Just before Halloween 2016, the Portland Instagram group had a fun little instameet at Fir Point Farms in Aurora, Oregon. Pumpkins were everywhere of course, but so were goats and bunnies and horses and donkeys... plus games like Cornhole and badminton. We feasted on ice cream, donuts, freshly pressed cider. Probably the most fun though was the corn maze -- so beautiful...

My friend, Rosemary Stafford, and I spent a seriously fun day at the Oregon State Fair in Salem, the capital city. There were many carnival rides, fried foods, happy fair-goers, musicians, artists, gorgeous show animals (like pigs, cows, rabbits, pheasants, horses), you name it. I wish it were going on every weekend! It brings up such happy nostalgia from my early boyhood on a Kansas farm.