4.1 Earth, Wind, and Fire

Ami was anxious to leave home and pursue her dreams of a better world and an understanding of why she could see ghosts, but she still had some time to kill before that happened. At least she had little Hugh to play with and Jasen was able to visit.

Generation Three House

I built this house from scratch. You've been warned.

The shot of the exterior I put in one of the updates. The blue accents are an attempt to make it look tropical and keep with Phoenix's favorite color.

I did zero landscaping aside from that directly in front of the house.

First floor. Blue EVERYWHERE. I love blue; it's my favorite color. Anyway, the deck and all that extravagant luxury was the 'expansion' I added. There's two sets of spiral staircases. As lovely as they are, I've decided I hate them in TS3. Only one sim can queue up to use them at a time. Super annoying. There were pathing issues all over this house. I don't know why. Maybe because of the water.

All the rooms are pretty small, but I made sure to carefully decorate everything with expensive paintings, furnishings, etc. Those who know me and my gameplay know I cannot stand massive, sprawling houses. Takes forever for sims to cross them and I find them tiresome to play... so I had to show exuberant wealth without giant rooms. ;) The kids were all clustered into that one room.

I will say, the view from this house will be missed. Sigh. Building on the islands is GREAT if you don't have mermaids who refuse to use their damn boats. Maybe if they swam faster.

Ami is taking a bunch of the personalized portraits/etc with her, so that's why some walls are bare.

3.5 Spooky Scary

The entire family went out to celebrate the arrival of the summer festival. Maya had complained about being 'Stir Crazy' and wanting to have some fun. The obvious conclusion was the festival, not that it wasn't always summer (with a tiny smidgen of Spring) in Isla Paradiso.

3.4 Bossy

Gabby adjusted well to her position in the household. Unlike Kelsey, she didn't mind the wasteful spending on expensive luxury items. She rather enjoyed them, actually. Gabby definitely had an appreciation for the finer things in life.

3.3 Born to Die

Kelsey's pregnancy was coming along well. Phoenix and Kelsey were both quite happy. Phoenix's career in politics was taking off. He was going to be Mayor before long.

3.2 Opposites Attract

Phoenix was quite proud of his new address. It had been in construction for a short time and those last few nights on the houseboat had been worth it. It had taken his mother all of her charm to get Alex to leave the houseboat behind. They now lived on an island he'd discovered while diving.

3.1 Letters Home

Dear Mom and Dad,

University is going well. Have you seen Kelsey at all? She was pretty torn up about me leaving. I tried to convince her to go, too, but she just wasn't into it. She said that it 'was a waste of money.'

Anyway, if you see her, tell her to stop ignoring my calls. I'll be back for spring break.

Generation Two House(boat)

Here's two crappy pictures of the houseboat. Again, I forgot to take pictures until they were in the process of moving... sigh. I have an excuse, though. I spent hours building and decorating them a new house on one of the lots that Alex found while diving.

Alex's favorite color is turquoise (or was it teal?) so there's accents of that all over the place. I wanted wood to make it look a bit more 'rustic' and houseboat-like!

I had big plans for using the patio upstairs for parties (before adding Phoenix's room, which he got when he aged to toddler.) Unfortunately, it never panned out. Alex was too busy grinding out his diving stuff so I could fulfill his ridiculous LTW.

Phoenix's favorite color is Blue (like Maya), but the current heir's color preference takes precedence. I relaxed that for personal rooms in the next house.

I really liked the open windows. Who wouldn't let the sea breeze in if they lived in a houseboat?!

2.5 Fins to the Left, Fins to the Right

Phoenix is quite obsessed with being ruler of all. It's not so much the power that drives him, but the promise of being showered in 'shiny things.' Alex has learned to keep his treasures locked up before going off to auction, otherwise Phoenix totes them out and throws the gold coins in the air, declaring himself 'King of Everything Awesome!'

2.4 Undercurrent

Having a baby was a huge adjustment for Alex. He was used to doing his own thing and being gone for days at a time on dives. That life was no more. He'd taken a sabbatical from work, at least until Phoenix was done being a baby, and devoted most of his time to his care. Of course, his mother Jamie was a huge help in the whole ordeal. Alex hadn't exactly known what to do with babies off the bat.

2.3 Just Keep Swimming

Maya barely had a chance to adjust to the news of being pregnant before even more news hit her--it was time to go. Her mermaid family was preparing to migrate. She'd known the time was coming, only it seemed like it had come much quicker than she anticipated.

"It won't be long now. We've already got our next destination lined up."

2.2 Under the Sea

After revealing her true identity to Alex, Maya started hanging around a lot more. She'd drop in without Alex having to summon her with a conch shell. She'd even been receptive to his romantic advances, though she skirted the issue anytime Alex tried to make things 'official' between them.

2.1 Moving On

Jamie was decidedly upset that Alex wasn't staying in the house. Graduation had come and gone far too quickly. In just a few days, he'd be off on his own.

She had tried to convince him to stay, but Alex couldn't be swayed. He had dreams of living in a house boat and he'd found the perfect one. Thankfully, he'd docked it just down the road, so he wasn't too far away.

Generation One House

I am seriously going to miss this house. Because of that, I thought I'd snap two shots of it before Alex leaves for good. Unfortunately, I chose to do so AFTER I started the official move out, so I couldn't make it daytime. Sigh.

I think it's fun to see the houses that people actually play in, plus, if you have the expansion pack... you know which house this is (it starts out as three storage containers smashed together with one heck of a view!) It's fun to see things change.

I also tried to spend time decorating it and making it aesthetically pleasing. It's also decorated in Jamie's favorite color. ;)

The pool house doesn't have anything cool in it. Just a murphy bed everyone was obsessed with (I had considered hiring a butler when Rubisel left, but then Xias presented himself), the laundry machines, and an extra bathroom. I eventually added an all-in-one bathroom there, too.

The outside looks horrible because I am even worse at exteriors than interiors. :P

1.4 Flash Forward

Continuing on with the 'recap' of generation one. Sorry, again, for the lack of 'flowing' pictures. These were all taken with tumblr in mind... or just because I felt like it. I have an itchy screenshot finger..

Here's the in-game greeting card photo I managed to get. It's crappy, but it's a good way of seeing everyone. There's a shot on the generational page, too.

Despite having years of practice, Jamie is a pretty terrible cook. She burns about 50% of what she makes, which is quite ridiculous for having around six cooking points. Sigh.

Xandra becomes a pretty adorable child. Apparently, aliens have green hair? Very interesting. I love her eyes! She's just too cute for words. She likes having pillow fights with Alex. Thankfully, he's happy to entertain her... even if he's supposed to be a big, tough teenager.

The twins become Young Adults! Holy crap. Time has flown by, hasn't it? That means they'll have to vamoose directly after graduating. I can't say I'll miss them all that much... Hayden just sort of hung around. Serena was really great at helping take care of the other kids!

Good luck out there. You're going to need it...

Because Jamie is such a terrible cook, Alex does most of the cooking now. He's a Natural Cook, so he never burns anything... thank goodness. He's not exactly keen on me forcing him to feed the army of children, though.

It's all a lot easier with Serena and Hayden gone. Leftovers last a lot longer.

Aside from cooking or when it's raining, Alex is rarely home. He's usually out and about boating or snorkeling, whatever gets him in the water. Not surprisingly, he loves swimming. It's weird, but he doesn't use the pool much at home. I think Xias uses it the most.

Hera's time comes and I am very sad. I hate it when pets die. It's ten times worse than sims! I really do dislike it. I'm better than the husband, though. Pets can never, ever die in his game and I'd better always warn him before he walks in the room if a pet is dying while I'm playing. Sigh.

Goodbye, Hera. :(

Poor Jamie is beside herself with grief. Hera annoyed the crap out of me sometimes by causing pathing issues or interrupting queues... but I'll miss her jumping into the pool all the time! She loved it more than Xias.

Nina is a good sister and reads Xandra to sleep. Hera's death seemed to hit everyone pretty hard. There's a lot of dog lovers under this roof!

Jamie throws Alex a birthday party and apparently decides to slow dance with Rubisel for old time's sake. I'm kind of shocked that he's still alive. He must have find the secret to eternal life or all that carousing around gave him limitless vitality or something...

Time for the birthday boy to blow out his candles! This is a bittersweet moment for me. I've been excited for it since I selected him as heir and even when I did the roll... but now? Sadface. It's very likely that he's going to leave this house. I'm going to miss it. I seriously love this house and its view!

Annnd here is as a Young Adult... Alex Voss, generation two heir. His traits are: Loves to Swim, Loves the Outdoors, Loves the Heat, Natural Cook, and Sailor.

The roll for the 2nd generation is:

• Single
• 1 Child
• Scuba Diver
• Generation Goal: Photogenic
• Misc. Fun: Gourmet
• Optional 10 Gen Goal: Wish Upon A (Different) Star

Should be interesting!