Gathering Day 2:I forgot a very important activity! The White Elephant Epic Duels Match! We used the California Universe decks that we created and had an exciting mini-tournament! I ended up with Bobby’s deck, which was really very good. Lots of tennis action =) Judy won!
Gathering Day 3:
Monday began with another Frisbee golf trip for David, Joyce, Jack, Adam, Johnny and Eric though, and Serenity got to go too! She loved hiking around the woods, although she did ask to go visit the playground when they came across that!
Monday was the day for Descent! We got a brand new Descent set for Cali so we always have the option of playing when we come visit. They had even printed a brand new book of quests! Johnny was the OL first, and although he could have defeated the heroes early, he decided to make them suffer until they got to the fun part. This quest was evil because all the treasure chests were empty until they got to gold!!! Johnny still beat the heroes but only at the very last minute! We had a second game of Descent in the evening, which the heroes won. It was called the Chaos Cube, and things could have gotten really complicated!
We got out the party games and played a hilarious match of What Were You Thinking. David turned out to be the most “unique” thinker in the group. A couple of highlights… turns out when we think of India we all think of outsourcing, and I think curry. Coming up with a list of 5 aviators is really hard, especially when you write John Travolta and Gavin reads it out loud off your paper. Or when you forget the Wright brothers. And Robin Hood Men in Tights is still the best comedy movie of all time. =) And the top answer for Canada is “eh?”
We went back to the beach for more fun, mostly digging in the sand. We debated going back to the grocery store… for probably longer than we should have. See, we were getting very short on toilet paper… there was talk of rationing, fair allotments, until Johnny finally exclaimed, “let’s just go buy more!” Johnny was so funny Eric laughed till he cried.
We also played lots of Scene It and Tower Defense. Gavin won Scene It, and no one was surprised. =)
Day 4: Taco Tuesday!
The day began with a trip to the Farmer’s Market! There was a nice little Farmer’s Market on King’s Beach, so we visited it and got strawberries, peaches, corn on the cob, tomatoes and zucchini fresh from the farm! I also got a lemon crepe from the crepe stand, and Jack and Patricia got a huge bag of kettle corn. So I would say it was the perfect visit. =) After that Henry and Serenity got to play on the beach and the playground! Serenity had no hesitation about climbing all the way on top of the structure and sliding down the big twisty slide. We also walked down to the beach and waded for a while. A little boy came by and showed Serenity a little crawdad he had caught in a bucket. We called it a baby lobster though.
We went to a great little mini-golf place in King’s Beach. It had all these vintage holes. The kids were very cute, and even tried to putt a little bit! Mostly they just enjoyed climbing all over the course as the adults took turns chasing them and hitting their shots. I think the best golf moment was Patricia taking a couple of fantastic pool shots with her golf club =) They also had several extreme golf options, like where you take your first shot sitting down, or kick it with your foot instead of a club.
There was a great café just down the road from our house, the Blue Onion café. Joyce and Gavin picked up a menu from there, and discovered that Tuesday was Taco Tuesday! So we just had to go. We ended up going back there twice more, for a lunch and a brunch! They had so many choices! The tacos were very good. And the kids were very patient, and loved running around in this big wildflower field afterwards!
Henry and Serenity had lots of fun playing in the house. They aren't really at the age of playing together as much as playing side by side, but you could tell they liked having kids around. Especially when it came to Boinga Boinga Crash!!! Serenity would say, "Henry come back!!!" or "Henry boinga too!" (And she kept asking for Henry to boinga too when we got home. So even though she occasionally got frustrated with sharing space ("I can push!" "No Serenity, you can't push"), I just love these sweet moments =) (And as an update, today Henry said out of the blue... "Uncle Eric! Auntie Chrissie! Uncle Serenity!" =) So they both have fun memories!
