Talent Harvest Festival & Run - Fall Family Fun

Our morning started with the Talent Harvest Festival Run.  I ran the 5k and my husband ran the 10k. When we got out there it was pretty chilly out, but once the race started we quickly warmed up!  This is a really beautiful road race.  The 5k is really for good for beginners, or if you want to be challenged the 10k has rolling hills.  I say every run is my favorite, so let's just say I really enjoy the ease of this race.  Plus, the view is breathtaking. (I am not a competitive runner, thus I stop to take pictures.)

After our run we went home and picked up the kids so we could partake in the festival fun!  I have lived in the Rogue Valley for 24 years and I never had made it to the Talent Harvest Festival so this was such a treat!  You could hear the great music as we got out of the car, which got the kids all excited. And as we were walking to the festival we caught sight of this cute, made up parade car.

Of course the kiddos had to promptly get their faces painted.  This artist was like a face-painting ninja.  Our daughters face was painted in less than two minutes.

She does really pretty designs.  Olivia, our daughter got a butterfly and Ilias, our son, actually got a really cool skeleton.

There were a lot of great activities for the kids.  We missed out on the pumpkin painting, but got to admire the artists' handiwork.

There were a lot of local business out to support the city of Talent.  Including FOTAS, Friends of the Animal Shelter.  They help animals and humans find each other.

As we were heading toward the sound of the music, we ran into the Harvest Festival ballerina.  Of course, our little ballerina had to join her.

Salsa Brava was on the stage when we got there.  They are a genuine salsa band that makes you want to get up and dance, even if you don't know how to.  We sat for a bit but our kids were getting antsy so we headed over to the kids section.

The kids section was impressive, lots of interactive activities full of family fun; including a rope making activity using yarn and making bracelets with leftover yarn.  They even had the Rogue Valley Handweavers Guild there making yarn.  It was quite fascinating, I wish I would have gotten a picture, but I was distracted watching my kids take it all in and honestly I was helping Olivia make rope. :)

Out of all of the activities their favorite thing was making apple cider.  It was really cool!

Washing apples

Add to the press

Turn the crank

Here comes the cider

They also, had a Children's Farmer's Market stand where we bought some 25 cent apples to munch on while we watched the Old Time Fiddler's.

They were quite the talented little musicians, so inspiring.

We started feeling a little snacky, so we walked over to the food truck court.  There was a wide variety of food to choose from, gyros' from Sultan's Delight, Thai food from Wassana's Thai, Asian fusion, Mexican, Hawaian and lot's more!  We decided on some locally made ice cream by Freshly Baked in Talent (you can find them on facebook).  It was so yummy!  They were even baking cookies to make ice cream sandwiches.  I hope to run across them again sometime soon!  

We went and sat in the beer garden to listen some music while we ate our ice cream.  There was a great band, Maestro & The Captain Flat 5 Flim Flam, they play original acoustic swing music. 

We finished off our afternoon heading to the petting zoo.  They had some sheep, goats and rabbit too.  That made Olivia happy.  Because as do most three year olds', she loves animals.

We had such a great time, enjoying our family fun time!  This year the Talent Harvest Festival is on Saturday, October 1st if you want to go.  We highly suggest it!

The schedule as follows: 7am - Pancake Breakfast | 8am - Southern Oregon Runners - Talent Harvest Festival Run | 10am - Parade | 1045am - Festival activities including:  Live Music - Children's Farmer's Market - Face Painting -Vendors - Food and MORE!!

If you want to see more pictures from the harvest festival head to our Community Event Gallery.

You can also find all of the details on all of the Fall Festivities, Pumpkin Patches,  Halloween Fun and so much more!  

For a full event calendar of events head over to our website www.whattodoinsouthernoregon.com

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Enjoy your Fall!