Oaks Park

Oaks Park is an amusement park/roller skating rink that has been around for over 100 years. (I seriously just read about it on the Wikipedia page because I think it's fascinating.) Anyway, it's a big Portland attraction that we've been to many times as kids and several times as adults. We were excited to receive a letter in the mail from Charlie's eye doctor saying they were holding a big event there and all kids would get a free ride and skating pass and free lunch. Charlie was so excited, Max and I were probably even more excited. Charlie remembers very well the time he fell asleep on the Ferris Wheel at Oaks park. (a year and a half ago). The event started in the old and beautiful Dance Pavilion, where there were many games, prizes, face painting, and a puppet show. And my favorite part was free vision screenings. I haven't been able to have Miles checked since I haven't seen any apparent issues with his eyes which means insurance wont cover it. But they screened his eyes and he has excellent vision, which thrilled me to no end! Anyway, I ended up taking a whole lot of pictures because I have a new lens that I wanted to try out...so there you go!

And then they announced the start of a puppet show, the boys got front row seats and were completely enthralled the whole time. 

After the puppet show, the boys ate a hot dog lunch then got a balloon sword just as the clown was closing up shop. They ran around the room briefly with the their swords.

We then went out to try out some rides, The weather was CRAZY this day, At one moment it was sunny, then rainy, then sunny, then thunder and hail, then sunny again. It made for short lines and some rides we were even able to walk right on.

We enjoyed a couple rounds of the tilt-a-whirl which became a quick favorite of both boys.

We then headed over to the Ferris Wheel. Charlie was my Ferris Wheel date while Miles went with Max.  Isn't he precious?

 Scoping out the next couple rides we would go on.

We got off first so we waited for Max and Miles to make their way down. 

And then we enjoyed the 104 year old Carousel. Charlie was pretty excited about his brown pig. And I was hating his glasses glare!

Charlie was fascinated with the mechanism that made the animal go up and down.

And off to some kiddie rides.

And then there was this roller coaster. It is the worst. I did not go on it this time. It is so jerky...Max and Charlie (mostly just Charlie) had fun though.

We found out that Miles couldn't ride this one on his own and Max had to go with him, Max was not super excited about sitting in the puddle of rain water.

And then there is this one, much scarier than it looks. Right from the beginning Charlie realized he didn't like it. He stayed calm though, he just kept saying "I don't like this one," and "I'm ready for it to be done."

We then decided to dry out a little bit by going inside for some roller skating.  Charlie has been skating a couple times and this was Miles' first time.

I ended up putting my camera in a locker and just taking some phone pictures.

Miles showing off his tricks, he did pretty well, those skates are quite a bit easier than Charlie's heavy ones. 

Someday I will hear that huge pipe organ 

After awhile Charlie's feet hurt and he was tired.

Miles just cruisin' along.

We ended up doing a round of Hokey Pokey then skated off the floor to get our shoes back on.

We decided we had some time for more rides and Max went and got some cotton candy. We realize that one of the perks of being a parent is reliving your childhood joys through your kids and you don't even have to beg anyone to buy you cotton candy...you can just do it yourself. It's the best.

I made Charlie go on the Spider ride with me. It took forever to load and then it started raining while we were sitting in the car waiting for everyone else to be loaded, and once it started, Charlie was not a fan again.

After that, we did one more carousel ride then called it a day!