park. But on the other hand, we old timers seem to now be outnumbered by those great-grandchildren, so they don't remember Connery at all. But on the other hand, tradition! Bum bum bum baaa tradition!
Hannah did a stellar job at making everyone shirts. Thanks Hannah!
Some random pictures that were taken with our camera:
I got a Summer job working at Provo Parks and Recreation again, just like I did last year. I'm even under the same guys. This last Tuesday was my first day of work, and so far we've dug up some old roots from some cut down trees, fixed sprinkler systems, planted five new trees where the old ones used to stand (my favorite project thus far), pulled some weeds, trimmed some bushes near a jogging path, and unclogged a path near a river whose pump had gone out, flooding the walkway under the bridge up with about two feet of water. That was fun too, actually, we got to get this massive pump and siphon everything out back into the river, then scrape up the muck, then siphon some more, then actually got access to the malfunctioning pump, all while getting splashed occasionally by nasty stale water.
A few weeks ago (which I was going to post about but haven't posted in a while, sorry) was my wife's side of the family's family reunion. It took place up in Idaho, about a three hour drive. We got there around midnight because we left late because we were packing, and set up our awesome tent in the dark. The next day we had breakfast with everyone and I handed out name tags for people to fill out, and there were games for the kiddos. I was one of the stopwatch people for an obstacle course race that Heather participated in with her team and around six other teams. Her team didn't come in first, mainly because of this ridiculous station where you had to stand a few feet from a watermelon half and chuck CDs at it and you had to get them to stick. Super hard.
I played games with some of the cousin guys. We played two games that Heather got me for Father's Day. She got me Cover your A$$ets as well as Splendor. Cover your A$$ets is a really great party game, and was introduced to us by Ryan when he visited us with his girlfriend. Splendor though is now one of my all time favorite games. Heather and I alone have played so much Splendor these last few weeks due to the fact that it is simple, super quick to set up, and engaging and fun. I'll be bringing both games to the family reunion in August. So we played a lot of those during the reunion.
Three days before the Fourth of July was the Stadium of Fire. Heather and I have never been together, and I have never been. Heather's only gone once when she was working as security (they hire a whole bunch of students every year to do that). I didn't know any of the singers and only one song because it was all country and I'm not a big fan of country music, but what made up for the price of the ticket was we got to see Brian Reagan live! He did some jokes I knew and some I had never heard before, and some about talking jokes with fireworks exploding overhead that he made up on the spot. "I didn't expect to be doing jokes in between firework noises. Timing is hard enough in comedy; trying to do the set up, then hear a blast, and then hit a punch line. Was not expecting that. 'Why did the chicken cross the road? Pow! Pow! Pow! Ka-pow! Pow! To get--Pow! Pow! Pow! Ka-pow! Pow!--to the other side.' That's what I'm dealing with up here."
The fourth of July happened one week before I started work. Heather and I went to the parade and then went to the colonial fair to see a little musical they we putting on about how people throughout history protected liberties and freedom. It talked about not only our country of the United States of America, but also people like Joan of Arc. After the play we went home and napped and then we went to the fair they always have down town in Provo. Every year around the fourth of July they set up a few blocks on Center Street to set up booths and food vendors and there's even a little carnival that's set up, although we never go on the carnival rides because we're not sure we trust the safety of how well they're set up. We got a few things there and headed home to sleep. The day after the fourth (or before, or on it, I can't remember) we went to see hot air balloons go up, and it was so cool! We also went to the downtown place again, and went to the colonial fair.
Parade float
The musical
Gail Halvorsen, better known as the candy bomber, was a the play the same time we were, so we snagged a picture of him to prove it.
A Thousand Faces: About a year and a half ago my brother Eric sent me this email:
"So in my dream I'm looking at the MTG card Manalith, like a monolith of mana, right, only I misread the card as "Monomyth." And I'm like, monomyth, what kind of card would that be? Is basically how this started out.
So I've got an idea for, probably a deckbuilder?, where cards represent individual characters or settings or whatever, and you arrange them as part of the Hero's Journey, and you get points for having sets, cards in a row and plots that make sense, and maybe for completeness?
It's not my only idea or even my favorite, but it's still an intriguing possibility, and wanted to know what you could make of it?"
I had an idea and then starting working on it, then dropped it, then starting working on it, then dropped it since then and now. I've recently picked it back up again and am getting pretty far into it; it's not quite what Eric envisioned (he had envisioned what I consider to be Elysium, so congrats Eric! Your game is already out there!) but my game is part Elysium, part 7 Wonders, part my own thing. I'm still tweaking it and trying to make it work the best that it can. If all goes according to my plan, this game should also be ready to bring to the reunion in August. fyi the Title "A Thousand Faces" comes from the title of Joseph Campbell's book "Hero with a Thousand Faces," which is where the Hero's Journey and Monomyth comes from.
And some pictures of Henry just because he's cute:
And tomorrow will mark one year since my first blog post! It's been a good year!
