I am going to tell you how to save thousands of dollars in future marriage therapy and divorce hearings. Are you ready? Take your fiancé to an escape room; it's that simple. If you are the parents, send the engaged couple to an escape room as a pre-wedding gift. You will know by the end of the hour how well you solve problems together and what the next 50+ years of marriage will be like. If you are already married, go to an escape room and improve your teamwork skills. Escape rooms make or break couples. How do I know this? My son works at Escapes in Time in Orem, Utah and I get to hear all about it.

What's an escape room? From the Escapes in Time website: 

"An Escape Room is a fantastic new immersive entertainment adventure. It’s a race against the clock of heart-pounding fun! You and a small group of people will travel through time, to enter one of our themed game rooms. You will have 60 minutes to figure out how to escape and return to the present day. Find clues, solve puzzles, crack codes, and investigate everything to escape! But can you do it before the clock runs out? Time will tell."

A couple of months ago, my 18 year old son, Zak, went with his group of friends to an escape room and came home extremely excited and couldn't stop talking about it. He contacted the owners and got himself a part time job working there and loves his job so much, he feels guilty accepting a paycheck. Thank you to the wonderful owners of Escapes in Time, I am indebted to you for creating such a great business and hiring my son.

My husband's siblings and their spouses were up for the challenge, so we went to check out Escapes in Time in Orem and had a blast! 

Baker Street Mystery

(2-12 players recommended)

Our group did the Baker Street Mystery room (Sherlock) and made it out with 2 minutes to spare! We did struggle a little at the end and needed a clue, which my son sent us (that's part of his job). Overall, I think we worked well together and it was interesting to see who ended up teaming together to solve individual clues. My husband and his sister worked well together in one corner (too well, judging by the sounds of their chants and enthusiasm, lol). My sister-in-law was in charge of solving puzzles at the desk, I wandered around trying to keep everyone on the same page helping where I could, and everyone else found clues and worked on figuring them out. Having a large group made it challenging to work together and know which clues had been solved and where they were found, but by the end we started to figure out the whole teamwork concept. I can definitely see the benefit of having co-workers do this together.

Dressing up is optional, but adds to the fun. This is my husband in the photo above and he never misses a chance to dress up since he is an actor at heart. Every escape team needs an enthusiastic fun personality like this. I tend to hold all of my enthusiasm inside and enjoy watching others, which is one of the many reasons I married my super fun husband.

I'm a HUGE Doctor Who fan, so naturally I loved the escape room experience and plan to go back and check out the other rooms. I recently went to London and finding the Tardis was at the top of my bucket list. My son knows how much I love strategy games and time travel, so he was right when he said I would love Escapes in Time. It's as close to traveling with the Doctor as I will ever get, sigh.

Escape rooms are becoming popular and popping up in cities everywhere. What makes Escapes in Time especially great is their attention to detail that other escape rooms miss. My son tells me that the owners spare no expense from the antique furniture to all the small details and it shows. One of my son's jobs is to help make the experience even more authentic with automated speakers and sound effects. Escapes in Time keeps getting better every month as they add new effects and create new rooms to explore. They even have a time tunnel that you walk through to get to your destination. It's not the Tardis, but I was impressed.

Other escape rooms currently at Escapes in Time:

(check their website, since these will change over time)

Leonardo's Loot

(2-12 players recommended)

O.K. Corral Jailbreak

(4-8 players recommended)

Escapes in Time has a separate conference room for parties, corporate training, and other events. After doing the Sherlock room with a big group, I can see how great this would be in training employees to work together. I can also see how fun it would be for a family, bridging the divide between kids and parents while helping siblings learn how to work together. Too bad my son already knows all of the puzzles, because I think the two of us together would make a great team.

Escapes in Time charges $25 per person, but you can use my son's employee code to get 21% off.

Use code z101 at Escapes in Time and tell them Zak's mom sent you! (I'm not an affiliate and don't make any money for referrals, but I'm a big fan and love to see small businesses like this succeed).

Have you done an escape room? Leave a comment and tell me about it.

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Fun Family Fall Traditions

We have a couple of large trees in our front yard that produce a lot of leaves in the fall. Most people complain about having to rake their leaves, but we watch and wait for ours to fall in anticipation. We spend a day as a family Raking Leaves, jumping into piles, making a leaf maze and leaf tunnels.

One of my favorite traditions that we started a couple of years ago is going to Cornbelly's at Thanksgiving Point in Utah.

(These pictures were taken from the Cornbelly's web site)

I LOVE riding my bike in the canyon. This is a park that we like to ride our bikes to as a family. I love seeing the leaves change color!

For Thanksgiving my kids love helping me make these turkeys to bring to grandma and grandpa's house. Last year I thought they had forgotten and I wouldn't have to make them, but they reminded me the day before.

Every Thanksgiving since I was a kid, we have always had a talent show. Now my kids look forward to grandma and grandpa's talent show every year. Last year we had artwork, dances, piano solos, and recited poems.

Come and join the Traditions party over at Emma Calls me Mamma.

Family Camping Idea, Bubble Gum

With summer coming to an end and my kids going back to school in a couple of days, I have been reminiscing our summer. One of our favorite memories is one of the simplest. Before going camping last month I was at WalMart getting a few supplies. I walked past a large tub of bubble gum and thought it would be fun to take with us and have some bubble gum blowing contests. I am not a gum chewer, but this kinda gum isn't for chewing since the flavor doesn't last.

It was a huge hit with my kids! Even my 2 year old learned how to chew gum for the first time. All week long we would sit around the camp fire blowing bubbles and laughing as they popped in our faces. We have some pretty silly pictures. I won the bubble blowing contest, but my DH didn't pull out the camera in time to document my head sized bubble. Luckily I always wear moisturizer (dry Utah weather), so removing the gum was an easy task (not so easy for my DH and kids when their bubbles popped in their faces).

During the day we would collect all of our bubble gum wrappers to throw into the fire at night. They would turn the flames of the fire a pretty green which the kids thought was pretty cool.

$3.50 for a large tub of gum; a week of bubble gum blowing memories, priceless.

Here are my other posts for this camping trip:

Tinfoil Dinners

Brown Bears

Fun Family Vacation on a Budget with KOA

We were really hooked on this bubble gum for the entire week. Visit Julia's Hooked on Friday party to see what everyone else is hooked on!

Picnic Basket and Libby's Vegetables Giveaway!

Congratulations to comment #88!
"hey! we also love camping! We just went this weekend with a group from our church, and we spent probably $60 for the whole weekend by sharing a campsite with another couple.
also, last weekend we went to the Toledo Zoo, which is about 2.5 hours from us, for the day. We have a membership to our local zoo which gets us free admission to other zoos. We sSpent less than $100, mostly on gas and junk food at the zoo. That's a pretty cheap family outing, since there are 7 of us! "
Jeannine, you are the lucky winner!

As I was typing up my blog post about camping with the family at KOA, I received an email from Libby's with the article below attached. I feel like I could have written it myself. I will add my own commentary in red of the activities that I love doing with my family. Libby's is also giving one of my readers one of these picnic baskets and 10 cans of Libby's vegetables so keep reading to find out how to win.

Family Time on a Budget this Summer - by Guest Blogger Hannah Keeley

Families are tightening their budgets and for many this means fewer activities outside of the home. With less dining out, movie outings, sports games or even summer camp, there’s no better time for budget-conscious moms and dads to really connect and spend quality time with their kids throughout the summer. Hannah Keeley, mother of seven, host public broadcast show, Hannah Help Me! and author of “Hannah Keeley’s Total Mom Makeover: The Six-Week Plan to Completely Transform Your Home, Health, Family, and Life,” has tips for making the most of your family time this summer without breaking the bank. Start at home. One of your biggest monthly investments is your family home so why not get your money’s worth? If your kids don’t think staying home is cool, here’s your opportunity to get creative.


·Establish a weekly game night and no need to buy new games, ask other parents if they have games that you can borrow. My kids LOVE this. Right now our favorite games are Ticket to Ride and Pig Pile.

·Subscribe to a home movie rental service. Let the kids add their favorite movie to the queue as a reward for an accomplishment. We love Netflix and TiVo for this, just look at some of my posts on the subject.
I HEART Netflix and TiVo
How to get FREE HD TV

·Strap on helmet and ride bikes as a family. This is one of my favorite family activities and I am getting ready to buy a bike rack and trailer hitch for my mini van.

·Check out your local library and chamber of commerce for fun things to do in your own town.

Dining in Style. With the kids out of school and longer days, there is no better time for the family to be together than at dinnertime!

·Keep the meal simple so the family can prepare it together. I like to use affordable canned vegetables, like Libby’s, in recipes and as side dishes because they are delicious and easy to prepare.

·Dine outside at least once a week. It doesn’t matter if you have a patio or you do it picnic style. We like to eat in our backyard or at a park more than once a week.

·Let the kids in on the planning and the ambiance, such as creating handwritten menus or setting the table with brightly-colored place settings. My son just did this a couple of weeks ago. I had gotten tired of hearing him complain about what I made for dinner every night so I decided to let him plan the menu. He went all out and even made menus out of cardboard to showcase what he was serving for dinner. He spent hours on photoshop making the inside of his menu and used some of my leftover paint to paint the menus red. He made his own stencils for the names on the outside and even found some ribbon in my craft closet. I really had nothing to do with this project and he didn't complain about dinner that night (My son is 11).

·Invite the kids into the kitchen and make it a learning experience. Kids can help you mix ingredients in large bowls and even open cans with this child-side can opener. Check GetBacktotheTable.com for family-friendly recipes.

Get Out of Town. You don’t have to give up the precious memories created during annual summer vacations. While theme parks and tropical escapes may be the gold standard of summer retreats, there are a lot of great locales closer to home.

·Look for locations 3-4 hours away to save on airfare and make it a road trip.

·Try camping. Once a popular option, many young families are getting back into the adventurous spirit of camping. We love KOA and go to one about 3 hours from our house. Here is my blog post about it: Fun Family Vacation on a Budget with KOA

·Use your own childhood for inspiration: is there a special place that you’d like to share with your own kids? Have your kids ever been to your old Alma Mater?

For more tips from Hannah Keeley on how to connect with your family this summer and easy recipes that everyone will enjoy visit www.GetBacktotheTable.com.

Picnic Basket and Libby's Vegetable Giveaway:

Everyone can win a free can of Libby's Vegetables with this printable coupon:
Buy 2 (two) cans of Libby's Vegetables, and get the third can free (Click for coupon)!

Here is how you can win the picnic basket and 10 cans of Libby's Vegetables:
*Leave me a comment about something that you like to do with your family.
4 Bonus entries:
1. Tweet about this contest and link back here (leave me another comment with the link to your tweet).
2. Follow my blog (leave me a separate comment letting me know).
3. Post about this contest on your blog and leave a comment here with a link to your post.
4. Tell all of your friends on facebook (leave a separate comment here letting me know).

It is important that you leave a separate comment for each entry since I will be using www.random.org to decide the winner. The deadline for this contest is Friday August 7th.

The deadline for my Ecostore USA $25 Gift Certificate Contest is August 20th.

I will announce the winner on my blog on August 7th. You will have 3 days to respond before I choose another winner.