After talking to friends, we settled on stopping in at two places, Packer Orchards and Renken Farm.
Packer Orchards Farm in Hood River, OR was our first stop on our Fall fun day! The first thing we did was head inside to check out all the goodies they had to offer. We tried lots of free samples and wound up buying a gallon of apple cider and two big bags of mixed apples. They also offer pies, cookies, cinnamon and fruit rolls, honey, jams, pie fillings, other fruit, cider doughnuts, and ice cream.
To me, it's just not Fall without a corn maze! In the past, we've enjoyed the huge corn maze at Schells, which has now been sold and is called Curfmans. Maybe we'll check it out again this year or next.
Of course I was smitten when I heard that Packer had a corn maze, though I was a bit disappointed when we had to pay to enter. I much prefer free.
This little corn maze was a piece of cake in comparison to the one we've grown accustom to. I actually think it was a welcome relief to the kids as they loved the simplicity and quick fun of it, and thoroughly enjoyed not being stuck in a huge corn maze for an hour like in the past, haha. Sam and I enjoyed it too! Each of the kids was able to take the lead or go a different way without us fearing loosing them in the corn maze. When we finished it, we actually ran back in and did it all over again, lol!
After making it out of the corn maze, we grabbed a wagon and hit the pumpkin patch. I love that their pumpkin patch is huge. We really enjoy hunting for our pumpkins! They had a great variety too; big, medium, little, tall, squat, white, orange, deep orange, smooth, warty. We really had a great time pumpkin hunting!
The kiddos each picked out a few fun decorative pumpkins, keeping them in the small to medium range. They've already found their home on our porch as our beautiful fall decor. This year we will be purchasing our large carving pumpkins at the grocery store. Not as fun, I know, but definitely cheaper.
When all was said and done and we weighed and payed for our pumpkins, the kiddos played a few games. They had a hula-hoop toss, pumpkin bowling, and corn hole. Those were free. ;)
We had so much fun that when it was time to go, my sweet, angelic children threw a fit. Can you believe that!? Sooooo because of that, they lost their cookie and ice cream privileges..... and also caused me to be a very unhappy Mama because I wanted cookies and ice cream. Damn it.
Oh well. Onward!
Renken Farm in The Dalles, OR was our second stop. They offer a wide variety of free fun, as well as a little pumpkin patch. A quaint little farm off the beaten path, there was hardly anyone there when we showed up. Maybe 3 other families. Yay. I like it when places are quiet and we can pretty much have the run of the place.
My favorite park of Renken was their petting zoo. They had goats, puppies, and chicks; all of which you could pet. There was also a piggie, chickens, and turkeys. The chicks were the biggest hit. Anthony especially enjoyed catching and petting them.
By the time we got out of the petting zoo, it seemed as if the people working Renken were on break, lol, and we must have missed the hay ride over to the other attractions. So we walked. Bummer. As we made it to the slides, the only other family at Renken was enjoying the pumpkin sling shot (which unfortunately we did not stick around long enough to do because I was working on a headache- ugh). The kids loved the slides and spent a fair amount of time running around have a ball. We let them do their thing on the slides seeing as there was no rush to share them with other people!
Pumpkin patch time! Renken's pumpkin patch was really lush and green. The pumpkins were near perfect and layed out in neat rows, making it easy to pick. Each of the kiddos got to pick one small pumpkin each, since we already picked a nice collection at Paker. I loved the greenery of Renkin's pumpkin patch.
Happy Fall Yall!
With love,
Mama Hauck
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