A Farewell to Disneyland

We said goodbye to Disneyland this week with our last visit on our annual passes...they expired yesterday! The best part of it was that Dallan came with us for the first time. He took Wednesday off from work so we could go one more time.

We drove down to Anaheim Tuesday night after work and got a hotel room for the night. For most of you, that may seem like no big deal, but for the Rigby family it was huge. I don't think we have ever done it as a family. We got on Hotwire.com (which I now love) and got a great room for only $56. We didn't get there until 9:00, but we had promised Tyson some swimming, so swim we did. I don't think we got anybody to bed until around 11:00. Tyson got his very own bed...which confused him because he thought the boys should share a bed and the girls should share a bed!


The next morning, we loaded up the stroller (to the tip over point when the kids got out) and walked to the park (it took about 15 minutes). It was a hot day, but other than that a perfect day for Disney.

Kelsie mapped out our day. Most of the time she used the map as a hat, but every once in a while she made it look like she knew what she was doing. I think the only reason she wanted one was to bug Ty...she liked to take whichever one he was holding.

The favorite ride was the new Toy Story ride over at California Adventure. It was the longest line (not bad at 20 minutes) but we had to go on it three times because Ty loved it. I came to the conclusion that I am a horrible shot. I just pulled the string as fast as I could and hoped to hit something because when I tried to aim at anything, I was way off.

Tyson made huge strides this trip. He got all his courage together to try the Star Wars ride and absolutely loved it. He couldn't stop talking about it. As soon as he and Dal got off, he wanted me to take him again. It was the funniest thing ever, whenever we went "light speed" he would put his hands up in the air, like on a roller coaster, and yell, "Wheee!" He would talk through the entire ride, telling me what was going to happen and pointing everything out to make sure I didn't miss a thing.

He also FINALLY got up the guts to go on Buzz Lightyear (after we gave him ear plugs and insisted it was just like the Toy Story ride). He of course loved it and we went on that 3 or 4 times (no lines).

The afternoon got a little hot so we took a breather in Mickey and Minnie's houses. Dal really liked Minnie's bed.

Kelsie has learned the art of the cheesey smile. I didn't post them all, but there were a bunch of picture of her with this same smile. She loves to smile for the camera.

She learned a lot from her brother. At the end of every ride, she would throw her hands up in the air, yelling "Wheee!". This was especially humurous as we finished a ride like Winnie the Pooh. She definitely got more out of the trip this time than all the others.

Kelsie and I tried to relax on Minnie's couch, but as comfy as it looks, it was hard as a rock. Come on Minnie...splurge a little!

As always, we have to take a swing at pulling the sword out of the stone. Ty wanted to make sure there were no wizards around before he tried. He was pretty upset when it didn't work, but I explained that a wizard was necessary to help get it out...he didn't want to get it out anymore!

At the end of the day, we had all had a great time. Having the double stroller was a life saver because Ty saved his energy and the walk back to the hotel was no big deal. We loved having Dal with us. Too bad we won't be going back for a few years now. I think we have had our Disnyeland fix this year, but we will miss it.

Tyson-isms

Yesterday, we were driving somewhere and out of the blue we had the following conversation:


Ty: "Mom, this car is a Toyota...just like our other car."
Mom: "Yep...it sure is."
Ty: "That is just like on Star Wars. Do you remember Yoda, Mom?" (Toy-YODA)
Mom: (trying not to laugh) "Yeah...Yoda is my favorite."
Ty: "But these kinds of cars are just for kids...'cause kids like toys." (TOY-ota)
Mom: "Whatever you say, Ty."


What are you supposed to say to that. I love it when kids come up with stuff like this.

Support Proposition 8!

For all of you fellow Californians, if you haven't heard about Proposition8 yet, check out the website (linked on the top right of my blog) and vote yes on Proposition8 in November. We already voted for this once before, we just need to get it into the State Constitution now. Please do everything you can to support this cause...I don't want my kids being taught in school that marriage is just a contract between part A and party B.

YES on Proposition 8 does three simple things:
1.) It restores the definition of marriage to what the vast majority of California voters already approved and human history has understood marriage to be.
2.) It overturns the outrageous decision of four activist Supreme Court judges who ignored the will of the people.
3.) It protects our children from being taught in public schools that "same-sex marriage" is the same as traditional marriage

Not a Whole Lot Else

Anyway, we did a lot more stuff on our trip but I think I have posted enough of it to satisfy your curiosity. Since we got back, not a whole lot has happened. Life is back to normal and we are kind of enjoying it that way.

We have played more than anyone should be allowed (beach, pools, parks, friends, etc.) but that is what summer is all about, right?

Josh, Tressa and Sammy came to visit us last weekend and we had a great time. We are now addicted to the Wii and they are in love with our weather. We ate too much as usual and all got a little color on the beach. What more can you ask for?

We have been staying up until 1 in the morning to watch the Olympics and Dal is barely able to stay awake at work. He says it happens once every four years though, so we have to watch every second of it!

Life in the Rigby family is good...as usual. We are healthy happy and loving life. Hopefully you all are doing just as well! I will try not to stay away from posting so long this next time.

Lots of Other Stuff We Did

These are just some of the other things we did that are not going to get their own posts...

We spent some quality time at the cannery, dry packing food for our storage. The hair nets really do make you feel pretty!



We spent a lot of time helping Heidi pick a wedding dress. You know I can't be around dresses for that long and not try some on...so when Heidi narrowed it down to three dresses, Jen and I decided to help her out. This way she was able to see all three at the same time. What good sisters we are! (* Side Note: Why did they not have such cute dresses when I got married...it wasn't that long ago...I kind of want to do it all again)

Tyson had a great time with all of his cousins. They partied all day long, every day. One of them wanted an ice cream cone (no ice cream...just the cone) so of course, all of them had to have one!

We all had a great time and I loved that Tyson and Kelsie got to spend time with my family...as overwhelming as the experience can be!

Time for a "Do"

While we were in Idaho Falls, my dad did not think that Kelsie's hair was appropriately styled. He took this picture first thing when she woke up one of the mornings. Come on Dad...bed head...give her a break.



Her hair really was out of control...even without bed head. So we headed off to see Tammy ( the same lady who has cut my hair since I was little) and get Kelsie's hair cut for the first time!

Sucking the thumb kept her somewhat distracted, along with the half dozen combs Tammy gave her to hold. Tammy kept spraying her with lavender oil (to calm her down) and we made it through about 75% of the process before she starting fighting it. Luckily, Tammy has mad skills, so were able to finish with a very cute cut.

This is a horrible picture of me, but it is the only "after" picture we got...so please just look at Kelsie. I was shocked at first at how much Tammy cut off, but it turned out REALLY cute. She has a little bob and looks so much older. Finally, you can see her cute face and not be distracted by her crazy hair!

Hart Family Run

I have been getting a few complaints about my slacking when it comes to blogging. I apologize. Here are the promised pictures from our trip to UT/ID.

We had our "4th (Kind of Annual) Hart FamilyFun For Whom Walk, Run Whatever" (what a mouthful!) Anyway, each summer, at our Family Conference, we have a 5k (OK...I think it might be a little short of a 5K, but who really cares?) around the Snake River in Idaho Falls. Each year I am pumped to show off how cardiovascularly fit I am, and each year I end up walking most of it for one reason or another. This year, it was beacuse I didn't have strollers for my kids and Tyson insisted that his knees were not working so he couldn't even walk. Fun times.



Of course, when the photographer came around, Ty felt perfectly fine to run. I am not even kidding, he ran about 10 steps for this picture and then went back to whining about his knees not working. Luckily, Grandma Hart was waiting about half way to pick him and Kelsie up. Then I had the priviledge of running with some of my nieces and nephews, Rachel, Sara and Ion. It was pretty fun.

Here's the whole gang...right before we started. I guess this picture should have been first...oops!

Where ya been?

Okay...so some of you have been wondering "Where has Tiffany disappeared to?" If you are not one of them, you can just keep going on with your life, not missing me at all. Nice!

We have had a crazy three weeks here in the Rigby family. The last week in June was spent at girl's camp. Yes...I have been released from YW, but it was too late to get anyone else to go. I had a great time, though. I had a cabin full of amazingly well-behaved young women who went to bed at a decent hour, cleaned up after themselves and were on time to everything and I even got to go on the zip-line. My sweet children were even nice to my great friends who were willing to watch them the three days I was gone. (Note: They said my kids were good for them, but I am not completely convinved...you never know when people are lying about that kind of stuff!)

I got home from camp on Saturday afternoon and left for Utah at 4:00 Monday morning. Yes, you did read that right...I mean A.M. My friend, Eimile, and I, made the 15 hour drive with our combined 5 children. What better way can you spend time than that?

Our week and a half in Utah and Idaho was a whirlwind. We went from about 6 in the morning to 10 at night for the kids and much later for me, every day. Sleep became something I craved, but we had a great time. I barely saw Tyson the entire time because he was always running around with his cousins. I saw way too much of Kelsie because she seemed to be attached to my leg the entire time. She warmed up to Heidi, of course, and would hang out with Grandma if I wasn't around, but other than that, she stayed right at my side.

I won't go into all the many, many details, but we got to spend lots of time with family and old friends. I love going back to see people and always feel bad that I don't have enough time to see everyone we would like to (If you are in UT and didn't see us this trip, I apologize. We spent most of our time in ID and were running around like crazy with family stuff the entire time...we still love you!)

I don't have pictures yet because I was lazy and let everybody else take them the whole time. As I get them sent to me, I will update with some new posts. Hope everybody had a great 4th and are enjoying their summers.

Clothes are Now Optional!

If you hadn't heard, we're having a bit of a heat wave here in Santa Maria. I shouldn't complain because I am always saying that we need a little more heat here, but this is too much. It got up to 108 degrees yesterday, around 100 degrees the day before I don't remember how hot on Tuesday. Luckily, the weather channel says it will only get to about 100 today.

We have exausted all of our options. We went to the movie theater Tuesday, pool Wednesday, beach Thursday and Costco and Walmart yesterday. "What's that?" you may be asking, "Why Costco and Walmart?" Because they have air conditioning. For those of you unfamiliar, Santa Maria doesn't have AC because 99.9% of the time we don't need it. Usually if it gets a little on the warm side, you just head to the beach. That didn't work this week because there was no ocean breeze and it was still over 90 degrees there.

Yesterday, we spent the morning, as long as we could stand, in the house before it warmed up too much. Then we headed to Walmart where we walked around for a couple of hours. Then on to Costco. The best part was the cold room where they keep the fruits and veggies. Usually we avoid that area at all costs because it is freezing. We walked through several times yesterday, bought a frozen yogurt and pigged out on samples. I was a little sad when we had seen everything there was to see and had to go home. Luckily there is always water. We ran through the sprinklers and sprayed each other with the squirt bottle. Fun family times.

Today we are off to the ward hoe down. Don't worry, I'll have the kids put on some clothes before we go, but for now we are just trying to stay cool.

Here's a Little Sneak Peek...

Tyson is giving his very first talk in primary tomorrow. He has done a couple of scriptures, but this is the big time with a talk. He has been practicing all week so that he won't have a melt down if things don't go perfectly. I told him if he could do it all by himself, that we would record it and put it on the computer. That got him into it. So, without further ado, HERE'S TYSON!

Sweet Santa Maria

I have decided that this is the best part of living in Santa Maria...the strawberries. A friend from the ward clued me into the secret of "Jam Berries!" The strawberry stands sell their berries that are apparently a little older at about half the price. I say "apparently" because I got three full flats, my friend got three flats and between the two of them, we found 2 bad berries! They were some of the best strawberries I have ever had. Yummy!

It was almost a shame to moosh them all up and make jam out of them. We did it anyway. Yesterday was my first jam making experience (besides helping cut up plums for my mom and dad...I wasn't too involved in that...didn't learn a thing). We started at about 9:30 in the morning and didn't finish until 5:oo last night. It was really fun, though. We made regular, some with less sugar, and some with no sugar, just Splenda). The less sugar version is my favorite. As you can see, I made enough to last a while and still had half a flat of strawberries left over.

This was an eye-opening experience for me. I learned that making Strawberry jam is about the easiest thing ever to do. I thought it was going to be hard. It was so easy that this morning, I decided to make a batch of boysenberry jam too...just for the heck of it. Any how...whenever I am really productive, I like to share it with everyone. Hope all is well with you all! Hasta!

We're a REALLY close family!

We have a little tradition in our family...Each morning, when Tyson wakes up, he comes and climbs into bed with me because I don't want to get up until I absolutely have to. Dal is usually already up and getting ready for work. When Kelsie wakes up, Dallan grabs her and she joins Tyson and me in my bed. For some reason, they have to share MY pillow. Even though, Dal is already up when they get into bed with me, they scrunch in close so that I am practically falling off the bed. The rest of the bed is not good enough I guess. In fact, no matter how close to me Tyson is when she gets there, Kelsie will wiggle her way between us so that she is in HER SPOT. Dal got a picture of it the other day and I thought it was pretty funny. I am sure that many of you have experienced the same kind of thing. Other than me getting the boot off the edge, it is a good tradition. (Pardon the AWFUL sheets...the ones that match are getting old so I had to pull out some we got for our wedding until I get some new ones.)

Does this shirt make my cyst look big?

Many of you have been asking how Kelsie's lump is doing. It seems to be doing rather well. It has gotten a bit bigger and invited a little lump friend to visit next door. No worries though. The doctor still does not seemed at all concerned. She has a follow-up visit (aka a way for them to milk me out of another $250) at the end of July. He said that we would schedule the surgery before the end of the year.



We were having some fun with the camera, so I thought I would get a better picture of it now that it is a nice purpleish color. Kelsie thought it was the funniest thing when I told her to look up. Fun times at the Rigby home!

Anyhow...nothing to worry about still, so Grandma, you can get some sleep. Thanks for all the concerns though. It's good to have so many people who care.

Rigby Family Roughing It

Since Mama and Papa Rigby are no longer in Ojai, we actually had to do something besides go visit them for the long weekend. Luckily, one of the boy scout camps was open for all the "Friends of Scouting" for the weekend. We had a blast. If the weather had cooperated a little bit better, it would have been perfect. This was the first time we had the chance to go camping as a family for more than one night. It was a good thing we were there for longer than one night, because the first night was a NIGHTMARE! I don't think Kelsie slept for more than 15 minutes at a time the entire night. Sorry to all our fellow campers! She did great the other 2 nights, though, so we may just go back again!



Tyson LOVED LOVED LOVED archery. We lucked out that not too many people were usually there, so he got to shoot as much as he wanted. He was a pretty good shot, too. He didn't really understand the concept of aiming, but some how seemed to get the arrow pretty close to the target most of the time. Mom and Dad didn't do to shabby either!

His second favorite activity was shooting the BB (I have no idea if that is how you write it) guns. I wasn't sure how I felt about the whole gun thing for my 4-year-old, but he loved it and I don't think it is going to change him for life!

We had great food, great company and a great time all around. We hear they do it again on Labor Day weekend. We can't wait!

Kelsie's Bump

A few months ago, we noticed a big hard bump on Kelsie's neck. We hoped it was just a swollen gland or something that would go away after some time. After about 2 months, we took her to the doctor. He said it was some kind of cyst that would need to be removed. So we trucked on over to the Ear Nose Throat specialist. He confirmed that it was a bump ( I'm sure he used some technical term, but I don't remember what it is...I know that it meant "bump" in medical jargon) and that it would need to be removed. We are scheduled to have an ultrasound this afternoon and then we will schedule the surgery. Before you all get too worried, neither of the doctors seemed concerned at all. It is just something that needs to be taken care of before it causes any infections, but I was told, "It is nothing to be worried about." Just thought I would post it in the name of keeping everybody informed. I tried to get a good picture of it, but I don't know if you can see it or not. Anyway, I'll let you know more when I know more.