Things to Do in Gresham

Rentals are available in day-long packages. Adult downhill skis and adult snowboards cost $30 for one day's rental and $45 for two days, while junior boards and downhill skis run $20 for one day and $30 for two days. Meadowlark's friendly and knowledgeable staff of mountain professionals is happy to guide customers toward the equipment that will serve them best as they take on nature's craggy surges with confidence-instilling snow gear.

Jump for Joy's 27-acre grounds enchant urban farmers, equestrians, and nature lovers alike with a recreational organic farm, stables, and other natural-educational amenities. The full-service equestrian center, in addition to boarding horses, offers riding lessons and horse camps in which riders of all ages can master horse-powered transit and learn the slight dialect differences between speaking Horse and Donkey. Throughout the grounds, visitors can wander through a natural wetlands system, wild-bird habitat, and blueberry orchard in addition to other sustainable-homesteading amenities. Kids delve into the natural world at birthday parties on the farm and themed weeklong summer camps that impart skills on horse riding, organic farming, or ecology.

The team behind Kidz-Playz enhances children's gatherings with inflatable play structures whose springy, cushiony surfaces encourage hours of bounding and tumbling. By toting these portable playhouses to clients' homes, Kidz-Playz's staff continues a profession that predates agriculture—renting children's party supplies.

In ancient Greece, for example, mask makers visited parties to give kids their own drama masks, which displayed one of the two known human emotions at that time—happiness and defeat. Come the Middle Ages, parents hired clowns, court jesters, and recently usurped monarchs to entertain their offspring. But it wasn't until the late 20th century that party technology really evolved, giving children access to supplies such as hot-dog-flavored birthday cakes and the pinnacle of entertainment: the inflatable bounce house.

Every day at 4 p.m., a piece of the city transforms into the beach. At Wok's Up Beach Volleyball, four outdoor sand-volleyball courts host tournaments, pickup games, and open play. An onsite bar pours refreshments and invites those not setting and spiking to rack up at a pool table. Wok's Up Beach Volleyball equips its courts with lights, allowing games to continue even after the daily battle when the moon destroys the sun for rights to the evening sky.

The spacious rides of the BBB-accredited G-Limos accommodate an array of pavement-based needs, including business travel, city tours, and transportation to events and concerts. G-Limos' sports packages go so far as to hook clients up with tickets and limo transportation to local sporting events such as Portland Trail Blazers and Winterhawks games, while wine tours journey through Oregon’s renowned wine country. From newlyweds to birthday celebrants, G-Limos offers its passengers a sophisticated driving service for an assortment of special occasions, adding an instant memory maker to milestone anniversaries or classing up trips to the grocery store.

For its 2012 Halloween season, Four Horsemen Haunted Attractions treats fright-seekers to a double helping of scares with two connected haunted houses spanning more than 18,000 square feet. The gut-wrenching walkthroughs kick off with Grimtales, a ghastly spectacle that brings out the horror hiding beneath the surface of the Brothers Grimm’s famous fairytales. Dressed in macabre interpretations of such characters as Little Red Riding Hood and the Pied Piper, Four Horsemen's actors elicit screams through dialogue and shocking reveals, elevating the genre beyond cheap-and-dirty scare tactics, such as jumping out from behind a door or dressing up like each guest’s high-school gym teacher. Pestilence plunges already on-edge patrons into a necromantic nightmare, walking them through the story of an evil cult that has begun to reanimate the dead. Scripted live-action sequences and seamlessly integrated video back up roving monsters, creating a uniquely immersive haunted experience.