Monday, October 27, 2008

Roloff Farms!!!

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!


Here's a photo that gives you a better idea of how many people there actually were there. It was a beautiful, warm, October day yesterday.

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.



This is a little church built next to the old western town.



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!!


Big daddy pumpkin is taking a bath.



There were a lot of unique and interesting pumpkins to look at.



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!!







































































15 comments:

Yankee Ridge Primitives said...

What a GREAT post! How neat is it that you got to meet the Roloffs!!
Love the pictures, love your story:)

Kindra-At Home With K said...

That looked like so much fun!! I would love to go to the Roloff Farm. I have always enjoyed watching their show! And boy, I haven't seen the finished project of their house! Wow!!

Anonymous said...

WOW! That looks like it was so much fun!

I've never seen that show, but have heard of it before. They seem like such a sweet family.

Becky said...

How fun!!!! I just love Matt and Amy and their family - they seem so "genuine" and "real"! One thing I remember about them was that, when Jacob had his trebuchet accident, the first thing Amy did (after letting Jacob know she was there) was to openly pray over him. Looks like you had a super day!

Wendi said...

How fun! I enjoy watching their show and would love to visit their pumpkin patch. I was also surprised by their filming schedule. Talk about a patient family... after I few days I might just have to say get out! LOL

Dalyn said...

Wow! Doug and I have always wanted to go to their farm, since it isn't too far away...you got to go! I am thinking you had so much fun and you need to tell me all about it over coffee! *U*
Thanks for posting all the pictures- that's just something really fun. I'm glad you got to see most of their family. The new house is gorgeous- I commented on that, but my Ben said, "probably not on the inside!" because he doesn't think AMy a very good housekeeper. ha ha!

day by day said...

Wow!! That was some pumpkin farm visit!! How wonderful!! I loved the pictures of the pumpkin family! : )

Sounds like such great fun!!

Michelle R Photography said...

Very cool. I have only seen bits and pieces of that show, but I recognize some of the faces. I just LOVE their house! I would have enjoyed that tour. And it's so nice you were able to go visit with good friends.

the said...

That is so cool, we dont live too far from there, we have always talked about going but never have. Those pics are really neat, thanks :)

Tammy ~ Country Girl at Home ~ said...

That looks like lots of fun, Michele! My friend, Tammy, over at Lattes and Lollypops was there and saw the same people. I wonder if you all were there the same day?

I loved the post and the photos! Thanks for sharing!

Tammy

Unknown said...

Oh how wonderful to be able to see the farm!...I watch their show all the time too...Isn't is wonderful when you get to meet someone and they are just as gracious off camera as on?!...I have met a few "stars" over time and some of them won't even give you the time of day!...glad they are genuine!!!!

Anonymous said...

Looks like a lot of fun!!

Elise said...

Wow...can I just say jealous;) That is our favorite show as a couple to watch together. My husband just said last night that we need to go down to south to visit their farm. Looks like when we do it will be worth the drive. So neat that you got to actually visit with the family and take pictures.

My girls did see Amy and her daughter last year when we were in Portland for Revolve (Teens of Faith Conference).

Thanks too for visiting my blog...you must not live to far away from us if you went to see the Roloffs.

frogglet said...

How fun! You got such great pictures that is one of my favorite shows as well. What a wonderful memory for the family and it was great that you were able to share the experiance with friends.
Take Care,
Cora

Tereasa said...

Looks like you had a great time!