It's the end of October!

• Sunny sky all day
• Short sleeved shirts outside all afternoon
• Productive project day
• Smell of freshly cut hay outside tonight
• Doughnuts for FHE treat

 Does it get any better than that? And it's October 29th for crying out loud!  Love, love, love it!

Did I mention it's the end of October and I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and I can smell hay?!!!

Multi-Tasking

Multi-Tasking Trips to Oakley

12:30 Trip

• Drop off Charity at Kindergarten
• Drop Preschool CDs off at Seminary for Ben to spray (have a good visit with his secretary)
• Try to drop off birthday present
• Make Case Lot order at Clark's
• Pick up some Oakley Stone to finish up garden path

3:00 Trip

• Drop off birthday present from Primary
• Get Allie ice packs for her knees before she catches her ride to Burley gym
• Take picture of headstone at cemetery
• Drop off extra stone that wasn't needed
• Pick up girls from school
• Clean seminary

We worry sometimes about my multiple trips to Oakley every day (gas money, miles, and of course, wear and tear on the van), but I think I did good today.

August

The end of summer!  Jammed packed like the rest of the summer!

Week 1

• Fire:  A lightening strike on the mountains near our house turned into a HUGE fire.  We ended up with lots of smoke, amazing night views of flames, fabulous sunsets when the smoke wasn't too thick, a town packed with firefighters and their paraphernalia at the schools, and an adventure with school registration weaving our way through the firefighters from all over the country.  It was exciting, but we're glad our friends homes are safe and we're anxious for all the smoke to finally be completely gone.
• The Olympics.  With swimming, running, and oh ya, gymnastics, there's not much that could excite this McClure family more.  And we have to do not just watch of course--splits and stretching while watching, swimming relay races at the pool, and dreams of one day being a hurdler champion.  Too bad this mom likes watching more than doing like her kids!
• Another gym camp.
• Mom & Dad to Twin for some awesome meetings and then an unhappy ride back for Mollie who was squished in with a new tree.
• School supplies.  So much fun!  
• A growing baby--walking, yelling, pulling things out from everywhere.  (I thought Charity and Mollie were just bonding--no, Charity is holding her down so she won't pull out all the videos.)

Week 2

• Allie in the Burley Parade - So hot, but we survived our first ever Burley Parade (Sadly, I'm sure it won't be the last.  Parades just aren't our thing.)
• Camping - Trying to fit 7 growing people in a 5 man tent, lots of camping chairs, a really dirty baby and some really strange older girls, a long hike while Mom and Mollie slept, 2 fish caught, an extremely windy night with 5 of us ending up sleeping in the van, on top of the mountain being blown away
• Cassia County Fair - Cotton candy and a bounce house, Sarah and Dad working at the fair booth

Week 3

• Lots more weeding & picking strawberries for the girls summer job 
• Dance choreography (so excited to start back up again)
• Brigham City Temple Open House
• Decorating the Seminary
• Summer's over!

Before & After

Time for school, dance, gym, dance, gym, homework, dance, gym, homework, and FOOTBALL!!!

It's Fall!!  Bring it on!

July

I finally had a long enough span to load photos and review . . . and August is almost over.

July was as full as June.  383 pictures in my folder with many more from Allie and Sarah's iPods and Kit's camera and the iPad.  We love pictures!  And it's been fun to see the memories we've captured.

Week 1

• Talent Show -- Not your normal every day dancing and singing -- Included spinning a ball on finger and pencil, folding laundry, foot exercises, poem reading, magic tricks, arm tooting, bar hanging  
• 4th of July bike ride and climbing of the gravel hill "mountains" with yummy white raspberry filled doughnuts
• The last week of swimming lessons -- including a last memorable fun day in the cold and rain (it's Idaho after all) -- all three passed their levels and Allie is finished!  Wahoo!
• Lemonade Stand by Allie, Kit, and friend Camry -- extremely successful thanks to awesome Oakley people Now they think all lemonade/cookie sales should gross $70!

Week 2

• Main Motion Dance Camp -- some happy dancers
• Our annual Root Beer "Tea Party" at Grandma Karen's
• Babysitting, bean hoeing, temple trip
• Mollie's growing up and standing up everywhere (and the flowers are still alive before the heat waves)
• Dad's birthday and homemade ice cream
• Mom's birthday and Upper Crust

Week 3

• Sarah to CSI dance camp, Allie to regular gymnastic team practice, Kit and Charity to gym camp
• Last story hour of the year!   (can't find the pictures, uh oh!)
• Lyman Reunion in Blackfoot (love, love, love my cousins!  And LOVE that Jana surprised us!)
• 24th Celebration in Oakley (Marci's family joined us for an abbreviated celebration)

Week 4

• Ben got released from the bishopric after almost 6 years.  What will we do with him home with us on Sundays?
• Dentist appointments, piano lessons, gymnastic practice, Activity Days, play, Inservice
• Charity's ER visit -- she slipped on the slide at the park while playing with Dad and got to have the first stitches of the McClure girls.  Dad spent from 8:50 until 12:20 in Burley in the ER with Charity and Mollie while the rest of us were at a play and then home worried, but both girls did awesome.
• McClure Reunion in Bear Lake

Week 5

• A long ride home with a stop at a hill with stairs that has memories for Steph from growing up
• An Olympic Party at Elevate to watch the USA girls gymnastics win gold!  We love the Olympics!

June

We had an unbelievably crazy June, but as I loaded pictures and reviewed, it's been an awesome summer and we have all had fun.  I feel like time has gone by at just the right pace (actually June 1st feels like forever ago) and I feel like we've been very balanced. Crazy to look at the calendar and have BALANCED be my word, but we've had just the right amount of busy, work, play, family time, service, and naps and we've been loving life and feeling good, so life is good!

With 239 pictures in the June folder (after deleting quite a few) and a full calendar, I'll try not to get too long on our recap.  (I should post every day, not every week or every month!)

Week 1

• A couple "real" days of summer--sleeping, reading, catching up on projects that had been on the desk since spring break, eating, and a little bit of cleaning and weeding
• Quick trip to Grandma's to help her plant her garden and play in the sprinkler (Charity's first time ever since we don't have grass!)
• Elevate gym open house:  Allie counted down the days until she could go see the new gym in Burley--more on that later . . . and more, and more, and more.
• Sarah stayed at grandma's for a week to go to Elsie's blessing and then help her grandmas.

Week 2

• Allie started on the competitive gymnastic team.  First time to do bars, beam, and vault. They are pushing her hard to get her ready for competitions this year and she's loving it.  She's finally fulfilling her dream!  And we only have to go the 20 minutes to Burley (yea that it's on the south side!) instead of an hour to Twin!  It now takes up every Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning.
• First story hour.  Steph is in charge again, but luckily she has lots of good helpers.  But we're up to at least 70 kids a week (we started years and years ago with 10 kids) so it's an adventure.
• Grandma, Marilyn, and kids came to work on computer projects (and play a tiny bit).
• Mollie's first big uh-oh!  (Grandma tipped the plant up before Mom got a good picture.)
• Dad and Kit's fishing trip.  She was so happy!!!

Week 3

• A bunch of photo shoots by each other (some are a little strange!).
• Sarah can dance again!!  She did a ballet camp with an instructor from Gonzaga who was intense and awesome!  And for the first time since November 2010 Sarah danced without extreme pain!  And she's totally focused on ballet again.  Yipee!!
• Dad went for the week to Alturas (it went fast for us since we were so busy, but slow for him because he had to video the whole time instead of just sit and listen and learn).  Then he came straight home to a Father and Sons (let's all cry for him that he has to go without sons . . . and probably always will although he has three girls that would LOVE to dress up as a boy and go), and then the next morning went to help put in sprinklers at the new church park.
• Allie went for three days to Boise for a gymnastic camp with her new coach and a new friend.  A little scary to send her away without us, but she survived just fine.
• Mollie got even more mobile, but got stuck a few times in her new adventures.
• Let's not forget an outing to Upper Crust for our 14th anniversary.  Oh ya!

Week 4

• Kathryn and Charity got to go to gym camp every afternoon after Allie was there every morning.  Luckily most days the girls took turns watching Mollie while I ran everyone back and forth and all over because by that point of the month Mollie and Charity were getting sick of all the time spent in the car or at the gym.
• Dad went to Youth Conference where he . . . videoed from 9 am to 10 pm!
• And don't forget story hour, Activity Days, babysitting, mutual, and . . . 
• Swimming!  Most of June we did our regular and went every day (although with our schedule we have missed a few days here and there this summer).  Mollie is out of control.  She loves it and cruises through the water.  And the girls are so happy that there is a diving board again!

Week 5

• We're trying to figure out what to do with a baby who gets into everything.  Will we survive?
• Charity's Angry Bird birthday.  The best birthday ever!  And totally tired her out!  And included a new iPad for our family.  (For more info see Allie's blog.)
• Missionaries to dinner including one from Chile who goes to the U so we had plenty to talk about!
• Stake farm bean weeding which ends with yummy hamburgers, pop, and doughnuts.
• Sarah to Soda Springs and Lava for girls camp.  It was much better than last year when she was in a cast and they spent the whole time at a lake.
• Charity, Kit, and Allie started swimming lessons.
• And, oh yes, I forgot about piano lessons every week.  Because of an extra incentive they are being awesome about practicing! 

Whew!  That's our June!  Yea for summer and funny talented crazy girls!