Slug Queen Parade

We had to be home by this weekend to move into our new apartment but we didn't know that we were going to be lucky enough to make it for the Eugene Celebration.  We took a break from the move because we couldn't miss the Slug Queen Parade.
Hardly any of my photos turned out because the lighting was bad, but fortunately for me my friend Michelle took a bunch and I'm hoping she doesn't mind that I am stealing them.  
The Slug Train was being harassed by a huge salt shaker which brought a mixture of responses from the sidelines.  There were cheers from those who have slug-infested gardens, and jeers from the Slug Queen supporters.

 It was fun to watch it with friends.

 There were Monster Trucks, Greyhound dogs, tons of fairies, pirates, derby girls, politicians, a Peace Train, a bunch of people dressed like fruits, Star Wars characters, puppets, fencers, and a Brazillian kettle band.  There were people against coal, people for frisbee and every kind of bike that you could possibly even imagine.
This guy has been seen around town petitioning people to stop using plastic bags.

 The Peace Train ended with members of the communist party which seemed a little surprising, even here.

Yay for Eugene!

Eugene or Bust

 

Becky sent me this picture that we took right before we left Utah.  I wanted to post it because it will be the last one of us all together before they have their own little baby boy.  

We enjoyed our drive home in our new mini-van.  The newest member of our Rigby team is a gold Honda Odyssey and it sure made the trek between our two homes much more endurable.  It may have been better for the mere fact that we had space for all of the baby stuff that I had stored at my mom's house and 50 lbs. of produce that Mike sent.  It was also really nice after a couple of years without to reintroduce our family to air conditioning.   The DVD player seemed like it was going to be pretty fun for the girls, but they were bored in about 20 minutes.  Daisy refused to wear the headphones and Rocky said that the movie was just "too long." 

The highlight of the trip was when we stopped in John Day and Daisy got to shake hands with this M&M.  I guess it proves that we are boring, and that we were really blessed to make it home again without any trouble.

Surf n' Swim

 It wouldn't be summer without a free Surf n' Swim Party for us to crash.  This year we went with Indee and all the patients of her orthodontist.

The pool was fun, but I think the highlight was getting to meet Eddie the Yeti.  He is going to have some straight teeth one day once he gets rid of the brace face.

The Zoo

 We went to the zoo with Adam, Cara, Cambria, Quincy and my cute friend Callie that I don't get to see anymore since she moved from Oregon.  I didn't get any pictures of her or her kids, but we all hung out just like old times.  It was so fun to be together and to see how nice the Hogle Zoo has gotten.

 Daisy didn't get to go because on the way there she puked and we had to turn around and drop her off.  Luckily the next day she was feeling better and feasted on her Abia's famous peanut butter fingers.  She used the chocolate frosting to make herself a Don Quixote beard.

 The girls had one last story time with Oma before we head home.  Lucky for us both grandmas have trips to Oregon planned for the near future.

French Toast Time

 We had a pretty wild game of Guesstures at the Rigby's on Sunday night.  The boys were so good at it that they had to modify the rules and play puppet style which made for some good laughs.
We all got up early on Monday morning to try out the all you can eat French Toast at Kneaders which was super delicious. 

 We thought it would be cool to have all the kids sit at the same table, but on second thought it was obvious that having all the kids sit together is the very definition of un-cool. 

 This French Toast comes with syrup, strawberries, and whipped cream.

At Abia's

 Rocky and Daisy wanted to help their grandpa out in his garden.  Rocky watered for about five minutes and then said she was too tired from all the work.  Daisy had a little bit more endurance and wouldn't leave until she had taken the entire tour and checked on all the veggies.

 She tested out the broccoli to make sure that it was ready and picked out a watermelon that we ate with fresh corn on the cob.

We've been having a lot of fun hanging out with all of Brandon's siblings and there is obviously a lot of silliness when the cousins get together.

 Bedtime is always the best with grandmas.

Today we made pozole and paella and had a big family dinner.  Almost everyone was there and we ate outside in the shade.  It was fun to relax and just be together.

Summer Bucket List...check

 Once again, in my quest to have a normal summer I thought it would be a great idea for us to do a little hiking.  Since my hips just aren't what they used to be with all this pregnancy business we just went up by Fernwood.  Rocky was on board with my enthusiasm but Daisy wanted nothing to do with it.  I'm not sure how long it will take her to forgive us for making her walk everywhere in Mexico.  She was okay for about the first five minutes and then spent the rest of the time making her body go limp until she was either carried or sprawled on the ground.  Sometimes I am surprised at how perfectly she fits the two-year-old tantrum cliche.
Rocky was upset too, at first, but once we got to the little stream she perked up and was her usual happy self, chatting all the way back.

 That little lump in the middle of the path is Daisy stubbornly refusing to join us.

 We also went to the Davis County Fair.  The girls had a blast in the petting zoo.  Daisy wouldn't let go of her Abia's hand and insisted that she be with Kathy every second. 

Unfortunately most of my photos didn't work out because there was a smudge on my camera but it was fun to hang out with Jonah and Eleanor too.

Brigham City Temple Open House

 

My mom got us all tickets to the Brigham City Temple open house.  Apparently they are pretty hard to come by even though there were 250,000 given away.  We felt lucky to take a tour because it is beautiful.  

Afterward we had a picnic in the park and tried to get some photos of all the grandkids together.  I'm sure that anyone who has ever tried to get a bunch of kids to all look cute at the same time has learned that it is a fool's errand.  We're not even that big of a family but it took a lot of time and enough of me yelling to put everyone in a bad mood.

Luckily Kristin with her kid skills took over and in the end even though the pictures are crazy, we were all at least having fun.

I also think it is important to note that Daisy ate a chicken strip that was almost the size of her head. 

Camping

 With all the bustling about this summer we haven't done any camping and since it is one of my favorite things to do we tried to cram all the best activities into one night.  Jill's tent, of course, was the favorite of all the kids.

 Kristin popped popcorn over the fire and even though the first batch almost ended up in flames, the second was delicious. 
There were games, of course, and a lot of time playing in the water.  For Matt's kids that meant that they actually got themselves wet, but for mine it was that they poked their toes in and then spent the rest of the time throwing rocks and getting themselves all muddy on the sidelines.

 We roasted some of those big Campfire marshmallows which turned out to be pretty nasty when they were cold and completely amazing once exposed to a little bit of heat.

 The cousins had fun and we ate a bunch of awesome food and sat around on camping chairs discussing all kinds of important topics, like who has the weirdest dreams.

Once the little jammers were all asleep the rest of us sat out and talked about scary movies which was a bad idea for someone as chicken as I am.  Luckily by the time we finally went to bed I was so tired that I didn't even have nightmares. 
It was super fun just to kick it in Smithfield Canyon.  Although we were only about 10 minutes from Matt's house it was so great to get outside and enjoy being together.