Left, Right, Center, Screaming Nephews!

After months of promising to visit Carrie's big brother & his family and life getting in the way, we finally made the trip across the mountains this weekend. Off to the desert of Washington we went for some family time!

Almost Uncle Michael, Malia, and Aunt Carrie, just your average bunch of weirdos!

While we were there we spent some time relaxing and going on a few little adventures. Jason, Carrie's brother, took us to a little craft bazar; Carrie and Jason spent lots of weekends as kids at events like this one with their Grandma Dot, so wandering the tables was nostalgic and fun thing to share with Michael and Jason's kids. Of course we had to get snow cones and hot dogs before heading home!

Malia and Carrie and drawings!

Through the afternoon, Carrie and her niece spent time drawing together, while Michael got his butt kicked in football with the boys. He claims the ref was biased, but Jason and Carrie know better... We ate tacos (made by Carrie, so they were delicious!) and enjoyed more family time with Grandma Jo and Aunt Sherry, then caught the Tri-City American's hockey game. Before we headed off to the game, Jason's wife introduced us to a new game: Left, Right, Center!

L, R, C dice and candy markers!

The game is very simple, you have 3 dice to pass and each player starts with 3 markers. The game comes with little plastic chips for markers, but we played with candy instead (the nephews were VERY excited about the candy)! Each die is marked on 3 sides with dots, and the other sides are marked individually with L, R, and C, which stand for left, right, and center. So you have a 50/50 chance of rolling a dot or a letter on each die.

"Lucky bananas!"

To play, you roll as many dice as you have pieces of candy in your pile, so 3 to start. For each letter you roll, you must pass a marker to either the person on your left (L) or right (R), or place it in the center (C). Markers that get placed in the center are out of the game. For each dot rolled, you get to keep a piece! Throughout the game, the markers will be passed back and forth between players and the "pot" of markers in the center of the table will grow. The last person with a single marker in front of them wins! Not only does that person get the joy of beating every one else (as Carrie's nephew, JJ, would say, "Ba-Bam!") but they also win the pot comprised of all the center pieces.

"Candy, candy, candy!"

"Ba-Bam!"

Our games always ended with the last 2 pieces being passed around the table for a bit with loud nephews cheering for which ever side of the candy they were currently on, then when that last "C" was rolled cheers and screams! JJ, the youngest of Jason's kids won almost every time; he was rolling in the candy! Lucky little dude!

With a table ranging from Grandma to my 7 year old nephew, this was the perfect game to get everyone involved and excited without things being too complicated! The biggest struggle was keeping the dice on the table when the boys got worked up, but seeing them having fun was a blast! This game is excellent for family get togethers and given the simplicity of the rules (and the obvious tie to gambling) one can make this fun for a group of adults as well (just throw in some money and maybe some booze in the mix and you've got yourself a party!)

Hockey games are good times for brother snuggles.

The nephews won a few, Carrie won a few, and the Tri-City Americans won, then we made it back across the mountains in the rain! Successful weekend in our eyes! Check back soon for more games and explorations!

=^.^=, Carrie and Michael