Wiiiiiiiii!

I have a weird love of video games. I find them very therapeutic and relaxing after a long day. When I was young, I loved playing Tetris on the classic Nintendo; Mario 2, though really odd, was my favorite of the Marios (though I did love how you could fly in Mario 3). DuckTales and Zelda were also favs of mine, and I loved battling my brother in GoldenEye (James Bond, for those of you who are not familiar). Yep, I'm a nerd. I know and accept that.

When the Wii came out, I became a big fan of it. When I worked in Admissions at Crown, we bought one as a give-away at the LIFE conference, and I was seriously afraid that instead of giving it away like we promised, one of us Admissions workers were going to stash it in our suitcase. We loved that thing!

Luckily, Gayle, one of my co-workers, bought a Wii shortly after LIFE, and so, for our last Admissions retreat together (many of us were moving on...2 to San Diego...), we played about 20 hours of Wii...tennis and bowling being our favorites.

One of my first "inductions" or "hazings" when I moved to San Diego was playing Wario Smooth Moves on Nathan's Wii. Seriously, that game is BIZARRE (but so fun!). Then Nate got Mario Kart...yeah, hooked on that.

Then the Wii Fit came out. I was intrigued, curious...and for some reason, really wanted one. The only problem was - stores were selling out of them like HOTCAKES. Every time I had some extra money to get one, I couldn't find one ANYWHERE. Sad times.

Now, I had never played with the Wii Fit, so I really didn't know if I would actually like it. But then, I ended up babysitting for some friends who had one, and their kids showed me how much THEY love it, and then Nate and I played with it after the kids were in bed...and I was hooked. It is SO great. The fitness training games are short and fun, and you really do work up a sweat!

Alright, so what is all this video game nonsense talk leading up to, you ask? Well...


Nathan got me a Wii Fit for my birthday! I was so excited when I opened it up last night that we ended up playing it for 2 HOURS! It's seriously so much fun; half the fun is that all the Miis that our friends have made show up in the training games...here I am attempting to hula hoop (circle those hips!) and in the background, Nate and Matt are throwing me hula hoops that I have to catch on my head. Hilarious!

So, thanks Nathan for such an awesome birthday (he also sent me a cake at work...so sweet) and such a cool gift! And I will beat your ski jump score eventually...but you are the hula hoop master. (or Calorie Incinerator)