Ricky had been bugging me to take him to a haunted house. And while I adore a good spook alley, I know my son. He’s not one who likes scary things. He’s getting better. He’s read a few book series that are a bit more intense and he’s doing well with those, but I still know Ricky as the boy who walks out of a movie if he even THINKS it is going to get scary.
I told him that maybe next year (or when he’s 12), we could start going to haunted houses together at Halloween.
To try and appease him though, I found a place that said they had a kid friendly haunted house. As I read about it and looked at pictures, this Pumpkin Haven sounded great – a maze, a haunted house, a petting zoo, some bouncy slides, and you got to “pick” a pumpkin. Sign me up, right? Ha!
I bought a family pass through an online special and we planned a day to go when we could be there first thing when they opened. You know, because it sounded like such a great place that it might get busy or crowded and since it was Bobby’s first real outing, I wanted to avoid the crowds. Again … Ha!
I knew the Pumpkin Haven was in Layton, but I hadn’t really paid attention to the address. As the whole family was heading there though, I noticed that address. It was the Walmart parking lot! I figured there had to be some mistake or some field right by Walmart that I was forgetting about. Something. Nope. Pumpkin Haven was a fenced in area of about 40 parking stalls in the Walmart parking lot. We didn’t have to worry about crowds. And “picking” your pumpkin meant you picked it up off the asphalt.
But, while Kevin and I laughed at the absurdity of the place, the kids loved it. There was a little maze – friendly enough that Tommy mastered it his second time through.
There was a spook alley type thing, but during the day, there wasn’t much spooky about it.
The petting zoo had bunnies (so an instant hit with Ricky) …
and chickens …
and lambs …
and goats.
The bouncy slide had a hole in it, so we didn’t get to do that. But Billy and I did get to shoot some hoops …
It gave us about an hour of Halloween enjoyment, but I don’t know that we’ll visit that parking lot again next year!