This weekend, we decided to take a trip to Portland, Oregon, to visit our crazy friends, Dave and Gwen, pictured above.
They also have two precious girls, close in age to ours, so the kiddos had a wonderful time playing together.
Lilyann and Kayla are only a month apart, and enjoyed the weekend together.
On Sunday, we got the girls ready, and drove to Roloff farms, yes, THE Roloff farms, of the "Little People, Big World" t.v. show! We are fans of their show, and I think since working with children with special health care needs for so long, when this show came on, I was immediately attracted to it. In fact, about 11 years ago when I first started working in pediatric occupational therapy, one of my first patients was an adorable little 2 yr old girl with dwarfism. The Roloff's live only about 10 minutes away from our friends. It was crazy driving in, as you can imagine. They only open their farm to the public during pumpkin season.
I had no idea if we would see any of the family members there, but after we parked, Jeremy was one of the first people I saw. He was coming down from the house, and he jumped on this tractor, and started taking large groups of people on tours around the farm!
One of the first things we did was to get in line for a tour. The tour began by taking us up around the front of the house. Here is their newly remodeled part of their house. Gorgeous!
Here's the front door area, that you see a lot on the show. One of the things the tour guide told us is that they are actually filming 5 days a week, 11 months out of the year! That was a bit shocking to me, I never thought they actually had to film them this much!
We wound around back behind the house, where they stopped to let us out at the western town that Matt built. Molly was there waiting, and people were free to go up and get pictures taken with her. She was very sweet.
Here's part of it, the old post office. This was a very well built little town, and very fun for kids to run around and explore. The girls loved it!
Here's a better view of it. I am amazed at the level of creativity Matt has, and how his visions became such an amazing reality around his acreage.
We then got back on and rode past the pirate ship, and Molly's castle, before we arrived back at the pumpkin patch. As soon as we got off, I was surprised to see...
.... Amy! She was standing down in the pumpkin patch and there was a long line of people waiting to take a picture with her.
She was sooo nice! I just love her. She really liked Lilyann and started talking to her, she wanted to know where we were from, etc. I even gave her a flyer from my workplace. It is something I think Matt would be very interested in because it is very much like their farm, built to be engaging and interesting for children. For example, our elevator looks like a mine shaft on the outside, and inside as well. As the elevator goes up and down, through the glass there are "jewels" for the kids to look at. Our front desk looks like a covered wagon, and our therapy pool looks like a pond in the middle of a farm yard. I invited them to come and visit!
They had a lot to look at around the pumpkin patch. This was the pumpkin funhouse, with lots of little rooms filled with a hilarious pumpkin family.
Night, night baby pumpkin!!
Miranda made a pumpkin train. We had spent a long time here, and it was about time to go, so we started walking to our car, when....
Matt Roloff himself came driving down from the house in one of his farm vehicles. He got mobbed. There was a camera crew following him around, as you can see here, and lots of people ran up to him and wanted their picture taken with him. He was very gracious. He would take a picture, and then was only able to pull forward about another foot before more people wanted a picture. He did this several times. At one point there was a man with his son around 10 yrs. old. As Matt was talking with some people, the son had enough nerve to jump in the seat next to Matt while the dad took pictures. Matt never even noticed, because he was busy trying to deal with the people to his left.
Then, we noticed their youngest son, Jacob. The only family member we didn't see was Zach.
Then, it was time to go....what a fabulous experience! This is one pumpkin patch outing I will never forget!!
Fall outings to the pumpkin farms are the best! Miranda found the perfect pumpkin to carve here. After this we enjoyed a hayride, pumpkins being shot out of cannons, and homemade pumpkin donuts at this place!
This was Lilyann's first time to the pumpkin patch. She found this pumpkin and went up to it to touch it with one finger.
I also love fall because that's when our snowberry bushes are in full bloom!
Fall decorating is my favorite!! Here is our table centerpiece we've been enjoying this year.
Now that the leaves are falling, we'll have big piles of leaves from the maple and cottonwood trees. The girls love going for rides in the garden cart. Pretty soon we'll be able to dump them out into the piles of leaves! Last year we missed out on this because we were in China, all the leaves fell while we were gone, and it was too cold when we got back to go out and play! Our leaves didn't get raked up until spring. This year we will be enjoying ourselves outdoors as much as possible.
Lately, I have been missing China. With fall officially here, it reminds me of all we were going through last year at this time. We were getting ready to go! We were making last minute preparations, getting plane tickets, and getting really excited to go get our baby! It is almost hard to believe that our 1 year anniversary since being blessed with Lilyann is almost here. I really wish we could hop on a plane and go re-live the whole momentous occasion. Just like in the fall of 2001 when I gave birth to my now 7 year old, there was something very magical in the air. In China, it was so much the same way. Yes, it was a very different experience, but just as magical and special. I miss the sights and sounds of China, just being in a foreign land is exciting to me! I miss the special people in our group who were all there to meet their children for the first time as well. I miss the whole experience! Can I go back? Please? Please? We would have stayed longer if possible, but all good trips, must come to an end. Well, I guess I will have to just start planning a 2nd China adoption (Shhh! Don't tell Jeff!). Really, it would take a miracle for us to financially come up with a way to do it, but I do not at all doubt God's amazing power! 
It was time for Lilyann's first haircut! Miranda needed one too. She has grown her bangs out, but decided she was ready to have them cut again!
She asked the stylist to make her hair curly, and below you'll see that she got a little more than she asked for!
Here's Lilyann getting the first snip, she did really well!! Nothing like Miranda's first haircut when she was 2. I have the cutest scrapbook layout of her first haircut, but she looks so sad and pitiful, with big tears streaming down her face. Not Lilyann. She LOVES having her hair done. She brings me things she finds around the house to do her hair with, and she stands very still until I am done!
Curly with Neon stripes, now this made her smile!!! Not something she gets to do every day, that's for sure!
Lilyann even got her hair curled, after her bangs were cut, and she didn't want to come down from the Seahorse! What a fun time!
A day to myself in the fall is almost a perfect day!! The temp. was cool, there were some clouds in the sky, and the air smelled of fall! I got outside in the garden and picked a bowl full of scrumptous little pear tomatoes and a zucchini. I then walked through the yard, played with my two baby kittens a bit, and got really excited when I saw some of the yellow leaves falling from the trees. I talked to a couple friends on the phone, worked on my craft room some, and then made a nice garden salad for lunch. I then got to work on some of my projects. I finished one of my prim stitcheries that I think I will frame, and then got to work on two more. When I needed a break, I took a short trip to the nearest thrift store, in search of treasures. I found some! I found two items I will show on another blog post, and about 8 wonderful books, some I had been looking for and others I just thought looked great. When I came home, I made two loaves of zucchini bread. I ended the day by visiting with my goats, and decided this was just a wonderful fall day!!! I hope there will be many more to come. I hope you all have time to slow down, and enjoy all the blessings and simple pleasures of fall this year!
Things have been so busy lately, I forgot to introduce some of the new critters on the farm. Here we have two adorable brothers, Greyfield, and Tiny.
We added two more goats. These are young Nubians, a boy and a girl, that join our other pair of Nigerian Dwarfs. We have a total of 4 goats now on our little farm. We think that's a great number to start out with, and they are so much fun!
The girls have been enjoying spending time with them, feeding them, and getting to know them. They are a great addition to the family!
My sweet girl turned 7 the other day, Sept. 29th. Another reason I love fall. What a magical time it was 7 yrs. ago when my tiny 4 lb. baby girl was born. And what a lovely little lady she is today. I love birthdays. This year she had a littlest pet shop birthday party. She loves animals so much, so the littlest pet shop toys are her favorite.
Cousin Olivia, shared in her joy! They are two peas in a pod. They play so well together and have so much energy!
Lilyann had difficulty staying on the sidelines. She wanted in on all the action. She just didn't understand why it wasn't her birthday again!
