….and I’m just finding out about this NOW?!?!

Full Circle Bar, home of the Brewskeeball National Championship.

Some parts of growing up in Jersey I try to run away from with speed and vigor. A fondness for skeeball is not one of them.

Been spending a lot of time this week playing with and exploring the new iPhone, getting caught up on the last three years of technical and social innovations I’ve been in the dark about. Cut to scene in our kitchen on Tuesday where I was again giving an awesome demonstration of the capabilities of the Lightsaber app, through which you can brandish your space phone and have a simulated — even musically soundtracked — laser sword battle. Upon completion, roommate Brittany said to me: “So is that how you’re going to get a new girlfriend?”

As I was loading up other apps, I couldn’t help but be baffled why the New York Times app, which provides updates from all sections of  the paper in an eye-friendly format, was free, while this skeeball app — and all its incumbent Jersey shore nostalgia — cost 99 cents.

If I can drop a dollar to spend hours trying to win pretend plastic combs and erasers, I can justify spending at least another dollar on the top news of the day.

But you shouldn’t have to pay for the lightsaber app. Lightsaber, like information, wants to be free.

Under the guise of running an errand, my boyfriend took me to play Skeeball! While I have been known to spoil surprises in the past without meaning too, tonight’s worked.

He and I have been addicted to it since it came out for the iPhone.  Well, he has been addicted.  I just love Skeeball.  With Wednesday being date night where we make sure and do something date-like, this was a fun choice.  He’s so good at coming up with things to do…or maybe it’s that I’m really bad at it.

Who knew at 32 that Skeeball would make me ache.  You have to hunch over to play and hold your body at a funny angle.  As I child I don’t remember my shoulders aching the next morning.  Of course we played a lot – a whole lot.

I will boast and say I beat my boyfriend.  I’m not a big gloater, but if you knew my boyfriend, you’d celebrate too.  He is good at everything.  I’m not kidding.  He just has this ability to pick up something and be really good at it.  Most of the time this trait is awesome, except when it comes down to competitive games and situations.  His concentration sky rockets, while simultaneously the conversation plummets.  He’s focused on the big “Plan.”  Maneuvers, a scheme, which is great in war and when you want to kick someone’s ass in game, but not so much on date night, especially when you are dating a chatter box.

Maybe because we could both play at the same time, or it was because the games are short, or maybe it was the eight -year-old girl hopping away on the Dance Dance game that kept me entertained, but we both had fun.  I’m sure my winning helped a bit too.  I scored some loot with the slew of tickets we won.

It was much more fun watching the kids take ticket purchases as serious as day traders.

I also saw this, this, thing in the cabinet.  It’s so ugly and tacky that I find myself needing it!

Oh, I beat him at Pacman too

**Correction, Foster pointed out the fact that we were playing Ms. Pac-Man.  I stand corrected.  I still won!**

I didn’t think it could be done.  But I beat him.  Next time, he might win, but I have it on record.  Yay me.

When IAAPA rolls around next month there will be plenty to celebrate in the amusement industry but one thing that is already catching some attention is the 100th anniversary of skee-ball, which will be receiving special honors at the show. Skee-ball has been a stalwart in the out-of-home entertainment sector since it was invented in 1909, withstanding the test of time despite other gaming advances that have come along since. One company has also developed a new app for the iPhone that allows players to have skee-ball in the palm of their hand.

A few more details on the developments happening around skee-ball’s 100th birthday can be found here.

[Discuss on the Forums]

Ugh, did you know the iphone actually has a skeeball app?

I like playing skeeball.

Correction: I love playing skeeball.

This is a problem for at least two reasons. First, the arcade has gone by the wayside and it’s hard to find skeeball in a convenient location. Second, generally skeeball is found in places marketed toward children.

I don’t have children.

Nevertheless, I generally don’t have a problem going to family-oriented “fun” centers even though I don’t have children, and I realized something important the other day. It’s not creepy when I go to one of these places, because I’m a woman.  When a lone adult man is playing skeeball around a bunch of kids, it could possibly be seen as suspicious behavior. When a woman is playing skeeball around a bunch of kids, you assume that she is with one of the children – as a mother, an aunt, or a babysitter. I actually have a reason to be glad that I finally look old enough that I could potentially have children.

Surely there are men out there who've read Twilight... right?

I also realized that this benefit also extends to my fondness for perusing the young adult sections of book stores. Sometimes I read young adult fiction, because sometimes my brain needs to relax with some frivolous angst and sweet resolutions.

If I were a lone man browsing the young adult section of a Border’s, it’s possible that I would be viewed as a pervert. (Unless I happened to look like an exasperated father.) But, as a woman, I’m either buying a gift or I have odd taste in books. Perhaps someone might think me weird (or sad), but that doesn’t bother me.

I am weird.

I don’t usually like the double standards that exist for men and woman, and this one is certainly unfair for childless men who like to play skeeball and read young adult fiction, but for once the double standard actually works in my favor.

So, I’m not complaining.

Sorry for the long absence.  No real reason for it, aside from being busy at work and having nothing special on my mind.  I was going to write a long, much deeper post about health care reform, but that will take some time.  So for the time being, while I still don’t have anything special on my mind, I figured I’d write something anyway. 

- I realize that they’re terribly cheesy, but I do kind of like Bud Light’s new “Tailgate Approved” commercials, especially the one for the Grooler.  When the guy uses the hot dog as a phone to call the future, that gets me every time.

- Mrs. Cutter and I are off to South Carolina this weekend for a wedding.  Does anyone have any recommendations as to what there is to do in Charleston?  We’re probably going to tour a plantation, but aside from that, we should have some free time.  Suggestions are welcome.

- We’ve reached the last week of the baseball season.  The Phillies can clinch the National League East tonight with a win or a Braves loss.  Even if they clinch, I’d like to see them play hard for the remainder of the week for two reasons: 1. So that they don’t get complacent and lose their edge.  2. So that they can get at least the second best record in the league and get homefield advantage for at least the first round.

I’ll have more to write about the Phillies season and playoff hopes in a later blog though.

- On the other hand, the Nationals have surged past 100 losses on the season!  On Friday, Mrs. Cutter, Squinty and I went on a group trip to the game with Social Sports of Bethesda.  It was an amazing deal.  For $15, we took a bus from Union Jacks in Bethesda, received free beer on the bus, had tickets in the Miller Lite Beer Pen and got three free beers, and then got free beer on the bus ride back to Bethesda.  Plus, we got to see fireworks!  Making the fireworks even more special was that while watching them, some guy wearing a jersey that said “America” on it with the number 1 walked by.

- Mrs. Cutter just purchased a new car.  Relatively painful this time around, but I wish the whole process could be easier.  It makes you wish more places used “no haggle pricing.”

- Another Yom Kippur has come and gone.  Usually, after almost a full day of fasting I become a bit loopy.  But for some reason, the loopiness didn’t really hit me this year until after I ate.  During the day, after coming home from services, I decided to watch an episode of the G.I.Joe cartoon that I remember had been on TV on Yom Kippur back in 1986.  You may ask how I remember that this particular episode was on back then.  The answer is that I have a really good memory of specific details sometimes. 

In case you were curious, the episode is entitled “Satellite Down” and involved G.I.Joe and Cobra both pursuing a downed spy satellite.  In the cartoon, there was a big rivalry between Spirit (the Indian tracker) of G.I.Joe and the Cobra ninja Storm Shadow.  In the comics (and the recent movie) Storm Shadow’s big rival is Snake Eyes.  I’m not sure why they changed this for the cartoon.

- Because a couple of friends were in the audience, Mrs. Cutter and I decided to watch an episode of Maury yesterday.  I really didn’t know what I was missing by not watching afternoon talk shows.  Not only do you get the ridiculously trashy guests (Quick aside: The movie Idiocracy may have been spot on.  It does seem like the biggest morons are the most fertile and we’re headed towards being a society of imbeciles) you get awesome lawyer commercials featuring William Shatner.

- Next week, my skeeball league begins.  Yes, I’m playing in a skeball league:  http://dcskee.com/wordpress.   It should be tremendously awesome.

I’m sitting here at my desk eating some Ketchup chips (thanks Dyana and Canada!), reading a bit of gaming news on Kotaku, when I decide that a carbonated beverage would hit the spot. Lucky for me, I have a 12-pack of Dr. Pepper at my desk (courtesy of the IGDA Writing SIG’s Leanne Taylor – Ooo, I need to blog about Austin GDC last week, don’t I?) and I reach for one. The others roll down to take its place (I could see through the handle hole) and it took me back to my skeeball days as a kid.

OVER THE LINE! Donnie, mark it zero.

Remember throwing the wooden balls up the lane without so much as a glance to see if you were scoring points? I was always fascinated by the remainder of my wooden ammo rolling down my way. And there was often a window to see the remainder of your shots. Sad was the time when I would come to the last wooden sphere. I would try to make it really count and either granny-throw it into another lane or try to put some sort of strange spin on it that resulted in a 12 mph roll that would just crest the lip up to the scoring area and fall in the “gutter”. Tragic. At least until I would drop the next token in and see a new full rack of opportunities roll my way.

Do you have any fond/funny childhood memories of gaming? I wouldn’t mind compiling a little list of “I remember when”s.

Arcade bowling style games are very popular. In the real world, skee-ball is probably the most recognized of these. In the iPhone world there have been several who have risen to the challenge, but Ramp Champ, the newest game from The Iconfactory and DSMediaLabs, brings a very interesting and addictive twist to this genre.

Boasting an interface designed by The Iconfactory (and award-winning designer Louie Mantia), Ramp Champ takes traditional skee-ball and throws it down in a series of four stylized arcade games, based on the idea of flicking balls at targets of varying points. Right out of the proverbial box, users can play a variety of mini-games, including ones set in a clown environment, an underwater environment, an arcade-style outer space environment or, for Apple fanboys out there, a classic “Icon Garden” style setting. Unlike traditional skee-ball, each environment has multiple targets of varying weight as well as hidden easter eggs.

Each mini-game rewards great gameplay by providing tickets, like a traditional arcade. A “loot” section showcases a page of prizes per each environment, allowing users to trade in tickets for a very diverse collection of prizes. Each mini-game also provides for three goals and awards players with collectible trophies upon completing those goals.

The game also supports in app purchasing of additional environments, including an Adventure Pack which adds ninja and tiki island themed levels as well as a Challenge Pack which adds fantasy and dental themed levels. These additional in app purchases are 99 cents and also include additional goals and prizes.

Ramp Champ is a very fun and addicting game and perfect for long term gameplay or just when you have a few minutes to spare. The original soundtrack and amazing graphics make this a definite must have. Ramp Champ is $1.99 and available on the App Store.

P.S. Among the easter eggs you might find in this game is everyone’s favorite dogcow, Clarus. When playing The Icon Garden level, knock over all of the icons and then one of the two differently colored flowers in the second wave. If you’ve played Ramp Champ, tell me what you think!

SkeeBall has an issue (ticket jam?) and wants us to CAL+L support

Penny Arcade playing Skee Ball against each other (Gabe won)

This ended up being especially great, because my sister and her boyfriend (who lived in and grew up in, respectively, New Jersey) were there. It’s a game somewhat synonymous with that state (Chasing Amy anyone?). My girlfriend and I are also big fans, a game we can easily both agree and compete on. It requires a weird kind of flow and anti-precision to trounce and obviously more physicality than gamers may be used to. As such it provided an interesting challenge to two very skilled Omeganauts.

I apologize that I don’t have the whole thing recorded or even nicely stitched together, but I do have the winner!

Who doesn’t love tossing wooden balls?

I’ve been thinking about 1989 a lot lately.

My 20^th high school reunion is coming up, for one thing. And we also just took a weekend road trip and stayed with one of the friends I made during my first week as a freshman at Bowling Green that same year. Besides the standard milestones of graduation and starting college, though, there are other events that year which have stuck with me, either because they marked small forks in a path that turned out to be major course corrections further down the road, or because they’ve just echoed in ways I couldn’t have foreseen.

This one involves a skeeball.

By mid-August 1989, high school was two full months in the rear-view mirror. My best friend Adam and I were getting ready for our move to BGSU while our other closest friends were taking off for various parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. It had also been five weeks since I’d watched my then-girlfriend pass through the Akron-Canton Airport security checkpoint to catch her plane home to Germany.

I’m pretty much an 18-year-old in an emotional blender, whirling around these weird weeks between everything I’ve ever known and whatever’s waiting in college.

So the girl down the street and I decided summer would be best wrapped up and celebrated with a day at Cedar Point. Amusement parks and fairs, especially at night, are among my favorite places in the world.

The day before the trip, she backed out.

I stuck to the plan, though, and, for the first time in my life, went to an amusement park for a day flying solo. And having grown up within a couple hours of Cedar Point (in fact, I’d already been there once that summer, just after graduation), there was pretty much nothing new waiting for me, so I set out to make it just a relaxing day of riding – mostly coasters – and people-watching.

And this turns out to be fun: I ride coasters; I walk around; I make pretentiously-voiced observations in my notebook because, you know, that’s what I do. Midafternoon, when the sun’s high and I’m getting a headache, I just stretch out and take a nap on a bench, listening to the bumper cars and the Wildcat coaster, and am surprisingly refreshed afterward.

So a little later, toward dinnertime, I think, I’m in line for the old wooden Blue Streak (where, just one summer but seemingly a lifetime later, I will spot Trent Reznor and chat for a minute), and there’s a girl behind me in line who’s making eye contact as the queue winds back and forth.

Now, mind you: Spending a summer evening with girls you’d meet at an amusment park was one of those unrealized ideal daydreams for me. It never happened, of course, because actually talking to a girl I’d never met just didn’t happen in my world.

But now, there’s this brunette and her friend in line, back and forth, back and forth, and there’s a smile now, and then, good God, she just said a quiet, “Hello,” when we passed that last time!

Simple manners? Just filling the awkward space? More? I have No. Freaking. Clue.

After the ride, I kind of dawdle in the general vicinity and see if they’ll catch up to me or anything, but they don’t.

Oh, well. With that boldness which only comes with an absolute certainty that I’ll never see them again, I resolve to speak up if our paths do cross once more.

And then they do.

It’s after sunset now, and the moon is rising over the lake, which reaches the horizon in almost all directions, and the girl from the Blue Streak line greets me like she knows me: “Hey – where’d you go?”

And just like that, Nicole (that’s her) and Markie (her friend) and I are hanging out and laughing and taking on the Demon Drop and stopping on the midway to marvel at the awesome lunar eclipse that’s unfolding overhead. (Yes, seriously: Aug. 17, 1989.)

We talked a little bit about summer ending and heading to college in a couple weeks, but mostly we just wandered and rode and enjoyed ourselves.

Under the fluorescent lights of an arcade, we wound up playing a few games of skeeball – which I’ve always loved – and I won a cheap stuffed starfish barely bigger than my hand, and of course, it belonged to them.

And then, this happened: The skeeball machine I was playing spat out an extra ball. A tenth ball, there in the chute.

Now that, I said, is a souvenir. And as they laughed and nodded, I grabbed it and stuck it in my backpack and we speedwalked out onto the midway.

They dubbed me the Thieving Poet.

We stayed late, and then said goodbye, and that was it.

I kept that skeeball for years, and pretty quickly it became a personal symbol of more than just that Cedar Point trip.

All through college, in my dorm rooms and apartments, it sat on my desks, a wooden lightning rod for memory and a reminder of that summer between endings and beginnings, of energy and possibility and small, random things that matter. It inspired a short story during one of my creative writing courses – one a particularly feisty professor actually liked – and years later, I wrote it into what is probably my favorite scene in Crossing Decembers.

The skeeball is no longer in my possession. Hasn’t been for more than 15 years now, and if you read the book, you can probably figure out where it went.

Besides: I’m never really going to lose it.

At the downtown Water Taxi Beach, these pristine skeeball machines are waiting to eat money. If you’re lucky and hit some high numbers, they’ll spit out tickets, which can be cashed in for shiny trinkets and gewgaws. Four dollars in tokens might buy a fifty-cent key ring in the shape of a shark. I should know!

I love Skeball. It’s like bowling but funner and better and you win stuff at the end. I want to become a professional Skeeball player or marry one or something. I also want a Skeeball machine in my house. I am going to always win.

Skee-Ball; rolling, scoring, high-fiving, and drinking. Watch as the BrewSkee-Ball league explains themselves, the league, and their finale: the Best Roller of Skeeson 10!

YouTube link here.

Soooo The First Lady gets all sucked into these reality shows – Amazing Race, Biggest Loser, True Beauty, American Idol, and of course The Bachelor.  This means that on almost any given night the TV at skeeball headquarters is tuned to one of these.  (Either that or I’m forced to sequester myself in the back room with the 7″ tv courtesy of Mr. Burgundy)

Last night was no exception as it was apparently The Bachelor finale and homeboy Jason had to choose between Melissa and Molly.  Spoiler Alert – He picked Melissa.  But then 6 weeks later he changed his mind and picked Molly. And I think I figured out why.

He obviously, just as I do, bases the majority of his big decisions around skeeball.  What to drink from the fridge – a juice box or a 40 of Schlitz.  I’m obviously going 40.  What to tip the cocktail waitress after a long night of bevvys – a 10 or a Hundo.  I’m obviously going hundo.  And this situation was no different.  He initially picked Melissa, without weighing the skeeball ramifications.  Then when he and Melissa and his crazy weirdo son Ty all went to Chuck E. Cheese’s for some “family fun”, the shocking horror was revealed – Melissa sucked at skeeball.

This began to eat away at him and he finally realized he had made a mistake.  I mean clearly Molly is the better skee-baller – she’s got the lanky build,the competitive edge, and the fire in her eyes.  She doesn’t lose in skeeball.  Melissa just doesn’t have it – I guarantee she’s a ball-chucker.  You know what I’m talking about.  These pretty girls that come into the league and last about a skeeson or two because they can’t roll well – they take the ball into their stiff arm and without any real grace or agility, they chuck the ball at the lane – no aiming, no bending over, no soft release – just chuck. Chuck Chuck Chuck.  And I guarantee Melissa was a ball-chucker.

As a matter of fact, I bet Molly could even kick Jason’s a$$ in skeeball.  He’d be too busy crying/chasing his crazy son/crying/checking out other chicks/crying to focus on his 40.  Yes, it’s a no-brainer, Molly is the best skeeballer of the bunch.

Now it’s your turn America – Who’s the best skeeballer from The Bachelor?

Yes, the title says it all.

It was candlestick bowling – which is an absurd little invention… a cross between skeeball and regular bowling: a skeeball-size ball and pins without the curves. It is a frustrating game. You get three tries per go and two go’s before your turn is up. Modified bowling. The frustration can be amusing or self-deprecating, depending on your mood.

Besides me, there was one Catholic and one Jew. Everyone else (+12 people) were Mormons! Lalala.

So precious. My floormates Pat & Frem. They were the ones who invited me to go bowling.

Faceless

Ha. Crappiest pictures ever.

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7 exposure HDR….click image for full size……

It’s 50 cents on the big sign, but it’s 75 cents on the coin slot at the bottom of the frame…. Included on HDR Spotting

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SkeeBall, Coney Island, NYC

It’s been a little while since I had the time to do an arcade location review but hopefully soon I’ll be able to get back onto that. In the meantime it’s great to see papers covering some of the arcades in their area, as is the instance with The Press Enterprise in California. They take a general look at the arcade scene and how it has declined since the 80’s but also at a local arcade business that has been running since 1952 called the Big Bear Arcade. It looks pretty cool there and they have a lot of classics to go around including some great skeeball games too. Overall it’s a great article and it does point out the effect that die-hard fans have on keeping arcades alive, albeit it does focus a lot on how things aren’t like they were in the 80’s anymore but that is always common to do since that is still when things were best for arcades. On top of the article they also have a video but I couldn’t upload it to the site so here is the link.

["Die-hard fans keep handful of Inland-Area arcades aline - The Press Enterprise"] (Image credit: Greg Vojtko) [Discuss on the Forum]

I’ve never participated in competitive eating, but I think I could have a future in this so-called sport.

My friend Kristin and I met up at the Lake of the Ozarks.  Besides a loose time to meet under a big Indian, all of our pre-planning involved food.  Deep fried catfish was Kristin suggestion. Ice cream and fudge were mine.  Other than that we were at our own whim.

Skeeball was played.  Kristin dominated Indiana Jones pinball.  I took the title for South Park.  We even through in a little Dance, Dance, Revolution for good measure.

But the highlight of the trip was food, mounds and mounds of food.  It started and ended with a quest for catfish.  I’d done some research and found Camp Bagnell Fish and Steakhouse,  allegedly where the locals go for such delicacies as catfish and frog legs.  After driving down a deserted dirt road, we found it was closed on Wednesdays.

But we persevered, ending up at J. B. Hooks. It promised seafood and a view.  We were starving and both sounded great.  Alas, there was no catfish on the menue.  No, only fish from the actual sea.  Kristin got a huge plate of muscles and I settled on a burger.   I left very full.

And then we went and ate ice cream.  After discussing our flavor options with the fellow, I settled on a cup of Moose Track ice cream.  Chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups and fudge swirls–what was there not to love?

So what are two girls to do after eating lunch followed by ice cream?  Buy fudge of course!  Ater sampling a few different types Kristin and I both settled on bring home some Snickers fudge for our friends and family.  It prety much tasted like the best snickers bar ever.  A thick layer of chocolate fudge topped with gooey caramel and peanuts.  I’m drooling just thinking about it.

Then we took a brief break from eating.  We headed to the arcade and then the outlet mall, which was its own form of gluttony.   But by dinner we’d returned to our face-stuffing ways, finally finding catfish at the Happy Fisherman.  A restaurant where your catfish is served by barely intelligible baba’s in a kitschy mixture of old nautical supplies and finding Nemo curtains.  The service was a bit slow but you can’t expect Grandma to move like she used to.

Kristin and I split a catfish meal.  It wasn’t the best friend catfish ever, but it wasn’t half-bad either.  Plus, I like to believe there was a little old lady frying it up in the kitchen.  After declaring myself stuffed, Kristin asked if I wanted desert and was easily talked into strawberry shortcake.  To be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever turned down strawberry shortcake.  I can take or leave the whipped cream or ice cream, but there’s something about a warm biscuit topped with juicy fresh strawberries and sugar.  Good god, what a divine way to end the day!

Kristin and I parted ways, our belly’s full and our future’s in competitive eating looking bright.

Gluttony–the most delicous sin.

Ok, I’ll admit it to anyone who asks I LOVE to play the games on MadeBig! I spend hours just looking at the screen and playing all the different games that are on there.  Today I’ve spent the last few hours playing SkeeBall and it is one of my favorites along with the Jigsaw Puzzles and Mahjong.  I am trying so hard to get my name on the high score board but it seems that all my efforts are going to waste, everyone else who is on there is getting the higher scores.  Anyways I hope everyone had a fantastic Fathers Day and I hope you have a good week! Back to games on Madebig….

I am feeling happy and humbled all at the same time.  I found out this past week that my entry was chosen to represent St. Luke’s in the Wisconsin Hospital Association’s Employee Pride contest.  Andy and I get an overnight stay at the Kalahari Waterpark and Resort in the Wisconsin Dells and we will attend an awards ceremony where my entry will be read.  So the good news is that my primary purpose for entering – sharing my story to help spread awareness about the importance of compassionate care — is being achieved.  The awkward part is that we traditionally publish the winning entry in our newsletter and I am the editor.  But I think I found a clever way to address that.  My boss loved it anyway.

The bonus?  The Kalahari has an arcade.  With skeeball.  And I am a skeeball FREAK.  I love it.  And I kick ass at it.  W00t!

MP

Talk about sensory overload, we had the crazy idea to take Liam to Chuck E. Cheese.

Jeremy had the day off and we thought it might be an entertaining place to bring Liam. Well, it certainly was entertaining and I don’t know who had more fun, Liam or us.

Liam really is too small to play most of the games. We would try to play with him, but after just a few seconds of playing a game, Liam would run to another one.

We quickly learned we didn’t need to buy tokens, because Liam would play a game with or without them. He didn’t know the difference and he certainly wasn’t interested in collecting tickets for a prize.

Jeremy and I laughed a lot as we thought back to our childhoods and our times at Chuck E. Cheese. They were playing eighties flashback music, so it was almost as if it hadn’t been 20 years since our last visit. haha.

This was Liam’s favorite game and he was actually pretty good at it. You throw ping pong balls into buckets. You can see Liam throws the ping pong ball off and it misses the bucket and the entire game for that matter. It was game in itself for Liam to chase after the ball.

Who doesn’t love skeeball?

Liam sits in a virtual flight game. It was his idea, but he doesn’t seem to sure about it after the game starts.

Here you can see him on the TV while riding on the flight game.

Jeremy beat me at a basketball duel.

My little jockey rides a horse in a virtual racing game. I doubt he’ll grow up to be a horse jockey considering he’s probably already reached the height and weight limit. =)

He’s not sure what to think!

Liam takes his friend Barney for a ride in a choo choo train.

It looks like they are having a conversation.

Liam takes directions from Bob the builder on how to use the back hoe.

Down the slide in the toddler play area.

With a smile like that, I suppose we’ll have to go back, someday.