Fetzer Cabin

This summer, we got to go to our family cabin for a couple days right after my parents picked me up in Rexburg in July. 

I always forget how lucky we are to have this place. My great grandpa Fetzer (my dad's grandpa) built it for his family in 1973, and it's just such a great place to escape to for the weekend!

(I swear I've asked a million times where it is, but I still can't remember... all I know is it's about an hour and a half away from Salt Lake) 

It's the cutest little cabin with a tiny kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living and dining area all downstairs and then there's a ladder that leads up to a loft upstairs where there's a bunch of mattresses and a small bed for all the kids to sleep. 

On my mom's side of the family, we have a ranch in Atlanta, Idaho that my great grandpa Greene built, and there's so much to do there outside like swimming, fishing, hiking, riding ATV's, playing frisbee, volleyball, shooting guns, etc. so we're hardly ever inside except for meals and sleeping when we're there.. and it's AWESOME. But our cabin in Utah is so great because it's so cozy inside that we love to just sit and read books or play games for hours and hours while listening to the thunder and rain outside. It's so relaxing up there and we always have so much fun just hanging out together. :)

When we're not inside reading or playing games all day at the cabin, we're at the little river down the road being silly and taking pictures. :)

I took a ballet class this semester and yet I STILL suck at balancing haha  

There we go :)

Dad can do it!

Ashley gets a 10/10 :)

I feel so blessed to have two wonderful places up in the mountains to go to with my family all because of two wonderful people who I never even knew very well. Thank you Grandpa Fetzer and Grandpa Greene!!!!  I love you!

Ashley's favorite spot :)

We love family road trips!!! 

A cool little hike we did in the morning

Ashley eating sunflower seeds :)

-- Sarah Laurel <3

BYU-I Part 2

Hey there!

Wow it's been forever since I updated my blog last.... oops :)

So my spring semester at BYU-I came and went by SO fast!! It feels like just yesterday I was getting ready to leave for Rexburg in April! And now I'm back already! 

I kept meaning to update my blog lots of times during the semester, but I felt like I never had much to say except that I was always feeling sick the first month or so and later discovered that I have celiac disease.. (or so we think, still waiting on test results) I had to go off of gluten which was pretty hard at first and I didn't feel much of a difference, but after a couple weeks I felt SO much better! So yeah, that happened and made this semester a bit of a challenge, but other than that it was actually a really fun semester! My classes were great, the weather in Rexburg was amazing, I LOVED my new apartment, and best of all... my sister, nephew, and brother in law lived right down the street from me!!!

I got to see them almost every day and it was so much fun!

Amanda and I never got along when we were younger and lived at home together. We were ALWAYS fighting and even when she moved out, we were never very close. But, since then both of us have grown up so much in the last couple years and we got so close this semester! She is seriously my best friend now. She's so mature and kind and loving and we could just talk for hours about life and never get tired of talking and hanging out together! I LOVED hanging out with her and I'm so so so glad they lived so close by this semester. It was the best. :) 

I loved just going over to her cute townhouse and hanging out with her and jackson for hours all the time, but we also got to do lots of fun things outdoors together like Mesa Falls, Rigby Lake, and Jackson Hole! Idaho is so beautiful during spring/summer time and I'm so glad I had Amanda there to take me to see everything! 

Ok picture time.. :)

I loved playing with Jack Jack!!

Road trips with these two are so fun!

This is Mesa Falls. It's so pretty!!

Rigby Lake! I know for some reason it doesn't look like it, but Jackson seriously LOVED this place. :) He had so much fun playing in the water and didn't want to leave!

and this is Jenny Lake in Jackson Hole Wyoming! This was at the end of the semester when my parents came to pick me up. I bought a Gopro camera while I was in Rexburg, for our upcoming Europe Trip so I got to use it in Jackson Hole and get some awesome pictures!

... and some "miscellaneous" pictures :)

Jackson helping me with my homework

Hanging out in Utah for Carly's graduation!

Babysitting Jackson after I got home from the temple with my roommate (hence my wet hair and no makeup)

Oh yeah and I got to go visit Carly for a weekend by myself in May. We drove up milcreek canyon and had such a fun day together! 

So yeah, despite being sick the first half of the semester and feeling like I was dying all the time, looking back at all these pictures, I realize that this semester was so much fun! I got to do lots of fun things outdoors, hang out with my family a lot and finish up my freshman year at BYU Idaho. :) 

-- Sarah Laurel <3

Nanny Diaries

A couple weeks ago I went and babysat four kids for 6 days while their parents went backpacking in the Grand Canyon. I've been babysitting for this same family for the past 5 years now so I know them really well and was more than happy to babysit for them while they went on a fun trip :) 

Here are some of my highs and lows from that experience:

Lows:

- Trace (6 months) was sick almost the entire time. He had a double ear infection the week before I babysat and was still getting better from that. Their mom told me he might be a little sick still and may throw up once in the night but probably not..

He threw up a ton every day for 3 days straight. It was AWFUL.

 I've never seen a baby throw up before. When she told me he might throw up I was like, "Oh ok the usual spit up only a little more.. no biggie..

Nope! He was gagging and throwing up like a normal kid only I had to hold him and catch his vomit in a burp cloth while he cried and was miserable. It was so sad. :( Definitely something I did not want to experience at this age, but I'm also kind of glad I did because now I know what to expect when I have my first kid someday.

- The three girls (Evee 3, Aubree 6, and Talee 8) are very energetic so they were pretty crazy the whole time which was fine most of the time, but there were times when I literally had three girls screaming in my ear, running circles around me telling me a million different things at once while I was catching Trace's throw up in my hands.. so yeah that was a little overwhelming.

But they sure are cute!


- And all three of the girls are addicted to this weird wii game.. Every day they kept begging me to come watch them play it or wanted me to play it with them, but it's seriously the most pointless, boring game I've ever played where you're a disney character (they always fight over who gets to be Queen Elsa) and you walk around this magical world.. and that's it. you just walk. and jump. and run. so pointless.

A 3 year old playing the wii... what
is the world coming to??

Okay Highs:

- When Trace was with his grandma over the weekend, the girls and I did lots of fun things with our time. :)

We went to the public library :)

Went swimming in the neighborhood pool

Made homemade sidewalk paint

 Walked around the beautiful Gilbert Temple
after church on Sunday

 Walked around Crossroads Park

and we had lots of fun just hanging out at home too. :)

 Trace is so cuddly all the time!!

 Dropping the girls off at school!

 Trace is so stinkin' cute! Love those big blue eyes :)

 Silly girls

I had fun doing the girls hair for school every day :)

So yeah! Even though it was crazy and stressful at times, it was a great learning experience for me and it was way fun! I love being around kids because they're always so happy and positive and don't focus on all the bad in the world like we sometimes do. They think the littlest things are so amazing and they help you see life from a whole new perspective. So that definitely made it all worth it :) 

-- Sarah Laurel <3