Twilight & Roloff Farms

**I wrote this blog several weeks ago, but apparently I never posted it. Oops!**

This weekend, Deb and I headed to Portland to see some of the locations used for filming Twilight. Though the story takes place in Forks, Washington, many of the Forks scenes are actually filmed in St. Helens, Oregon. This little town was also used to film the Disney Channel movie, Halloweentown. I haven't seen it yet, but now I definitely want to after seeing a lot of the places shown in the movie. We took a self-guided tour of both movie locations, as well as the places around town believed to be haunted by ghosts.

Charlie and Bella's house was away from the road, up a hill and very out of the way. The people who live in this house have posted signs asking Twilight fans to stay back from the house. While I understand their desire for privacy, I think I would handle it much differently. I would quit my job and become a Twilight tour guide! You could pay a small fee and I would give you a tour of the inside and outside of my house, as well as walk through all the town's Twilight locations. I would take tourists pictures with cast cut-outs, tell stories about what it was like when they were filming, probably have a midnight Twilight reading when the full moon is out...you get the picture :)  I am sure many of you are judging me for my love of Twilight right now, but I'm really just thinking like a savvy entrepreneur!

It's interesting to me that many of the businesses they used to film were changed into a different location in the movie. A hair salon became a prom dress shop, an attorney's office became a bookstore, a house became a restaurant. This probably happens a lot in movies, but I have never really followed the trail of movie sets before :)
 
They did have an Experience Twilight store downtown that understands the tourist draw of the town. They are on the right path, but I just feel like there is so much more they could be doing!

 
Later that afternoon, we met Lynsey and Anna Kate at Roloff Farms and I got to check an item off my bucket list! I love the TLC show, Little People Big World, and was very excited to meet the Roloff family and see their farm. The whole family was incredibly friendly and down-to-earth and were so grateful that people would come visit their home.

We took a wagon tour of the farm and I was very excited we got Jeremy as our driver! I just wanted to have one of the Roloff's driving us and not some random crew person. I was kind of surprised at how close everything is on the farm. I thought it was much more spread out from watching the show, but you could easily walk to all of the attractions (pirate ship, cowboy town, castle, etc.)

It's crazy that the Roloff's are celebrities, because they really are just a normal family. It is probably very strange to have thousands of people taking your picture on the weekend and then study high school geometry and play volleyball on a Monday.

Matt's Dad, Jeremy, Matt's Mom, Molly and Me

It is a little sad that we aren't much taller than her...

This trip has made me want to watch/re-watch Twilight, Halloweentown and Little People Big World so I can see it with a new perspective and compare it with what I saw in real life. I plan to be home this next weekend and relax, so I think I'll do my follow-up research from the couch this Saturday :)

P.S.
There are many more pictures from this trip on my Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027585&id=160201160&l=3564f51386

Rachel's Trip to Oregon

I had such a great time with Rachel this past week! Here are some pictures of our trips to the coast (Bandon, OR) and to Portland for the weekend.

I really love this picture of Rachel and baby Beckham in her belly :)

It was really foggy on the beach, but it was still fun to play in the water and the sand.

Saturday Market is one of the best things--so much to see and eat and do!

Waiting for the MAX for one hour...ugh. Poor 7 months pregnant Rachel--not a great situation.

We got this picture taken in Powell's...notice our names on the marquee board. It's not a very good picture of either one of us, but at least we got cool books!

Many more pictures can be found on my Facebook page.

AND now on to some other random thoughts...

Kory and I watched the Dark Knight last night. I really love that movie! When the movie first came out, there were several people who told me that this was my dopple-danger. Any thoughts? It's always hard to tell if someone looks like yourself, I think. I guess I can see a little resemblance...

My parents will arrive on Thursday and I'm very ready for them to be here! We'll be making lots of fun trips to the coast, the Redwoods, Crater Lake, South Umpqua waterfalls and hopefully there will be some time at the river in there also. It's supposed to cool down quite a bit the end of this week, so hopefully they'll get to experience some beautiful Oregon weather.

It has been brought to my attention that a few people I know have been in Oregon recently and not called me. This practice is unacceptable!! :) For reals though, if you're anywhere near me, please let me know. I'm willing to make a trip and go out of my way to see friends/family if at all possible.

Running is still going really well. I'm currently going 2.5 miles...and as I type that, I have a hard time believing I can really run that far. Granted, some parts of the run are at a snail's pace and I'm barely moving my feet going up those hills, but I am moving and that is the important part!

I have a picture in my cubicle of Rynn, Kecia, Sara and I eating in Rosa's right before I left to move to Oregon. That picture is awesome, but it has some food/drink on the table, and it taunts me every time I look at it. As we speak, I am craving some Rosa's more than life itself. Oh I want it so badly! I know there is one in California, and some times I consider driving the 8 hours or whatever it is to taste that queso.

George Bush visits Artesia

My parents and I attended a scholarship reception yesterday for the Artesia High School graduating class of 2009. The Chase's are a VERY generous family in Artesia that gives away a ton of scholarships each year for Artesia students to attend college.

It was held in the Bulldog Pit, which is the AHS basketball stadium. The students who received the scholarships in 2007, 2008 and 2009 were seated on the floor.

I stole these next few pictures off Facebook, but they were better than the ones I got on my camera. The keynote speaker was former President George W. Bush.

Artesia made National News because this is only the 2nd time Bush has made a public appearance since he left office (the other time was in Canada).

Moving from Europe back to Artesia, NM is quite a culture shock! If you don't know the area, it is a small town, Republican, conservative, predominantly Christian town in SE New Mexico with a population of about 15-20,000. I was looking at one of my friend's pictures on FB today and she had a picture of her with Mr. Bush. The caption to her picture was "He is the most amazing and intelligent man!" When I saw that, I just chuckled to myself because I thought of what people in Europe would say if they read that comment...or most people in America besides Texas and Southern New Mexico.

He mentioned at the beginning of his speech that is so good to be out of Washington. I can only imagine how glad he is to be visiting places where he is supported and thanked and encouraged more than he is hated and criticized.

So many people were living out their biggest dream by meeting him yesterday. People cried through his whole speech, waited in line for hours to see him and went CRAZY when he walked into the room. Kids were shaking and had sweaty palms as they nervously prepared to shake his hand. He really is a rock star around here :)

Highlights

My time in Europe has been incredible! I still can't believe that I have really lived in Ireland and England and got to see and do so many amazing things! Here are some of my favorite experiences/moments from the past 7 months:

Finally reunited with Kory after 4 months apart!! September 2008

Kissing the Blarney Stone in Blarney, Ireland--September 2008

Kory's birthday trip to Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland--October 2008

Leaning Tower of Pisa--December 2008

 Eating gelato on Ponte Vecchio Bridge in Florence, Italy--December 2008

 Eiffel Tower in Paris, France--December 2008

Hanging out with friends in Lubbock, TX on my "Christmas break"--December 2008

Christmas with my family in Weed, NM--December 2008

Birthday trip to Oxford with Rynn--January 2009

Lion King in London, England--February 2009

Loch Ness, Scotland--March 2009

Jeff and Rynn's engagement in London, England--March 2009

Meeting Joshua Radin after his concert in London, England--March 2009

Les Miserables with Evan and Jacinda Simmons in London, England--March 2009

Eating gelato in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Italy--March 2009

Hanging out with Rynn everyday and sharing this trip of a lifetime with her! :)

Happy Day

You know those days where you just wake up excited and feeling good? Maybe you haven't ever had one of those. If so, I'm sorry, you have a terrible life. You should do something about that. Today was definitely one of those days for me! :) I am happy, the sun is shining, I'm living in London and God is good!!

I think I've mentioned it about 40 times already, but I'm going to Joshua Radin's concert tonight and I am just flat giddy with anticipation! I LOVE this guy! Now, this is definitely a musical crush. I don't think he's the best looking man to ever live and honestly I'm not even really that attracted to him. I just love his music and think he's incredibly talented. His songs are SO real. I can't tell you how many times I have felt like one of his songs was my current life anthem. In case you're wondering, right now it's "I'd Rather Be With You" ;) So to prepare myself for the awesomeness of tonight, I have been listening to his music non-stop for the past several days. Today I was watching a clip of him on Ellen and I heard her say his name and I was floored. I have been saying his name wrong all along! I felt so foolish. It is pronounced RAY-den. Not rah-den. Wow, it's like I don't even know this man anymore. I am glad I found this out before I was at his concert though. I have a few hours left to mentally prepare myself to see Joshua Radin, not Joshua Radin.

We are now going on 4 straight days of sunshine in London. I probably shouldn't say anything or I'll jinx it, but I am so excited I can't even contain it! I have to tell the world!! Before this week, I can't even remember 2 days of sunshine in a row. It has literally made me such a happier person. Sunshine is good for the soul. I don't know how people live in Seattle or Alaska or these places that get no sun for months at a time.

Oh my goodness gracious!! I just looked out my window (yes, I have the windows open and the curtains pulled back and it feels AWESOME!) and I saw the tree right in front of our house. I have never noticed it before but it looks JUST like a face on one of the branches. I took a picture so you can see it also. Now that I've noticed it, I can't believe we didn't see it before!

Here are all the branches of our funky looking tree.

Doesn't this look just like a human face?? Crazy! Now look on the
left side of the first picture and you can see it really well.

Wow! That just made my day even better!! :) Isn't God funny? I have come to see little events like this in my life as reminders of the God I serve. He is creative, he is clever, he cares about the little things in life and he is RIGHT HERE with me. If we were to really open our eyes and be watching for the little things God is doing all around us, I wonder what we would see? I bet it would be even more awesome than tree bark!