We went to Gen Con!

Our game-loving family went to Gen Con this year.  It is a yearly, 4 day gaming convention currently held in Indianapolis.  Way back in the spring, I read somewhere (the newspaper? a magazine?) that Gen Con had a Family Fun Day where tickets for a family of four were $30.  Well, that sounded pretty cool and we love to play games here, so I bought a pass for Andy and the big three.  Then, I decided that Liam might want in on the action, too (and me), so I bought another family pass.  

The boys had been getting more excited all summer.  We pulled up pictures of some of the sites from Gen Con and they loved seeing all of it, especially the cosplayers (the folks who dress like different characters from whereever).  I think originally, some of the boys had plans to dress up, too, but in the end, all the guys wore a superhero shirt.  Kella wore a princess looking dress and Kinley wore her Doctor Who onesie.  What about me?  I just wore a black t and shorts.  

When we got there, we had to walk almost the length of the convention center to get to the help desk.  We were missing some name tags.  Lucky for us we had Kinley in the stroller and that qualified us for the short line at the help desk.  We got ourselves all straightened out in about 10 mins.  Perfect.  Then, we readied ourselves to wander around the convention center.

Let the fun begin!

A family of 8 usually attracts attention.  The Gen Con photographer took our picture for the Gen Con FB page!  We got him to take this one with our camera (in his picture, everyone was looking at the camera).

Different rooms were dedicated to different games and/or vendors.  The first (and last) room we were in was the room for Yu-Gi-Oh.

There were games to play.  Some were free.

And, some we were supposed to pay for. Oops.  We didn't know.  We left this area after finding out.

Kinley blessed us with a nap.

The exhibition hall had TONS of vendors and games.  I was able to get a pic of Liam with this Star Wars dude.  

We found some cool weapons to hit each other with.

We saw some super-tall super heroes.

The boys were too excited to ride up and down the escalator.  (really, it's like we never get out of the house or something)

The boys let me take their picture with a neat statue.

Just a shot of the exhibition hall.

Ewan and Liam with their badge and buttons.  That day, you could go through the convention and collect buttons for your lanyard.  A cool way to see lots of what was going on.

We saw a juggling act who was very excited to have a row full of ginger children watching his performance.

Last stop, back to the Yu-Gi-Oh room where the boys got to play a giant-sized version of the game.  

We stayed for the whole day and had a blast.  The kids were tired but happy at the end.  I already know the start date for next year-July 30th.  I know we will go for the family day, and maybe one more.  Andy would like to take the older boys and actually sit down and play some games.  And, Saturday is the parade for cosplayers.  That would be fun to see, too.

You can't go to Gen Con and not get some games (well, at least we can't).  We got a cup full of dice (random dice of different shapes and colors-Liam was in heaven!) and two games: Roll Through the Ages-the Bronze Age and Pathfinder.  Both games are fun.  Liam was even able to play the Roll Through the Ages game.  The Pathfinder game is more of a roll-playing game for the older kids.  They like that one, too.  I think next year, we will go in armed with a list of recommended games to look for.  Although, we did pretty well this year.