World Adventures Sneaks In With Birthdays Galore

This entry sees the installation of the first game expansion, World Adventures. I have played with this expansion some in the past, though not as much as I might have wanted to, and things were severely buggy last time I played it. I *think* most of the bugs with traveling have been resolved now from what I've read, but we shall see. I've also installed the High End Loft Stuff pack. After giving it some thought, I decided that when I install an expansion I'll also install any of the stuff packs that came out after it but before the next expansion. Installing these two packs hasn't had any immediate impact on the Medina-Britt household, but hopefully it will start to figure in soon.

Returning to the story, the day after Carolyn's death passed fairly uneventfully. Damien had the day off for some reason (His work schedule said he was supposed to work, and I got a notice about the carpool, but it never showed up and when I clicked the "go to work" button it told me he doesn't work for 2 days yet), so I had him working on his writing skill. Charles tended the garden with a little help from Carina (forgot to send her out to help until he was almost done) then spent most of the rest of the day crying about his sister's death. Dylan worked on his current novel some more, and when the laptop broke, I had Jeanna fix it (she still didn't get zapped). Adrianna went to her first day of work and ended up working late, and Carina spent most of the day out socializing after going to the bistro to turn in an opportunity (i.e., I sent her out then left her to her own devices). Benito finished one painting, sold it, then puttered around the house most of the day doing little. He had just started working on another one when Grim came for him around 6PM. He died having contributed 3 points to the challenge.

Benito Britt's Achievements

• Traits - Brave
• LTW - Chess Legend
• Skills - Logic: Grand Master

Damien consoled himself about his father's death by making love with his wife Adrianna. The next morning, she wasn't feeling so well, but she went to work anyway. The day passed fairly routinely with Dylan and Damien both working on writing novels. Damien had the day off again and apparently this is some new "personal time" feature because around the time he would have gotten off I got a message that he'd received his pay for personal time off. Jeanna passed the time on the treadmill then later coached Charles on it.

When Adrianna got home that evening she headed out to the hot tub to relax for awhile. She sat out there for a few hours until a sudden odd feeling in her stomach made her get out. Once she had, her belly popped out and she realized she was pregnant.

Another ho hum day after that. This family is really pretty boring right now. There was this awkward moment though when Adrianna went up to talk to Charles right after he and Jeanna had been making love. She just walked right in before he'd had a chance to get dressed again and he just stood there in the nude talking with her like it didn't bother him at all.

The following evening, Adrianna went into labor. She and Damien rushed to the hospital, and she gave birth a baby girl they named Eugenia. She got the traits Absent-Minded and Athletic, the hidden trait Makes No Messes (daughter of a maid), and her favorites are Chinese music, Vegetarian Lobster Thermidor, and Black.

Chatting with Charles must have made an impression on Adrianna, for after she got home with Eugenia and put her in the crib, she flirted with him a bit while Damien was getting something to eat. Jeanna was nearby, and wasn't pleased about it, but the incident didn't cause any major strife and it only took a little bit of Charles talking with her before they were on very good terms with one another again. The next day, however, I discovered that for some reason Dylan is pretty put out with Adrianna. No idea what that's about, but when she tried to talk to him he really gave her some attitude.

I think they're sending each other some mixed signals here...

When Eugenia was born, Adrianna decided that she wanted to quit work. Since her LTW is finished, I let her. As soon as she'd made the call to quit her job in Law Enforcement, she rolled a wish to join the Criminal career. Since I found that amusing, she'll be taking that job. Damien also rolled a wish to quit his job, but since his job is part of his LTW he won't be allowed to quit.

That same day, while she was working out in the garden, Carina realized that she was pregnant. This came as a bit of surprise to me as well, because while I did have her and Dylan have risky woohoo a few times, I hadn't heard any chimes and didn't realize it "took". I could well have missed it in the midst of other things going on though.

Adrianna started her new job in the Criminal field the next day and ended up getting herself arrested on her first day on the job.

The next day was Eugenia's birthday, and Charles called around to invite people over for a birthday party. Maybe I shouldn't have had him do so because about the same time Carina came home from the library and went into labor. I also got a notification that Adrianna had been arrested again. Carina left for the hospital about the time the first guest was arriving. For some reason Dylan didn't go with her. She gave birth to a baby boy she named Eldred. He got the traits Easily Impressed and Evil, the hidden trait Can Catch Burglars (passed down from his great-great-grandfather Hank Goddard), and his favorites are Egyptian music, Crepes, and Black. Amusingly, Damien threw a wish to interview him when he was born.

The party went on, though judging by what the guests were doing you'd have thought it was a much different sort of party than a baby's birthday party.

These folks were just one of at least three couples that tried out the beds during Eugenia's party.

It was getting late by the time I finally managed to have Damien take Eugenia to her cake, and most of the guests had left by then, but we got it done. She aged up to Toddler and, I was happy to see, she has her grandmother's red hair. I was afraid the red hair would be lost from the family with all of the black haired people in this last generation.

The next day things were largely back to normal. In the afternoon, Charles spun up a want to visit the graveyard, and that prompted me to have him take Morganna and Beau's graves over there, something I'd been planning to do for a bit. His visit there was uneventful, and he headed home shortly after completing his task.

The next day was Carina's birthday, and though she did get a cake, it was just a small affair with the family present. While the family generally loved throwing parties, Carina decided to be a bit more low key with this birthday.

The birthdays kept coming, with Eldred and Damien both having birthdays the following day, Damien to Adult, and Eldred to Toddler. Charles arranged a party for the two of them and they each took their turn blowing out candles in the back yard.

While cleaning up from the party, Carina realized that she was pregnant again.

Still the birthdays weren't finished here. The following day was Adrianna's birthday. She had the day off and slept for much of the day since she'd been up most of the night taking care of Eugenia and Eldred. Then she spent some time working on her Athletic skill for her job. By evening, it had almost been forgotten, but they quickly got a cake and set it up out back so that she at least got to blow out candles with her family around her while she transitioned to Elder.

The next day started out fairly ordinary, but by evening became quite eventful indeed. The evening was going along normally, Carina had woken Eldred up from a nap and fed him some mushed up waffles, then was teaching him how to walk when she went into labor. She left for the hospital, and shortly afterwards Dylan followed her there. While Carina was at the hospital giving birth, Grim came for Jeanna finally. Charles was devastated as they had been practically inseparable since she'd retired. She died having contributed 5 points to the challenge.

Jeanna (Whitmore) Medina's Achievements

• Traits - Athletic, Lucky, Mooch, Party Animal
• LTW - Become a Superstar Athlete

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Carina gave birth to a baby girl she named Edita. She got the traits Clumsy and Hates the Outdoors, the hidden trait Can Catch Burglars, and her favorites are French music, Stir Fry, and Yellow.

The next day passed uneventfully, then the day after that was another double birthday day. This time it was Dylan aging up to Adult, and Eugenia aging up to Child. Eugenia went first, her great-uncle Charles taking her to the cake and helping her blow out the candles. She transitioned to Child and picked up the Computer Whiz trait.

Once everyone had a chance to enjoy some of Eugenia's cake, Dylan blew out the candles on his cake. His transition was less dramatic, but everyone still cheered him on.

Another birthday the following day, this time for baby Edita. Since they'd just done a big party the day before, we opted to keep it small and just do a cake in the backyard with the immediate household. It took a bit of doing to convince someone to take her out to the cake, but eventually Charles paid attention to me and took her out and she transitioned up to Toddler. Sadly, without red hair.

And that's where this entry will end. I'd been intending to play a bit more to add on to this post, but that hasn't happened, so I decided to just get this up for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more play time in with this family soon. What lies ahead for them? Well, I expect Charles to die any sim day now (I'm surprised he's lasted this long frankly). Dylan is closing in on his LTW I think - he's maxed writing already and is more than halfway through painting. Damien is making slow but steady progress toward his LTW, though I forget how far he has to go offhand. There will also likely be a lot more birthdays and toddler training and all of the kids deciding what they want to do with their lives as well. And who knows, we might even get more kids if risky woohoo hates me decides we need more.

Besides all of the family events to come, I have a new house built for them that I'll hopefully get them moved into before to much longer. I would have moved them in the course of this update, but I got lazy about it. I'm also considering borrowing ASimWen's idea and splitting the two families up and sending the Britt family to live in another neighborhood. With so many sims in one household I find I get so caught up with just keeping everyone healthy and happy that I forget to have them work on completion challenge items a lot, especially the elders which end up being left to their own devices most of the time except when I need them to train a toddler in something or some other such task. I think splitting them up into smaller family units would help me focus on challenge progress more and less on simply trying to keep up with everyone.

So, lots of things ahead still for the Medina and Britt families. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll continue to follow along with them.