When the games are full, the laughter and shrieks of excitement and surprise fill the big Yellow house to overflowing. It becomes a thing alive, filled with joy. As I sit here in our lobby and look around I'm more than a little amazed to think of how many people have come and played our games. I'm delighted at how many fun memories we have helped create for our community, and for those that travel from afar to visit our community. I fondly recall the insights team building groups achieved, new appreciation for their peers as they basked in praise from those peers. I can hear the laughter from the countless school field trips and birthday parties. I can hear our gamemasters sharing in that laughter. I can hear the screams of excited players discovering the lasers in Embassy Escape, the whoop of triumph when they blasted open the vault in Deception Depot. I can hear the earnest good fun of people truly working together to figure something out, to solve the puzzle, to win the game, to breakout.

I hear the same question from players past to present over and over, "how did you come up with that!?" That question and the conversations that followed are very dear to us.

We worked so very hard to make a special place, and the smiles of our customers told us that we succeeded. But today the wonder of those memories becomes bitter sweet.

Big Sky Breakout will be closing its doors this year. The pandemic has hit our business harder than we want to admit. We thought we made it through the worst, but even still, we can't continue.  The last almost two years have been a struggle to say the least. Not just for our family, but for our employees and our community. We are tired, as I am certain you are as well. We poured our creative passion, our sweat and our tears into Big Sky Breakout for almost 6 years. With the help of our staff and our community we made something wholly unique, a wonderfully creative way to play and have fun with one another.

Big Sky Breakout will always have the memories. We will be putting the games and biz in storage in hopes that when the world starts to really come out of its pandemic shell, some courageous and creative soul will pick up the puzzle pieces and help put it back together, and give it the attention, love, effort, and joy it deserves. But, that will not be Ralph and I, we are tired and it shows. We did everything we could.

Keep each other safe. We will miss you terribly. Thank you for smiles, the laughs, the delight. Please call or reach out via email with any ideas or just to say hello. Maybe the creative person to take over Big Sky Breakout is someone you know. Maybe it is you. This is not goodbye, just goodbye for now. We will keep you posted on our final day of games. For now we know we will have games open through November. But if you have a game you want to play, now is the time.  We will miss seeing you in this dreamy place of puzzles and fun. Big love from our family to yours.

 -Jaime & Ralph Walters