Madeline Rose: Autumn in Portland

Bauman's Farm - Harvest Fun

Autumn in Portland is one of my favorite times of the year! From Fresh Hops Beer Festivals to Harvest fun at the surrounding farms, the choices are endless for family fun.

We joined friends at the Oaks Park Fresh Hops Festival and Steve and I split our time enjoying the Oaks Amusement Park rides with Maddy, and sampling the fresh hop brews. We all had a good time and Maddy went on her first solo ride! She was nervous at first, then we couldn't get her to stop - again, again, again she said!

There are so many farms just outside the city filled with fun activities for kids, great food and pumpkins galore. This year we picked Bauman Farms, and our friends Joe, Angie and Olivia Rock joined us there for the afternoon. It was a beautiful, sunny day/ Maddy was a bit cranky for part of the time (I think the big slide at the beginning was a bit too much for her), but we managed to throw lots of fun activities in and she ended up having fun and did not want to leave. She really liked feeding the goat, so I see many petting zoo activities in our future.

Daynia had some good one-on-one time with Maddy sitting for us one night, and they used their time for a tea party (this seems to be becoming a theme with them). Maddy just loves Daynia and her tea parties, and was over the moon when Daynia gave her a beaded bracelet that Daynia had made just for her.

Maddy and I both had Columbus Day off and we were planning on meeting Christy and Luella at the zoo, but Christy was not feeling well, so we met Andy and Lu instead! We had fun tooling around seeing the animals and exploring a section new to me that offered another view of the lions! Roar! As usual, Maddy and Lu had lots of fun running around together and goofing off.

Not a bad start to Autumn in Portland.