Salt Con was held the first weekend in March. Seth volunteered while I was at work, then I met him in the afternoons with the kids in tow. On Saturday we had a glorious all day date. We love that our kids are getting old enough that they can play games with us and handle a few hours every day at the convention. Phin and Millie loved the big cardboard cutouts.
Our kids LOVED the giant CONNECT-4 out in the lobby. They played with the pieces and played the game.
They also played one of the Red Raven games.
The first two days of the convention we focused on playing games the kids could play with us.
They also had a great time playing all of the dexterity games out in the main lobby.
Seth and I tested out Mars Open, which is basically a dexterity golf game where you flip pieces past the obstacles that you have created.
The kids also spent some time watching shows on devices and hanging out.
We met up with some friends and they taught us Everdell.
We even managed to get Silas to take a nap in his stroller.
DROP IT was also a fun little kid game.You basically take turns dropping shapes into the game. You try to not have the shape you drop touch another piece that is the same shape or the same color.
Phin loves to just play with the pieces of tile games. This was 5-minute chase and is basically a cop and robbers type of game.
Millie picked out a HABA Unicorn game that we played at the game day back in November. This girl is all about unicorns, mermaids, etc.
Silas was a pretty good sport and scooted around the floor playing with toys or sat on one of our laps while we played.
Our friends also taught me how to play Orleans. Seth had played this a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. It thought it was a good worker placement game.
Phin and Millie also played with the pieces of an ice cream game.
I had been hoping to play this game...Reef. I heard about it on the Dice Tower website. It had good reviews and the reviewer said he liked it as much as Azul. It was simple to play and quick.
We got Scott to come up one night and play with us.
On Saturday we focused on playing some of the hot games. I really enjoyed this Stained Glass version of Azul.
Seth and I also played in a Sagrada tournament. I took 4th place and missed out on 3rd place by just two points...so the organizer took pity on me and gave me a prize too.
We also had friends teach us WINGSPAN. This was probably the hottest game of the convention. There was just one copy in the game library and people walked by the table and stopped to watch us play. It not only is a gorgeous looking game but it plays so well and is easy to learn. The theme is birds...which sounds kind of weird but it really works. There is a huge stack of cards that gives information about a specific bird and uses facts about the bird in the well crafted game. Here is an article that describes how the board game was created.
Seth claimed the win...but I came in second.
Our friends also taught us Villainous which is themed after the Disney Villains. It wasn't my favorite game but I could see how people with a love for all things Disney would enjoy this game.
We also played the game Petra...which had a model of Petra built right into the game. This game was slow for me...it was one of those games where I just try to figure out how to make the game END because I am not loving it.
Phin also played in a Pitch Car tournament. He was one of the youngest players.
He was at a slight disadvantage because of the height of the table...so Seth helped him reach the track.
He got a participation award of a Hot Wheels car and a card game and was so proud of himself.
Our kids watched a couple of movies on the laptop while we played one last game.
This was the last game we played. It was a worker placement game but I didn't particularly enjoy it.
This is a picture of our final Salt Con haul. Some were prizes, some we bought and some came from the math trade where we traded away some of the games that don't get enough table time.
