Courtney is OLD!!!!

One of my best friend's Courtney turned 18 this week and I wasn't going to let this opportunity pass by!! After hitting Walmart, I had a blast creating ultimate destruction to her property!! I started with her car....hahahaha. She is still in high school so this gave me the perfect opportunity to have a few hours alone with her car to do whatever I wanted. I recruited a friend that sees her around to steal her keys and unlock the car for me...well, that part did not work but I managed to work with it. I used up 3 rolls of streamers, a glass paint pen, and about 500 sticky notes and here is what I managed to do with that:

Oh my, I had fun!! The major problem was the wind so I lost several post it notes that the poor janitors probably now have to deal with! Mom and I blew up 100 balloons(10 of which were helium which would have flew away) and if the car was unlocked I could have completely filled her car to the capacity with them!!! So I improvised. I happen to know how to get into her house to help with forgotten lunches and homework. So I trashed her house. By "trash" I just mean I filled her room and kitchen with the 100 balloons and also left a cake. Here is the outcome of that:

Although it does not look like it, I promise that there was 50 balloons in that kitchen!! 

Because I ran out of time I failed to decorate her garage door but i'll let that one slide! She was soon getting out of school so I rushed over there to watch the reaction to the car. I took a video but it won't load..:( 

After that, we drove around eating another birthday cake, I was drug to her physical therapist(a pretty regular thing actually!), went to her work to talk to a teacher, and got glitter toes for way cheap!! I've never had them before, so I was excited! Moral of the story: be warned if you are my friend!! :)

Thanksgiving pictures!

Once the leaf fight broke out, Elle knew to keep her distance! That is until Grandpa took on the 1 1/2 year old challenge!!

It is a tradition in our family to have the leaf fight of all leafs fights on Thanksgiving! 

I can't even stand how beautiful my sister is! 

Her essence alone is amazing!! 

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

So I sat down one day after having a great lesson in institute one day. I was trying to come up with a few ways to make thanksgiving more meaningful. After a little bit of thought and a lot of online research, this is what I came up with:

1. HAVE A GRATITUDE FAST: My institute teacher told me about this one. Every year him and his wife have a gratitude fast the Sunday before Thanksgiving. When they are done, they both kneel down and say everything that they are grateful for. He has said that this has brought some of the best and most cherished memories with his wife.
2. HAVE A GRATITUDE PRAYER: So this one is super similar to the first one. I once talked to a girl who had a seminary teacher challenge them to pray only gratitude for 12 minutes. I just did this one, and the first 5 minutes is pretty easy, but after that, you really got to think.
3. THANK ATTACK: Have you ever heard of a heart attack?(NO, NOT when a cardiac blood vessel becomes blocked and your heart cannot receive enough oxygen.) The one where you cut out a bunch of hearts and write comforting, or things you love about the person then you tape them to their door with a plate of cookies or something and doorbell ditch them. We did this a LOT in Young Womens and I loved it. A thank attack is identical except you write ways they have blessed you life or something.
4. SMALL ACTS OF KINDNESS: This one is super fun and easy. You basically go around doing small things anonymously for people. I looked on pinterest and there are about a hundred different links to TONS of things you can do for people. 
5. PERSONAL THANK YOU NOTES: This one is pretty self explanatory, on Thanksgiving or whenever, write a simple note saying thank you and give them out. It makes it really touching and personal :)
6. HAVE A GRATITUDE JOURNAL: I just made me one of these and I love it! Every night, I look back on my day and write down one thing that I am grateful for the most. You can also write down why if you want to. I hope to keep this journal for years so while I am still writing, I can see the thing that I was grateful for the same day of the last year.
7. SHARE A STORY OF GRATITUDE: Hey, kids like stories right? Well, Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to do some family history and tell them a story of someone that did something significant that you are grateful for.
8. SECRET SERVICE: On Thanksgiving or the party assign everyone a Secret Service Pal. No one can know who has who. And do small acts of kindness for them throughout the day without getting noticed! Later on, reveal who everyone had!
9. LOOK UP SOME GRATITUDE SCRIPTURES: The scriptures are a fantastic way to see what God himself thinks of gratitude. They have the best examples and stories! Have fun! :)
10. SERVE: Okay, this I should do more often. Find something to donate to, give blood to a blood drive, do a walk for a charity etc. The other half of this holiday is thanksGIVING.
10. THANKFUL FOR YOU PAPERS: I didn't know what to call this one. Basically, you write down someone's name on one piece of paper, everyone has one. You then, pass around the papers and everyone writes on everyone else's paper of why they are grateful for them, or qualities that they have that they love. In the end, you get back your's and get to read about why people love you so much, it's fantastic!
11. LOVE BOX: I was also told this one from my institute teacher. Basically, you wrap a box to look like a present, then pick a family member, kneel in front of them and tell them something that you truly love about them. The only rule: it has to come from the heart, be meaningful. That person has to now pick someone else and do the same thing. WARNING: THIS WILL MOST LIKELY CAUSE TEARS :)
12. THANKFUL TREE: Cut out a tree, or go get some branches and make some leaves, have everyone fill out things that they are grateful for and watch as the tree comes to life.
13. OBJECT LESSONS: On mormonshare.com they list over 300 object lessons of different topics. These are so much fun to do for FHE or a class or just with the family!

I hope they call me on a mission...

So ever since the big announcement in General Conference about the missionary ages, I have been seriously considering a mission. No big announcement yet guys, sorry, but probably one soon ;) I have received several texts and conversations from family and friends about this. any ways, a day or two after Conference, my Young Womens leader "convinietly" texted all of the Laurels that the sister missionaires needed someone to go teaching with them. Well, I jumped on that opportunity pretty fast. I thought it would help give me a better idea of what a mission is and help with the decision.
We visited an active father and 2 teenage sons and we taught the 5 principles of the gospel(anyone want to guess what they are?!) It went well and I liked it although, it was only slightly awkward because I know that I came there to teach and well, they taught. So I commented maybe twice and bore my testimony at the end. They have called me a few times(give them your number and you can bet that they will use it :) )
I have been able to go out with them one other time since. It has gotten better and better. This time it was to a 12 year old girl who is not a member but wants to be. She has taken lessons for months and we retaught her the restoration. It was one of the most beautiful things I have been a part of. I loved being able to hear and teach the gospel in such simple words. It is like Primary songs all over again. I fell in love with America(the girl) immediately. She is too cute, bubbly and shy!
When we first arrived the sisters introduced me as "Sarah, who is preparing to go on a mission" I will tell you a little secret that this made me smile a whole lot inside. Later, America asked me, "So your going on a mission??" That took me back a bit. I wanted to cry happy tears, it made me feel so special. In her, I could almost see others that I have the potential of helping and vice versa. I felt like they wanted me to go, almost like it was a call to go. Oh my, how I love this girl already. She has touched my life and I hope that I get to see her again.
Now for some serious praying and fasting!

Cornbellies!

Okay, first of all, SO much fun!! This place has so much to do especially for little kids. Anyways, so we all met at Cornbellies to do the corn maze and play around for a bit, it worked out great! Mom, Dad, Corinne, Matt, Taylor, Alex, Elizabeth, Brian, Richelle, Tia, Oz, and me were all there! The boys were having fun on the slide, in the corn pit, running around, climbing hay barrels, the boys Elle and I even rode this cow ride..everything! We all loaded up in the maze where you got to pick either navigating through Romney's face or Obamas! I love whoever came up with that idea LOL we choose Romney. Matt and Brian loved using the tips, maps, and scan bars to navigate through the maze, Elle just wanted to take charge and lead us herself! Well after about 45 minutes we managed to get back to the entrance!! Mom, corinne and the kids took off to play and the rest of us were stubbornly determined to beat this thing!! And we did! We also rode in a huge hayride which was so much fun as well. In my opinion, the only thing that could have made this more perfect was some hot chocolate...
We did not even scratch the surface of what there is to do here! So I would definetely recommend spending the day here playing around!

Elle leading us along the maze, so cute!

Mom and Dad :)

playing in the corn pit!

Elle had so much fun yaying, clapping and waving on the cow ride

Everyone dancing at the wedding!

kiddos at the wedding!

Brylee's famous Knock-knock joke

Just one more picture....

Just cuz I absolutely LOVE that smile!!

Just some pictures

Blowing bubbles

More bubbles!!

They both were super brave and went down the slide at a picnic for Brian's work

Yay Brylee!

Kaylee always wants me to take her picture on the rocks at the zoo :) 

The day I ran 1/1000 of a marathon

(With Indian food....)
The other day Brian and Kelly found a newly beloved Indian restaurant. Well, we were all craving it so Kelly, the girls and I ran out for a quick trip to Walmart and to pick up some of this delightful food. Sounds pretty simple huh? hahaha no.
We were driving down Main Street in some Knarly traffic wondering what on earth was going on! Turns out Logan was having a fair that day with a marathon, half marathon and a 5K going on as well. The left hand side of the road was partially blocked off for the runners. Naturally, all the parking both for the restaurant AND across the street was either blocked off or full! Okay so the obvious way is not possible, but you can't fool Kelly and I!!
New plan: find a back route! Okay, so we drive a bit Southward until we can find a turn to go through the back way. Oh we found a turn......several miles away. *sigh* so we turn, and guess what!! You got it! the ROAD WAS CLOSED!!! Okay lets evaluate our situation. We cannot park and go in to get it from the front, and there is no way to get it from the back way....This is so ridiculous I drew a diagram for you!!!!

So what do we do now?! Well the only LOGICAL thing to do was for me to jump out of the car while at a stop light, run to the Indian place, and somehow find Kelly again to go home to eat. Okay. 

Me: Now??
Kelly: No! Not yet!!
Me: Now?! I'm going!!
Kelly: Wait! I need my wallet!!
Me: (throws wallet back and books it for the sidewalk)

So I'm running down the sidewalk avoiding the weird stares that I am getting from everyone else in the red light lane. While noticing that the runners not only have a devoted lane but the SIDEWALK as well! Oh crap! Well, I suck it up and keep running and in the back of my mind wondering what the girls thought of me jumping out of the car and running down the street...
I get the food and now my goal is to find Kelly. Oh now I notice that I am walking along-side of the runners! YAY! I officially look ridiculous! (WOOT!! KEEP RUNNING!!! Oh don't mind the food in my hands...)
Well, I pass the water station and the cheering fans and notice that Kelly is still in the turning lane
WAIT!!!! Oh, no too late. That's okay, short walk and I'm back in the car and we are both cursing Brian and threatening that this BETTER BE THE MOST AMAZING INDIAN FOOD HE HAS EVER TASTED!!!
(Oh, we never made it to Walmart...)
After I jumped out of the car Kaylee yells, "NO SARAH! COME BACK!!! You're supposed to stay inside the car!" They started driving again, "NO MOM!!! Don't leave Sarah!!"

My Fall Bucket List

The colors are changing, the air is getting colder and I just love the fall! It is so much fun! The crisp air, the COLORS, getting ready for winter, everything! Let's see how many of these things I can get done by the end of November! What is on your bucket list of things to celebrate Autumn?
1. Have a bonfire
2. Take an autumn nature walk
3. Rake leaves(then jump in the pile)
4. Go to a haunted house
5. Decorate for fall
6. Watch a scary movie
7.Carve a pumpkin
8. Dress up in a costume
9. Bake pies
10. Go on a fall picnic
11. Go to a football game
12. Eat and/or make caramel apples
13. Successfully turn 18! :)

Just playing around :)

Brylee and I having fun blasting off on the swings!

Ring around the rosies! 

Experimenting with college

I have never tried to hide it....college TERRIFIES me! Just the thought of it makes me nervous! I am so scared that I am going to mess things up, like CLASSES(cringe). So this weekend I got to spend with one of my friends up at USU. Immediately friends of roommates were going in and out, cheap food was cooking, people were taking quizzes and doing homework, random people knocking on the door, movies were on etc! We ate out at a delightful burger joint, shopped on a tight budget, walked around the Logan Temple, hung out with the roommates, ate famous Aggie ice cream, toured the campus, did lots of laundry, watched more movies with the gang, went to the college ward, and had Sunday dinner with the boys. My favorite part was going to the college ward-I have been really putting off switching wards. The college ward was fun because you got to be around loads of people your age, in the same situation as you are! Although the dorm was pretty small I was impressed by how much personal storage space each person has. I also liked the campus itself. After this whole experience, the idea of college is a lot easier for me. Sort of living it helped me to better imagine myself actually doing it.
My DREAM college is BYUI....:) I did not take pictures other than at the temple:

Best friends

So I am starting to(slowly) go through a lot of changes lately. One of the main ones right now is my best friends. Earlier this week I sent off one of my very best friends to college. It is most certainly a bitter sweet feeling. To be honest, it feels strange to see us all grow up when I still view us in eighth grade. I am glad that I  did have a few days to prepare myself, the trio of us packed her up which took several days. And oh boy, it really started to kick in then!! I practically live at that house and her family feels like an extension of my own :) I couldn't believe that I would only be able to see my second home is every few weeks/months!! Well, I am glad to report that she moved out last Monday and is loving college! I have seen her apartment and man, she has it pretty good down there!
Heavenly Father continuously teaches me that when he takes away something, it is only for my good in the end. Well, Dominique did have to go, but I was blessed with another one of my best friends in return. Last Sunday I received a text from someone that said that my friend was here in Utah. AWESOME!!!!!! I could barely hold in the excitement. Chris moved away about 2 years ago to Texas and then to Mississippi. I barely get to talk to him so I was ecstatic! Well, come to find out, he actually MOVED back!! It is a big deal! I missed my friend! Life is grand!

California summers

Every summer, I have had the opportunity to fly up to my sister Heather's in California to visit! Although this one was not as long as the usual stay is it was still a blast! The kiddos are always my favorite part of the trip. They all just so smart and funny! I love hanging out with them, acting out in the plays, playing in the Olympics, having book discussions, watching Shark Week, watching funny videos, acting silly etc. We did fun things like go to San Francisco to ride the rocket boat, and I went with Heather to a sonogram of the new baby!! It was amazing! I have never been to one before. :D  Well I have also gone to girl's camp up there every year so I was not going to miss my last one!! Oh my, camp was amazing! We planned the theme to be Hold on to the Yellow Brick Rod- a cross between the classic story the Wizard of Oz and Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon. My group was named Dorothy's Angles and each of the girls in my group were a character and the groups our "little sisters" were themed after us. I was the Tin man and my little sisters were the 5th years and they were called the Hollow Hearts hahaha!!! Every day had a character theme like love, the Holy Ghost, knowledge etc. We had a lot of fun with it! As usual there was a LOT to do! Although the 5th years did take a TON of the responsibility off of our shoulders this year. Fun stuff to do this year included archery(which I stink at!), crafts, and a  ZIP LINE!!!! Oh my, I was helping out there and I rode twice it was amazing!! One thing that I love about this camp is the structure. There is a schedule planned so everyone gets to do everything. Every group does capers(chores), passes off certification, does activities, goes on a hike etc. My group did have a little bit of drama this year surprisingly. Definitely not as major as we have had in the past, but things got a little tense in our group. We had a talk about it and that helped to relive us a bit. Oh and there was another girl named Sarah, from Utah, who is also a CNA, in my group!! It was halarious, I loved it! It was bitter sweet to know that it was my last year there. That will take adjusting to. I love the spirit of camp-it is my favorite part. Even though there can be drama sometimes, the spirit is almost always present there. The majority of girls are excited and happy to be there which makes all the difference. I could and have talked about camp for a week constantly so I will try not to make this too rambly.
I was able to spend a few last days with Heather and her family which was great. One things that the kids loved to do was text 2 of my friends and their grandfather, it was cute.
I realized the last 2 days that I was there I forgot to take pictures so here is some documentation of the fun that we had:

I love my buddy Jacob and his smile! He is so creative and energetic, this guy wears me out!! 

I am on a quest to become the best auntie in the world and one of the qualifications is to give countless airplane rides!! 

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Jay-Jay!!

The kids all love to play with their youngest brother endlessly

just some snuggling :)

I gave the kids a stethoscope before I left 

Can they get any cuter?!

He quite literally disappeared to come hopping in a minute later! 

He is so FUNNY

Oh my goodness!! It has been a goal of mine for the last 2 years to go indoor skydiving and I finally got the chance to thanks to my sister Corinne! It was amazing! I was a little wobbly but I think that I sort of got the hang of it, you really feel weightless. I was grinning ear to ear when the instructor took me all the way to the top a few times. I LOVED it! I want to go back so bad.Another great perk is that we got a dvd of our session :) At the same building, they also have indoor surfing and rock climbing. I will definitely remember this!

The boys were loving playing with my phone on the way there! 

SURPRISE!!

sweet Elle 

Kelly's

Kaylee were she belongs! On a horsie! 

Where's Brylee?(as I look over to see clothes being thrown out of the dryer haha!!

This summer, I have been spending time up in Logan with Kelly! Which has been super fun! We try to do a lot of fun stuff like attempt to craft, shop, see fireworks, go to the zoo, street fairs, etc. I have had a blast. We talk a ton which is great because we both LOVE to talk and now we can finally talk to each other! Even with all of this, my favorite part has been seeing the girls. Now you must understand, that my favorite job in the WORLD is being an auntie. I take it very seriously. And I get to live with these two precious girls. Kaylee has such a sweet spirit. She is energetic, funny, smart, loves animals, honest, nice to everyone etc. I could go on all day long. I love how great she is to her little sister. She is also a smart girl! She has a lot of sense, and is really mature for being 3. Brylee is a little ray of sunshine. She is the smiliest, loving, most spirited girl I know! She has a huge heart, smile and is the biggest girlie girl! She has more than once, picked out outfits for all of us to wear to church! She also loves to dance, but especially loves to love. But this girl has some personality as well, do something naughty and you have a finger pointing at you and being scolded, "NO! no! no! Stop that!!" LOL I can't get enough of them!!

Back of police cars....

Micaela and Dominique riding home in the tow truck

Mathew was a bit freaked out so we took some mug shots 

Still breathing! It does not look like it is very small but I assure you that what you see in this photo was all of the space that we had! LOL

So I had a crazy day. A group of my friends decided that we wanted to go see the most recent movie Brave.  Well, we had quite an adventure ourselfs getting there. After a lot of communication mishaps, 3 of us finally got on the road to pick everyone up. Skip ahead, now there are 4 of us driving to Manti to pick up the last one. On the way back we were on the freeway and my friend's car stopped. Like stopped working. Luckily, we had enough momentum that we could pull over to the far left lane. Well, I don't mean to complain but it was HOT!! As several of us tried calling everyone we know, the rest of us entertained ourselfs with random car games. Well, we won the alphabet game, and Ispied ourselfs to our limit. Eventually a highway help car found us and gave us some water. Now we just had to wait for the tow truck. By now we have been stuck here for approximately almost an hour. Well, there were 5 of us total, 2 of us could go in the tow truck but that still left 3. My friend's visiting grandmother happened to be the only one home. So she drove up and down the freeway hunting for us, later to find out that we were on 2 separate freeways!!! So she pulled in to a gas station to wait. Lovely. Now I was put in charge of my friend's little brother who is now starting to dehydrated on the 100 degree freeway. Luckily the highway help guy still had a few waters left over. About another half hour of waiting a police man finally showed up to help transport the last 3 of us remaining. Well, my friend Chris rode in the Highway Help car and my friend's 12-year old brother and I squeezed in the back of the police car. And I mean squeezed. I doubt that an obese person could fit in the little cage they had  back there. By some miracle, Mathew and I did it for a few miles until Chris, Mathew and I found my friends grandmother to take us home. Well, I thought that it would be smooth sailing from there but no. I have yet to see worse traffic. Okay skip ahead, we are all now home and 2 1/2 hours late for our movie but gosh dang it we weren't going to do all this for NOTHING!! So we finally were able to see it. It was cute, and I recommend it. Honestly, at that point, we were all expecting fireworks to shoot out of the screen to make this trip worth it. Well who knew that I would be so rebellious to ride in the back of a police car?!(He assured me that he regularly cleans it...)