She's walking!

Allie has finally decided that walking isn't just a punishment that we have been trying to afflict upon her! Since she turned one we have tried encouraging her to try walking, but every time we stand her up she would collapse on the floor like a rag doll and cry. (Needless to say we haven't been pushing the matter.) She has been standing independently for a week or two and then on Monday she took five steps across the shoe store! Since then she has been practicing and actually liking it! In fact, now her biggest problem is that she gets too excited and then she falls down. I will try to get a picture of her, she is so cute. I just wanted to share her exciting news!

Our last hurrah!

I guess fall is officially here: the mornings are chilly and we are back in school. After the first week of school I was glad for the 3 day weekend! We decided to have one more adventure before the end of summer. We went down to the Living Planet Aquarium in Salt Lake. We thought that it would be a good dry place to go on a rainy day. I guess everyone else in Utah had that idea too because it was packed! We had to wait in line to see all of the fish. Luckily the wait wasn't too long and we all enjoyed ourselves. But as you can see we were all worn out by the time we drove home. The girls were really good and Nate got to come too! It was the perfect ending to a fun summer.

Thunder and Lightning!

I told my mom that Claire might grow up to be a meterologist because she loves the weather. On Saturday night Nathan called us from work and said that he had seen some lightning off to the south. Claire pulled the chair from the computer desk out to the front porch and sat out there for about 30 minutes watching the lightning. She would have watched longer but it was bedtime.
On Sunday after church the wind was blowing so hard it blew some trees down and knocked out the power. Claire was outside twirling in it!
Last night and this morning we have had some fabulous thunder and lightning and it has been pouring rain. Claire wanted to go out and play in the rain as soon as she woke up! She wasn't very happy that her dad made her put some clothes on first. I am just glad that she doesn't get scared by the thunder and I am very grateful for the rain. We needed it badly!

County Fair

This week was the Box Elder County Fair and we had tons of fun. Claire has been counting down the days until the fair for the last 2 weeks. On Wednesday I walked in the parade with some other teachers from my school. It was hot and tiring but we had fun. I think I had more fun than Nate did watching the parade with the girls! Wednesday night we went to the fair and walked around and saw all of the animals. Allie practiced all of her animal noises and she touched all the different animals. On Thursday Claire and I went to the lamb show. None of our lambs ranked in the top of their class, but they all received blue ribbons. That night I took the girls back to the fair so Claire could ride on the rides. She was so brave! She didn't want to hand the workers her tickets but she rode on all of the kiddie rides by herself! It made me a little sad - sniff! On Friday night we met my parents at the hamburger stand for dinner and then Karen, Jim, Claire, and I went to the rodeo. I just have to say that Claire LOVES the rodeo. She cheers for the cowboys and her favorite part is the bull riding. Sometimes I wonder if she was supposed to be Karen's daughter! On Saturday my mom took Claire back out for the lamb auction, another hamburger, and a few more rides. I asked Claire last night if she had gotten to do everything she wanted to at the fair, and she said yes. That made me happy. I think I had almost as much fun as she did. I wish I had some pictures, but at least I have all the fun memories!