A New Game

While Shauna and Tom were here last weekend, we had a chance to try out a new board game that Tom had recently bought. It was called "Ticket to Ride" published by Days of Wonder.

The basic goal in the game is to complete various train routes between US cities. You get points based on how good you do at completing routes and how difficult the routes were to complete. This game was a blast and it really has a laundry list of things to like about it. It's primarily a strategy game, but there is enough luck woven into it that the smartest person at the table won't dominate and win every game. My proof... Tom didn't win until the 4th game. It was super easy to understand. We were playing after less than 5 minutes of going over the rules. It is not a super adversarial game, which is a plus if you have an overly competitive group of people playing. To win you really need to focus on building your routes and not concern yourself with thwarting someone else's plans. So, this is a really good game for people who get their feelings hurt during games that are a bit more cut-throat. Finally, it's not like Monopoly or some other games that take 2 days to play. Depending on how many people are playing, you can usually kick out a game in 30 to 60 minutes. I have to give this game 2 thumbs up and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is a fan of gaming. It says it's for people ages 8+, and I think I would agree with that. It's simple enough that a kid could understand it fairly quickly and all of us 20 and 30 somethings were enthralled with it too. Check it out!

Nathan Walks!

It was another busy weekend for us. Nathan's Uncle Logan was getting married. Aunt Shauna and Uncle Tom were coming to visit as well, so there wasn't a dull moment all weekend. Nathan was selected by Aunt Megan to be the ring bearer. Since he's not mobile yet I was to carry him, making me the ring bearer bearer I guess. Everything went ok on Nate's end of things during rehearsal, so we were optimistic for an uneventful walk down the isle for him. However, I was still armed with a spit rag in case he tried to shoot any bodily fluids out during his moment in the spotlight. Minutes before he was to go on, his eyes started to get heavy. Sure enough, when I walked him down the isle he was out cold prompting a chorus of "ohhhh's" from the crowd. Liv didn't get a picture of it, but I'm sure some will surface eventually.


The wedding was great and we're all ecstatic to have Megs as an official member of our family. Here's some of the better pics we managed to get...

We had some more excitement in addition to the wedding beforehand when Aunt Shauna got a hold of the boy and tried some of her PT tricks on him. She made a 5 month old boy walk!

My Son the Gorilla

Nate showed us a new trick yesterday. Right when I got home from work, Olivia was hollering at me from the living room to come see what the boy had started doing.

He was holding himself upright and doing a pretty good job of it too. He reminds me of a big silverback gorilla when he gets those arms spread out in front of him like that.

All he lacks is the teeth! Like father, like son I guess. I call this one drowsy gorilla...

Nathan Goes Swimming

With the weather finally warming up, we decided to stop by Great-Granddad Dudley's pool today and take our first dip of the season. We took along Nate's swim gear just in case the water was warm enough for him too. The water was 82 degrees when we got there. It was one of those deals where it's a little chilly when you first get in, but once you're used to it it's fine. So, we decided to let the boy take his first swim. We got him geared up in all of his UV protection clothes, slathered him in baby sunblock, and headed into the ol' swimmin' hole.

He had one of those "Wow, that's cold" gasps when we put his feet in, but he didn't start bawling or anything. So, that was good. We went straight to the baby float that Grandpa Mick bought him a couple weeks ago. He was rather expressionless for the most part, but I think he liked it.
He got so relaxed in there that we thought he was going to fall asleep. He looks like the aqua-pope or something in this one.
After a while, we were able to get some smiles out of him. Here he's showing off his new talent of sticking out his tongue.

When Grandma Dudley found out that the boy was trying out the pool for the first time, she quickly made her way over to the pool as well.

After swimming, the boy had some quality time with Great-Grandma Dudley...

...and Grandpa Mike too.

All in all, it went really well. He never freaked out or anything. He didn't show too many signs of sheer enjoyment, but he wasn't cranky at all either. I think he was a little overwhelmed with everything. I'm sure by the end of the summer he will go bananas whenever we go to the pool. He's bound to be a good swimmer, he's a Dudley!

The Boy of Summer

What do you do on a lazy Saturday when it's starting to warm up outside and your dad hasn't started the AC yet? Strip down to your skivvies and take a nap of course!

Roly Poly

Liv took the boy to her spanking class today in one of his new shirts from Aunt Shauna.

As expected, it was a hit. She said he weighed in at 15 lb, 12 oz putting him at 11 oz over the past 2 weeks. She also said that he is a couple inches taller than a boy that is a week older, and he's as tall as a 1 year old girl there as well. He is also starting to get good at rolling over...

I've never witnessed it, but Liv says he's been pulling his knees up under himself when he's on his belly. Crawling can't be very far behind that. Time to get out the play pen I think.

More Birthday Fun

In addition to the BBQ yesterday (which was great, thanks to everyone involved!), Olivia also got me another birthday treat. She hired Grandma Dudley to watch the boy for a few hours and took me to see Iron Man.

Being a fan of comic books, I really wanted to see this movie since I heard it was coming out. After seeing it, I was left with only three words... FAN FREAKIN TASTIC!!! If you like super hero movies, you will LOVE this movie. Even if you're not a huge fan of comic book movies, I think this movie could still be enjoyable to you. There's a lot of humor and the special effects are seamless. When I first heard that Robert Downey Jr was playing Tony Stark, I was a bit sceptical. Thankfully, I was very impressed with the results. There was a lot of character buildup to the movie, with much foreshadowing about a sequel (if you know enough about comics to spot it). Even with the emphasis on the plot and characters, there was still enough action and explosions to keep me satisfied. Another big plus was that the basic story stayed true to the comics. When I rate a movie I try to think of things that I would have done differently. I can honestly say that there's really nothing I would have changed here. It's safe to call this a must see for any fan of action movies. One last thing, make sure you stay until the end of ALL the credits for a special treat.