Saturday, October 16, 2010

Its The Great Pumpkin!

My first craft show is in three short weeks, so what should I be doing on a Saturday off from work?  Working on bulking up my inventory?  Nope. Going to the Pumpkin Patch, that's what!    The hubby and I decided to visit Roloff Farms, which you may have seen on TLC's "Little People, Big World".  They open their farm to the public during pumpkin season, and they're surprisingly located just seven miles from our house.  It blows my mind that they're so close, yet we're definitely in the city, and they're out in the peaceful countryside! 
Yay!  We're here!
I was born in Oregon, and lived there for 23 years before moving to Arizona, yet I had never visited this particular pumpkin patch.  I didn't become a fan of the show until I was living in Arizona. When we moved back and settled so close to them, I started counting down the days until we could go visit.  We got there 15 minutes after they had opened, and still had to wait in a 20-minute traffic line to get in!  It was neat to see how many other people were excited to spend the day there.  When we made it inside the farm, we immediately met Matt Roloff, who was so happy and kind. 

Matt thanked us for coming out to see them.
 We took one of their wagon tours around the property - seeing their stunning customized home, Molly's castle, and met Matt's parents in the old western town that Matt built out of recycled barn wood from all over the Northwest.   We saw all the kids except for Molly, who was at a volleyball tournament. Jeremy and Zach were driving two of the many tractors pulling the wagon tours, and Jacob was hosting a soccer-kicking contest in the patch.  They were all smiling and friendly, taking pictures with fans. Our wagon was driven by one of the twins' best friends.

This house is AMAZING!  Its customized for their height.
We also met Amy, who was incredibly nice and gracious.  She chatted with us for awhile and took a photo with us.  I love the Roloffs because they're such incredible ambassadors of the local area, even though they never set out to be in that role.  I told Amy that I'm so proud to live in the same community as such a wonderfully giving family, and thanked her for having such a positive presence in the community.  I even laughed and told her its nice to have a great reality family that's drama-free; she laughed and said their only drama is normal family stuff and thanked me for saying that. 
Posing with Amy - she was so cool!

We wandered through the many attractions - there's a petting zoo, an area with exotic rescued animals, and a fun house with all sorts of scenes with dressed up pumpkins.  Then it was time to find our pumpkins!!  We decided to just pick one larger one, and we'd both agree on the carving design.....until I found the section on the farm with the wee little pumpkins, and I just had to take a little five-pounder home.

We had such a fantastic day at Roloff Farms.  The weather was amazing!  Matt and Amy even took time out to raise awareness about the Kyron Horman investigation (in case you haven't heard, Kyron disappeared from his school in NW Portland back in June and hasn't been found).  Matt wore a shirt with Kyron's information on it, and they had a booth set up with Kyron's picture and resources for parents. Matt and Amy were interviewed by a local news station, and we even saw Kaine Horman (Kyron's father) at the farm.
These signs lined the road to the farm, and I loved them.
After picking our pumpkins, we left the farm with some fun souvenirs and huge smiles on our faces. I took home an adorable Roloff pumpkin shirt that I couldn't resist.  All in all, it was a very affordable day - they could easily take advantage of their fame and charge for all the photos and autographs or charge a huge fee for the tractor tour.  But they don't, which just speaks to how down-to-earth they are. Whether you're a fan of their show or not, you should definitely make a visit to Roloff Farms during pumpkin season.  But get there early, as traffic backs up for miles on the two-lane country road!  Thank you Roloff family for welcoming everybody into your farm for such a special day!

1 comment:

  1. So jealous! It's so good to see that the Roloffs aren't overcharging people to visit. I don't watch the show as regularly as I used to, but I still think they're a great family.

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