Round 6: July 2012 (Summer)
(Darren Stevens is 17, Tony Mendez is 16)
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Since school is out, the girls have a lot more time to hang out together. They tend to just hang around the farm a lot playing games or just lying around in the yard.
Mei doesn't have as much free time as Xia and An, though. She's been helping out a lot more with the family business in all aspects.
Catching the fish, stocking the produce, and greeting the customers are all parts of her responsibility now. She seems to be enjoying it even if it limits her time to socialize.
After graduation, Mei threw a graduation party. They rented a room in the new function hall downtown because the guest list kept growing. Mei invited all of her friends that started college last year; they invited their friends, and so on.
It was a great time for them to all catch up with each other but Mei and Darren were pretty inseparable.
Her friends didn't seem to mind. The DJ was great and hardly anyone left the dance floor.
Despite being attached at the hip whenever they're together, Mei and Darren still don't show any signs of wanting to be committed. Mei has started seeing someone else; a guy named Steven she met at the mall.
Steven asked Mei out and a few weekends later, they went on their first date. They went to The Hub for some dinner and dancing. Steven's hot, but that's probably as far as their attraction goes right now. It's still early, so we'll see how things go.
At the beginning of the month, the family took a week-long trip to Bear Lake Campgrounds in the mountains. They hadn't been on a family vacation since An was born.
When they arrived, Chen and Jun started to concoct an elaborate (and ridiculous) plan to hunt down Bigfoot. To figure out its routine to find its hideout, they were going to go deep in the forest to track its footprints and dig for clues.
And even though Xia knew how ridiculous their plan was, she couldn't help her curiosity. What if they really pulled it off?
They did a little bug hunting and bird watching, and the girls spent some time at the site's playground.
The play area was definitely a favorite of An's. There weren't many other kids for her to play with but she had a blast having all of the equipment to herself.
Every evening before the sun went down, Chen would make a fire in the pit. It was hot during the daytime but the temperature dropped at night.
Before everyone went to sleep, they'd gather around the fire to toast marshmallows, make smores, and tell stories.
Each morning, they started the day bright and early, and made the fish they caught the day before for breakfast.
On one of their hiking trips, Mei was chased by some hornets when she accidentally kicked their nest.
They chased her all the way back to camp.
Xia ran to check on Mei and ended up getting attacked, too.
The rest of their vacation was less eventful, and as they packed up their gear to return home, it started to rain. Fortunately it held off until their last day.
A couple of weeks after their vacation, Xia decided to end her relationship with Tony. Her free time during the school year was spent studying, so that left very little time for them to see each other. She really wants to get into the university, so she is going to focus on her studies right now.
She tried to be as gentle as possible because Tony is a sweetheart and a very good friend, but of course he was crushed. He thought everything was going well and really didn't see the breakup coming.
It'll take time but Xia hopes they can go back to being friends.
Notes:
-Sorry that this update seems kind of all over the place and choppy. I had it written better but my computer crashed and I lost it all. Plus, I had a zillion pics and so much to talk about that I didn't find it very easy to get it to "flow". There were a lot of pics that didn't make it into this update, so I've uploaded them to my Tumblr.
-In case you're hopping around the blog and missed it, the full tour of Bear Lake Campground is here. I needed something for this family to do together and thought a camping trip would be perfect.
-Thanks to Carla @ Sullivan for the lovely Starry NightsFunction Hall where Mei had her graduation party. It played beautifully. I didn't want them spread out between the 2 rooms so I removed the doors lol. I would have had them doing more but my custom buffet I downloaded wasn't working properly and I kept getting random BSOD crashes. So that's all I had the energy to have them do.
-Xia and Tony were really cute while they were together but she never rolled any wants for him. She'd occasionally have the fear of breaking up with him but usually that'd roll away after a day or so.
Sometimes so much happens that it's hard to get it all in, I enjoyed the post :). I loved the party shots, everyone looked like they had a great time! Maybe Xia and Tony can try again later? High school is such a weird time, you never know what'll happen lol. Loved the vacation shots as well, makes me want to take some of my sims on one :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting and glad you enjoyed the post. When I was rereading it, I was like "meh", but we are our harshest critic!
DeleteYes, I see Xia as very ambitious and Tony just doesn't fit into the equation right now. Hopefully when she's older and can better balance her studies/career with a boyfriend, he'll still be around and they can try again. Their attraction score was decent (I think it was 2 bolts) so it definitely wasn't a quick fling kinda thing.
Glad you liked the vacation shots, too. I really didn't want them to leave lol. There was so much for them to do on that lot. I can't wait to send another family there. :)
Ha, so they were all trapped in the ballroom part of it? LOL, I love it!
ReplyDeletePoor Tony, he's a cutie. But Xia's got big dreams and maybe it's wise to focus on them and save the dating for when she's a little older. Steven is definitely very hot and I'm already curious what a child from him and Mei would look like. ;) But seeing she's only 18, I'll try not to get too excited about that. Anything could happen.
Loved the camping trip too. I never take my huge families on vacation but maybe I need to change that.
Thanks for reading and commenting! Yes, they were trapped in the ballroom LOL! You know how sims like to wander for no real reason and I wanted to keep them mingling.
DeleteI hope Xia and Tony can rekindle their love (and friendship) again at another time. He is a cutie and I'd like to see him around. LOL at you imagining Mei and Steven's babies already. Hey, you never know what might happen! Just ask Alicia and Kyle! :)
Like I said to Mizzgin, there was so much for them to do on that lot that I couldn't stop taking pics and hated for them to leave! I would love to see one of your large families go on vacation together. Like the Kirby's (rofl at the thought of Megan in a tent!)
Great update, I love the camping trip! I haven't sent anyone on a mountain vacation in a while but you're inspiring me now! And, lol, I've removed doors, too, to try to keep everyone where I want them :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading and commenting! Glad you loved the trip! This was my very first mountain vacation ever. I've sent my sims to the other 2 locations over the past couple of years but I hadn't had time to makeover the mountain area. I need to makeover the rest, now, as I imagine the mountains are much closer than going to Twikii or Takemizu.
DeleteAnd yes! Sometimes a doorless room is the best way to keep them from wandering too far off. I'd catch them in the other room staring at a plant when I want them in my pics! :P
The camping trip was super fun!! I'm so happy you shared the lot, I really want to take a family down there, is that cool grill included in the downloads? I just noticed it in this update, very camp-y!
ReplyDeleteThe hall was beautiful too, fun to see all the teens out and having a good time together. Poor Tony though there at the end, hopefully he can find someone else that suits him better.
An is adorable in her glasses! I really need to do glasses for a kid, I might roll for it, doesn't make sense to have such perfect vision!
Thanks for reading and commenting! So glad everyone enjoyed the camping trip as much as the Hus did. That grill should be included but if not, it was made by Fairywitch. I think the site is down, though, due to hacking :\.
DeleteI really enjoyed using Carla's hall and I can't wait to have some more gatherings there. I really didn't get to use it as much this time. And yes, I hope Tony will bounce back quickly. They're too young to dwell on it.
Yes! You should definitely give some kids glasses. An is my first playable kid with them and I have 1 P-NPC child with them and that's it. Really need to get more use out of all my cc glasses. ;)
An looks adorable with her glasses.I always forget to add glasses to my sims.Is Mei going to the university or will she just help out with the family business?The camping trip looks awesome;I didn't know you put the lot up for download.I can't wait to add it to my hood.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading! I forget to give my sims glasses, too, but lucky/unlucky for An, it was on my mind when I got to their house. I like her with the glasses and will probably give Xia them in the near future.
DeleteMei won't be going to the university with the others. She'll be going to the "community college" which I haven't actually built yet lol. When I'm done with it, it will have classrooms for sims to earn the different badges.
Hope you enjoy Bear Lake Campground! I hope to make a couple more lots to go along with it :).
I think you did a great job for the amount of stuff that was in there. Everyone seemed to have a blast!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading, HC! There was a lot going on but everyone did have a great month. Everyone except for poor Tony, though lol. :)
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