Fall Break

The kids have a whole week off of school. Months ago when we realized this, we started making plans. We thought about going to Arizona to see my nephew Parker- home from his mission. But then he came to visit us instead. So we talked about going to Dinosaur National park. or Leman Caves- or something.

We asked the kids what they wanted to do. Jaxon said, " We always do nature things. What if we did something different then we always do". He then suggested Evermore Park and a haunted house like Fear Factory.

We thought about that and decided that we could easily do a "staycation". By sleeping at home, we could spend more money on those kind of expensive things that we never really do. So we made plans...

Another thing that Jaxon has always wanted was for his parents to play Dungeons and Dragons with him. So we set that up. Sunday we made our characters and Monday and Tuesday evenings we played. We saved a little girl who was kidnapped by goblins and we fought a bugbear (which sound really dumb but is actually a scary kind of monster) and Alex and I almost died.

Jaxon is the Dungeon Master and he does a great job.

I got the pink dice cause I am a girl. Tanner laughed at me because I said, "So, the biggest problem I have is that my name is Claude but I am a girl."  I have always liked the name Claude for ridiculous situations so that is what my character got named. 

Here we are figuring things out and rolling dice.

Then another thing we needed for FHE was our apple nachos. This is so much better then caramel apples because they are easier to eat.

Tanner hung out with his friends a ton on monday and tuesday- we barely saw him.

Jaxon could only take 2 days off of work on the week before Halloween so Andre and I took the same days off- Wednesday and Thursday. We decided to fill the days with things to do so it felt like a real vacation.

Wednesday: we went to a movie

Jaxon had a scheduled online meeting with a sister at the MTC so we took an hour for him to do that. This mission thing is getting real people!

We had dinner at Cafe Rio and then went to an escape room. We did pretty good.

We did one called Leonardo's loot. It was pretty cool.

After we finished a bunch of clues, A door opened into another room.

Here is Chase opening our room. We escaped! We had about 5 minutes left. We are pretty cool ya know.

Then we drove up to Salt Lake and went to the Fear Factory.

There really are not any picture in the Fear Factory because they don't let you take any and it it dark. So this is the best you get.

But it is good to not take pictures because I just held onto Andre's arm and closed my eyes 60 percent of the time. I was worried that Alex and Chase might be scared because we really have not taken them to many haunted things but they were fine.

That night we got home about 9:00. Andre hurried and set up the new cable system we just got that has the Jazz Channel. Andre can watch Jazz games now! He watched the end of the first Jazz game and then the last game of RSL for the year since they lost their game.

We were pretty tired. The next day Alex had to go to the dentist at 9 and Jaxon went to his physical therapy at 7:30. No sleeping in for him.

At about 11 we left for downtown Salt Lake.  The Salt Lake temple is being closed for 4 years. So we wanted our kids to go to it once. (Jaxon went once before Tanner turned 12.) Also we thought it would be cool for Jaxon to see the endowment at the SL temple since it is different then most temples and it won't be like that in 4 years. So we went to temple square and divided up. Andre and Jaxon ran to try to catch the 12:00 session (BARELY made it- and we are so glad they did not have to wait an hour.) Tanner and Alex went to do baptisms. And Chase and I went exploring.

We saw that something was happening in the tabernacle so we went to check it out. It was an organ recital. We watched one song. But we also got to hear a pin drop without any magnification. Chase thought that was cool. 

We walked past the temple and we got our picture taken by the door.

This is a better picture of the temple.

We had a warm roll from the Lion house- deliciousness- and toured the Beehive house.

Then we went  to the Church Office Building. I love to go to the top to see the valley.
We saw this cool picture again. I can not figure out how Christ's foot is always pointing at  you no matter where you stand.

Seriously, a mystery to me.

Tanner and Alex got done and they got to join us for the tour up the elevator.

Then we went to the Joseph Smith Building and saw a movie about Joseph Smith in Harmony.

As soon as that was done, Andre and Jaxon were finished too! So we met up, took a picture by the temple and drove home to change.

We made our way to Evermore park. (it opens at 6:00- or we would have wanted to be there longer.)

I don't really know how to explain what it is, this is how the internet explains it:
"Evermore Park is an experience park where guests of all ages can escape to a new realm – the fantasy village of Evermore. Themed like a European village with its own buildings, citizens, and epic story. Guests interact with characters, go on quests, and become a part of the world of Evermore."

They have 3ish different storylines. The one for the fall is Lore- 

We didn't really understand what to do at first so we went to do the archery and ax throwing first before it got crowded. 

This was cool. But this was when we thought this place was kind of a fall fair where you went different places to do events. But really we found out that you need to talk to the characters and ask them about themselves and find out the mystery of the town.

These bards (below) told us about the mystery. We later found out that they have a Bard Guild and Jaxon wanted to join it. They had him sing a dwarvish song.

We went through this maze but it didn't do anything to help us figure out our quest. Actually we didn't even know anything about the quests yet.

 This was a cool building. It looked like a hobbit hole and was pretty creepy inside.

We met the Fae King. We asked him questions but we didn't really know what to ask him. And Andre and I couldn't understand the voice. But Jaxon did. 

Then it got dark. So there will not be many pictures.

But we met a pirate who told us more about the problems of Evermore and when we asked about guilds. He said we could join the pirate guild if we did his quest. So we did that. Then we did a favor for the pirate and got a gold piece.

Alex wanted to be in the Bard guild so we went back and Alex had to do the weird song too.

We went to a bird/reptile show that was interesting and different then other ones that I have been to. (it also had nothing to do with the storyline/role playing that you were supposed to do.)

The pirate guild met at 9:15 and cleared the tavern of the evil guys. Then we were given a task to find a professor to ask him how to fix the pirate's air-ship.

There was another story line that we started following that had to do with a knight who was trying to figure out who killed his best friend and his girl friend on the same night. We were supposed to go around asking the characters what they knew about it. But that was hard and we didn't get very far with it. We did get Hot Chocolate. It was pretty cold when we first got there but the wind died down and it was better.

We ended by singing sea shanties with the pirate guild at 9:50 and left. (it closes at 10:00)
The whole place was decorated with the pumpkins lining all the pathways. It was really cool.

It was a tiny bit like a giant escape room. Except you don't solve puzzles in the escape room sense of the word. You role play, get information and figure out what you need to do. For example. I found out that the knight girlfriend had died but was a ghost there in Evermore. None of the characters could see her but the visitors could. So we were supposed to help her figure out who killed her. We found out who she was on a date with the night she was killed but she had left him (supposedly) before she died. But we never finished that storyline. And there are 7 guilds. We only got information about 3 of them. So there is a lot to do there. So if you were wondering what Evermore is like, that is all that I know.

It was late when we got home and the 2 younger boys were super-de-duper tired.

Andre, Jaxon and I had to work today but the younger 3 slept in. We really exhausted Chase if he slept in past 7. He said he woke up at 8:30! This weekend we still want to do some stuff together but today was a rest from being so busy. And they are all hanging with friends.

It was a good fall break and not even finished yet!