For my birthday on Saturday Aaron and I went to The Cheesecake Factory in Indy. We had a gift certificate and thought it was a perfect time to use it! The food was wonderful and there was so much of it! We ordered cheesecake but decided to wait to eat it so we could enjoy it more. After dinner we walked around in the mall that the restaurant was in. We felt a little out of place because this mall was ridiculously expensive. It wasn't quite full of things that Aaron and I would purchase. However...there was one store that we took a liking to. It was called The Game Preserve. I'm sure you can see from the name why we liked it so much. : ) They had a lot of games that are harder to find in other stores. I had so much fun looking at all the games they had. We didn't have too much time because they were about to close. It was probably a good thing because it was hard to control myself with birthday money in my purse! I did end up getting two games. We bought Carcassonne and Dutch Blitz. The next day we played Carcassonne and realized we needed two of the expansion packs so we ordered them online.

I just wanted to let you all know about the newest happening...my likness for Settlers of Catan. I know, I can't believe it either! I decided after playing Carcassonne, another strategy game, that I should try playing Settlers again since Aaron likes it so much. We took it slow and he explained it very well, as usual. I decided that it isn't so bad now that I understand it more. I actually beat Aaron 2 out of 3 games. He didn't mind though because it means that I'm starting to like it. : )

Those who know Megan and myself know that we are quite into the board game scene. We spend a good amount of evenings battling wills in anything from uno to scrabble to racko. There has always been a bit of a problem, however, with our game preferences. Sure, I like card games and the like, but really get revved up about group and strategy games. Playing game with just us two elimantes group games and leaves, yup that's right, the strategy games. The only problem, Megan does not share my same fondness.

That is...until last week. I've tried to bridge this gap. Not much success, however. Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, and Risk are all on Megan's "No" list. (Which stinks because all three are in my top 5 list.) Last week we had our friend Justin Reed over for supper before he left for Germany for a few days. He brought with him a game called "Carcassonne". We had both seen the game played before, but never played ourselves. We gave it a whirl and to my surprise, Megan really likes it. It's not even that she can put up with it...she actually enjoys the game! What a joy! Now, it may help she won the first game, but I'll take it.

This kind of breakthrough deserves to have Handel's Messiah playing in the background. That's what it makes me feel like anyway...

Last week my mom and sister came to visit and they, of course, brought the boys along! : ) I was so excited for them to come. Since I only work in the mornings we had more time. They got here in the afternoon and we stayed in the apartment for a little while. Jarrett sat on my lap and we looked at a book together. He is such a smart little boy! We went to the park but didn't stay long because it was really windy and Brayden was getting fussy. We decided to go on campus to get out of the wind and we played the bean bag game I got Aaron for Christmas. Jarrett wanted to be a big helper and pick up the bean bags after each round. In his cute little voice he said, "I get 'em." He's starting to talk so well! We came back to the apartment and made dinner. Since Aaron and I couldn't go home for Jett's birthday party we celebrated it here. I put two candles it his muffin for him to blow out. We got him a shirt and a basketball game for the bathtub. We played it a little bit before they left by sticking it to the oven door. : ) Brayden was such a good boy too. He is always so content to lay on the floor. What a good baby! I can't wait unti he's older so I can play basketball with him too!
Here are some more pictures from our fun afternoon!