There is nothing I love more than some good quality time arguing with my adult siblings about who scored a point or who’s ball is touching who’s. I come from a fairly competitive family so when we all get together and play games it can get CRAZY! Sister hating on sister, all hating on my brother, and spouses making threats, but that’s what makes it so fun. Just in time for cooler weather and many holiday weekends coming up I want to share 5 games you should be playing with friends and family!
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My family loves any excuse to all get together for a weekend in Utah for mom’s home cooking, dad’s smoked ribs, kids running free, and some good ol’ adult competition in the backyard. Over the past few years since my parent’s finished their home in Kanarraville, Utah we’ve found some pretty fun games to play. Some old, some new. Here is a breakdown of a few games you need to purchase for your next get together! All of these games can be played in the lawn, some can be played in the dirt.
Croquet
This game has been around forever. How long exactly I’m not sure but when I was young I used to play this game at my BFF’s house all the time. That was back when everyone in the neighborhood used to come over to play outside. We had some mean games of croquet in those days. Recently my brother in law enlisted the help of his neighbor and hand made us a set for Utah. We all even have our own mallets with our names etched in them! Fancy.
The actual rules for croquet say 2-4 players but we say the more the merrier! Most of the time we play with 6-8. Each player has a ball and a mallet and must hit the ball through little hoops spread out across the law. You start on one side and weave your way to the other and back. Once a player has completed the course they become poison and can kill others off. It’s even fun playing with teams. What makes the game fun is that you can hit other players ball’s to gain extra hits. You can use your extra hits to advance yourself or to hit them way off yonder to BFE. This is a game that gets everyone going for sure!
Spike Ball
I have seen this game at the beach every time I go and I honestly thought It looked like a difficult game to play. It was featured on Shark Tank and since gained a lot of popularity. Rest assured that it’s actually not difficult to play and is a lot of fun! You need only 4 to play this game and the rest will get a hoot out of watching. It’s like a mini volleyball game but no mad skills needed! You play 2 vs. 2 with the net in the middle. A player starts a point by serving the ball down on the net so it ricochets up at his opponents. They have up to three hits between them (just like Volleyball) to control the ball and bounce it back off the net. When they miss, you score. It’s seriously fun! We bought it on Amazon here with the super cool carrying case!
Bocce
This is another game that has been around for a long time that I had just never played until recently. You can play with 2-8 players but always have only 2 teams. The object of the game is to throw your teams ball’s closest to the pallina without hitting it to score points. The first team to reach 16 points wins. It’s a super simple game that you can even involve the kids in. My parents keep a set in Utah so we play frequently. Find it on Amazon here.
Kuub
Every other summer my side of the family drives 13 hours for our family reunion in Sawtooth National Forest, Idaho. This past July my relatives brought up two new games that we had a blast playing! The first one being Kuub. This is another team game consisting of 2-12 players. You throw wooden sticks across a playing field and try to knock over other wooden posts. There is a king post in the middle that you can’t knock down until you hit all the other posts across the way. There’s a lot more to it than that(Get a better idea of it here) but once you know all the rules it’s super fun to play also. We had a big Kuub tournament at the reunion and us newbies from Las Vegas won!! We ordered this via Amazon as soon as we left the mountain!
Kan Jam
This is the other game we discovered up at our reunion in July. My husband and brother played this game all day and thought they we’re unstoppable. I’m not great at throwing a frisbee but I caught on pretty quickly and had a lot of fun playing. Partner up with kids, grandparents, spouses, it’s for everyone! Only 4 can play this game but it’s a very entertaining to watch while waiting for your turn so you won’t be missing out! We bought this game at Dick’s Sporting Goods as soon as we left the mountain so we could play it in Lava Hot Springs the second half of our trip! You can get it on Amazon for an even better price!
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