Field Trips are awesome: Pumpkin Patch Part I

The day we ventured out to pick some pumpkins was a beautiful, sunny, early October day.
As a family, we had already signed up to go on another pumpkin patch field trip later on in the month, however, our brother and sister and their kids wanted to go this particular Saturday, and requested the pleasure of our company. How could we refuse?

We decided to enjoy the day and come away empty-handed of pumpkins, saving the fun of that for the other field we had already paid for. But which patch to choose? We certainly didn't want to go to the same one twice in one month...

Between the two families, we landed on the Roloff Family's Farm. If you have ever seen the show "Little People, Big World" on The Learning Channel (TLC), you may have heard of this farm. It is a little less than an hour away from where we live, and we'd seen and heard a lot about it, so this was the patch for us this trip. My husband checked out their website online the night before, saw that their food vendor had Chili-cheese Fries, and that was it, he was convinced. (As it turned out, this was a mistake, they don't actually offer these, however, my husband pulled a puppydog-eyed look on the guy, who found some chili and some cheese and accommodated my heart-set hubby. So if you choose to go to Roloff Farms for the same reason, don't ask for them...)

We drove down the road on which the farm was located and every 1/2 mile or so we saw confirming signs telling us we were going the right way, adorable jack-o-lantern faces saying "Pick Me! Pick Me!" Similar to this one in the actual patch:

When we finally got into the patch we found out that this particular Saturday they were celebrating Matt Roloff's 50th birthday. Matt, if you've never seen the show, is the father of the Roloff family, the owner and founder of the farm, star of the show, and spokesperson for Little People all across America. He's kind of a celebrity, so it was rather exciting to us viewers to be there that day. (Well, ex-viewer, myself, since I haven't had that channel in over a year...but a fan of the show, still.)
I had my camera charged and ready for photo-ops, so I made everyone pose before we got going and split up at all. Then I got one with me in it, too. :)
Here we all are, my husband's sister and her family as well:

When we entered the gates we had to go through a line before getting to the open area. The kids walked on ahead, then came back all wide-eyed that they had seen something you would not expect to see in Oregon. I simply did not believe them until I walked around the corner myself and saw:

A REAL LIFE CAMEL! No kidding! When the kids said camel, I was sure they had to be mistaken, or it was a life-size picture or statue. Nope. It's real. The kids were really excited to get up close and pet it!

We decided, once we got through marveling over the exotic animal, that we should line up for sustenance and treats first thing, then explore the farm later. That's where we found out about the lack of Chili-cheese Fries. The upside, apart from the nice vendor placating my hubby, was that they had gourmet kettle corn and hot drinks. I got a caramel apple cider, (what else in October?) and we all enjoyed Snickerdoodle-flavored kettle corn. Yummy!
One thing you might have seen on the show is the family dog, Rocky. He was parked under our picnic table, where we sat down to eat our corn-dogs, being the biggest moocher I have ever encountered. I tried to ignore him, but he would paw my leg and force me to at least notice him. Eventually we gave him the leftovers our kids didn't eat, (he really was too cute to ignore) but I'm sure he didn't need them, with the hundreds of other patron that day, catering to his begging. Silly boy :)

From the picnic area we could see the huge crowd gathered around with all the T.V. cameras for the taping of the festivities. We decided to forgo the crowd and bee-line it to the huge, inflatable slide standing tall in the background, beckoning our adventure-loving offspring.

We paid for each of the older kids to take two trips on the slide. The stairs were not stairs at all, and were incredibly steep. A huge part of the adventure was actually making it up to the top. Once the kids each had a turn, the little guys had to go, too, meaning one of the grown-ups had to get them up there.

Hilarity ensued.

Go, mama!

Baby bo

y: "This is Fun!"

Mom: "Oh, crap, I'm slipping!"

Mom: "You're not going down without me!" (grabs his arm) Baby: "Whee!"

Both: "Whee!"

Baby: "That was Awesome! Let's do it again!" Mom: "Never. Again."

The other kids had fun going down their second turns.

All the while the huge crowd is getting really excited because Matt is coming into the crowd. And just as we look up, the youngest child, Jacob, zips right over our heads on a zip-line and waves right at us. :) What a cutie.
Ben was smitten by the horses (Ponies) He is currently obsessed with a little horse figurine that has been Maximus from Tangled, Bullseye from Toy Story 3, and is now Donkey from Shrek 2 (as the stallion). He sleeps with him and takes him everywhere, making him gallop all over the house. So all he wanted to do was stand there and watch the ponies walk in a circle.

As the crowd got louder, we decided to take advantage of everyone being gathered in one spot, thereby leaving no lines in other areas, and check out a very intriguing sign we saw for a --get this-- Baby Tiger! Could it be true?

 Meet Sheena, the 6 month old, 65 lb. baby girl. She is, according to her trainer (mama), a sweet, cuddly kitten, who has no idea she could kill them if she got too rough.

Ben was a huge fan! The trainer here was apparently Sheena's mom. When she came out, Sheena just leaped up and ran over to her, purring like crazy. It was pretty sweet.

There isn't a whole lot cooler than a baby tiger.

As a family, we wanted some good pictures,

Me and my Love

so we wandered out across the grassy field where the picked pumpkins were, they had some fun tee-pees for hide and seek. The grass was a little tough to push the strollers across, so Mama had to literally carry her baby.

 All the kids were naming their pumpkins, even though we weren't going to take any home. It was still adorable to see them attempt to pick pumpkins bigger than they even were!

I was going for the pic of my niece in the background, not realizing my goofy husband was squinting into the sun in the foreground, heehee :) What a geek, I love him.

They loved playing hide and seek in the Teepees.

Once we got over here, our cousin, who loves this farm and this show and had been here several times before, showed up and took some great pictures of all of us.

Gosh, I love these people!
Here is our adorable photographer :)

Aaannd, her puppy, Lexi. Cute, huh?
Our girls just lover her.

And check out that sun! This is a special thing here in OR in the Fall. It was pouring the very next day, so this was awesome weather!

Then my girl had to do what going to the pumpkin patch means to her: "Putting your face in the thing and taking a picture."

Happy birthday, Matt!

 

 

And last but not least, We saw Matt on the way out