[metallicat]

Some of the games we've been playing lately:

Great Western Trail with Rails to the North expansion - this is my favorite game hands down. The expansion did so much for the game. It is way harder and way more interesting. I love it.

Splendor - my wife and I got a few smaller games to play on a weekday nights that don't take too long, and this one is a lot of fun. A game takes less than half an hour and it's about collecting cards that you pay for with different gems.

Terraforming Mars - I'm still a pretty big fan of this game even though it's not as good as some of my favorite Euro games. We have all the expansion sets but haven't tried them a yet. I don't think this game deserves the ranking it gets in board game geek but it's still fun. My wife kicks my ass every time.

Dinosaur Island - this is a pretty fun game, but there are some gripes. The dinosaurs in each level all have the same threat and excitement level, which makes collecting them boring. The water expansion pack changes this for marine dinosaurs, but they should have done the same for all dinosaurs.

Arboretum - this is another fun little short game that gets pretty competitive. Another good weeknight game.

Welcome to your perfect home - again a shorter weeknight game.

Wingspan - another game that isn't nearly as good as the board game geek rating into, but it's fun to play. It's a beautiful game with great artwork and a ton of different birds to collect.

Brass Birmingham - probably my second favorite game. It was so hard to play and get into at first but persistence has paid off. Just amazing.

Two other we have but haven't dived into yet are Teotihuacan and Maracaibo. Maracaibo has been attempted a couple of times but it hasn't grabbed us as of yet.