back to reality.

reality is a lovely place, but i wouldn't want to live there. thank you owl city.

me, rachel, daniel, taylor, and payden.

take me back to happy valley, take me back to my friends.

goodbye happy valley

thank you for the laughs, for the magic, for the rain, for the adventures, for the kisses, for the smiles, for the love, for the all nighters, for the temple trips, for another EFY, for family, for the streaking and skinny dipping adventures, for the blessings, for the tears, for the good days, for the best days, for the dates, for the boys, for the perfect summer moments, for the strengthened friendships, for the two weeks with my best friend, for the chance to see my family, and for the knowledge that in the future, because of one person, happy valley is exactly where i'm going to need to be. i can never repay you for all the moments, but i can remember them, i've written them down word for word in my journal, this has been the best summer of my life. a summer to remember forever and always. now it's time for me to go home. back to my family, back to reality. here is to another year of adventures, trials, struggles, and newness. i'll see you in april. if i can get a date to prom, that is. thank you for welcoming me back after the year i had. thank you for accepting the new me, and not trying to make me change. i can never thank you enough for this escape from reality.
forever and always,
sarah leslie.

it's time to go home.

don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.

about twenty four hours from now i'll be heading to the airport. i've tried everything to stop it, called mom and asked to extend my trip, prayed that my flight would be canceled, but after many attempts, nothing. i guess i get to go home tomorrow. i have a hard time believing that it has been a month, that something like this can speed by so fast. i'm not ready to go home, not ready to say goodbye to my best friend, to a certain boy whom i happen to favor muchly, to james and jared. there is no way it has been a month, has it really? but i have so many stories to tell, so many adventures i've been on. this has been the best summer ever, and the people that i have been around have really helped make it a summer to remember. i don't want to forget anything that happened this summer. is it possible to remember it all? the title to this post is really what i've been telling myself for the past few days now. don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. i can't cry because i'm leaving, i've had my month here, remembering all the fun times and all the adventures, all the smiles and butterflies. now THAT is going to be easy. everytime i think about the events of my summer in happy valley i'll be sure to smile. i can't be sad, it has been a summer to remember. the best summer of my life thus far. i love the fact that i have been here all by myself living my own adventures. i think that it will be good to go home and see my family though. i miss them like crazy. i miss the laughter and all the crazy things that we would do. i miss my friends back home too. it will be good to go back, i think. this summer away from home has been so good for me though, i have learned so many things, become more independent, gone on more dates in the past month than i probably will in the next two years i'm living away from happy valley.
here is to the end of a fantastic summer adventure.
forever and always,
sarah leslie

Last Week in Happy Valley.

can you believe i only have a few more days left? not gonna lie, i'm freaking out just a little too much about how fast this past month has gone. we'll save that for another post though. this past week went like this.
Monday- party with jared which included him being patient and sitting in downeast while i tried on dress after dress. of course, we did a few other things too. it ended with saying goodbye and i was just a little bit saddd. it was the first of many goodbyes. sad? heck yess.
Tuesday- a two hour visit from James. he just shows up at Christina's house and i'm pretty sure i haven't laughed so hard since julia's a few weeks ago. then later that night Christina and i headed up to bear lake to join her family. trust me, you wanted to be in that car.

   abbey, christina, brynley, and me at Bear Lake.
we got back late friday night and crashed baddd. today i'm doing laundry and later tonight i have a date with Payden. i'm super excited because we're doubling with James and Bryn. we're picking bryn up from the airport in a few hours. excited? muchly.
here is to a fantastic day.
forever and always,
sarah leslie.

summer rain

last night i said my first of many goodbyes. there is no way that it has been a month, no way that all of this is already coming to an end. sure, i have a little less than a week left still, but i used to have five weeks, used to have an endless amount of adventures ahead of me. but I've lived those adventures, had my moments, and i love each and every one of them. i wouldn't change them for the world. all the laughs, smiles, and driving around aimlessly trying to decide what to do. dancing in the summer rain, watching green lantern with my friends all laughing at us, the tea party, the park, feeling like a little kid again. the butterflies. i want to take every little piece of this summer, and never forget it. it has seriously been a summer to remember and it's not even over yet. i have stories that i never would have had back home. i've gotten to go on dates, and spend time with my best friends. not to mention the fact that it has rained like crazy. summer rain by the jonas brothers pretty much describes my first two weeks here. picture time! p.s. this is my summer song, i highly recommend you listen to it while looking at these pictures. since spending a month with jared, my music library has grown greatly. thank you jerry. there will be more to come, of course. but for now, enjoy a few pictures as you realize why i don't want to leave.

Choco Waffles on Sierra's porch after a magical rainy afternoon

pizza then green lantern! super cute of me and jared, right? wrong.

Julia and i decided it would be a good idea to go grocery shopping with jared. Jared decided that it was a good idea to bring us along. pictures? heck yes. good idea? maybe not.

i love this picture. did i mention julia and i are awesome at taking cute pictures? well we are.

summer lovin'

i made this cake for our tea party. you can see how proud i was :D

  smiles. why? it's summer, it's fantastic, and i'm with the most amazing people ever.

  "sarah and payden, go stand outside and i'll take your picture" thanks jules.

  best friends forever and always.

we're super cute :D

GIRL DAY!

  moments like these make the 1,300 miles seem like a lot less.

  lalalalalala

if i told you we're no good at taking pictures would you believe us?

oh jerry. this is one of the many creeper pictures i didn't take.

summer in motion. told you there were laughs.

summertime. sarah + tay

drivin' around in jared's truck = summer at its best

i love this picture...best friend love.

terrible! but LOOK at those mountains!


WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?  fantastic, i know.
summer lovin' people.
forever and always,
sarah leslie.

another week in happy valley

EFY to be exact. not gonna lie, i wasn't very excited to go to another EFY. surprised? i was. but my first EFY was just so fantastic i felt that nothing could compare. it was perfect. i got to meet people i lived by, and i got to get to know friends better. not to mention the fantastic spiritual experiences that i had with them, how could this next EFY compare? it obviously couldn't. i have to admit that the fact that i didn't have a very good attitude about it wasn't helping but of course i put on a happy face and headed off to EFY number two. our group of guys were short and unattractive and didn't even slightly compare to the guys in my MALE AND FEMALE company. what i didn't expect though was to have such an amazing counselor with such an amazing story who had just gotten ENGAGED. i also didn't expect to get a solo in the musical program, or to have one of the most spiritual experiences that I've ever had during gospel study one morning. instead of focusing on the social aspect i chose to focus on the spiritual aspect and in the end i'm glad that i went. i got some answers to some questions i've had for a long time and my testimony has grown so much. highlights from the week? definitely rooming with Rachel, she is such a doll and i've missed playing basketball with her. Swing dancing with Clark. i'm finally starting to get the hang of it and i love how close my brother and i have become in the past year. i love that he is down here having his own adventure with me. two visits from James and one from Payden. i love my boys, and it was good to be able to get away from the EFY world just long enough to have a few laughs and compare arm spans and arm wrestle. now i'm at christina's house about to go play with Jared. i fly home a week from monday and to be honset, i really don't want to leave. i love the social life that i have here, i love these people. i don't want to go another ten months without seeing these people, without seeing me best friend. and it's only ten months if i get asked to prom. lovely. anyway, this week is going to be crazy fun. i'm trying not to think about the fact that i have to go home, just trying to enjoy my last week in happy valley which includes a trip to bear lake, a double date with James, Payden, and BRYN...she fly's in on saturday. i couldn't be happier with the way the summer is going. sure, it has flown by, and i have not been home since the day school got out but i love being busy, i love having adventures, and to be honest, i'm starting to fall in love with happy valley.
forever and always,
sarah leslie.

hello parks.

Weird title for a summer post, right? wrong. mostly because parks have been a huge part of my life the past two weeks. what do you do when you're bored? go to a park. what do you do when you want to get away from people? go to a park. what do you do when you and a boy whom you favor muchly run out of ideas? obviously, you go to a park. it just so happens that I'm sitting here blogging via my blackberry at nothing less than a park. I'm all alone here and it's nice to have a moment of quiet time durring my crazy summer to remember. this past week is yet another for the record books. Monday celebrated the fourth of July with Julia's family up in Salt Lake. all of the huge fireworks were legal this year and everywhere you turned you got a fantastic show. Tuesday jules and did our tea party shopping. oh my heck. Jared came over later that night to "help us cook stuff" mostly he just stood there and laughed when made an awesome mistake and forgot to grease the cake pans. did seriously do that? yep. no worries though, my cake still turned out fantastic. Wednesday julia and I went to the gateway with her cousin Sophie. AND at four in the morning we went and did baptisms at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. Even though we had only had an hour and a half of sleep it felt so good to be back after so long. Then sleep deprived we headed off to do more shopping. I thought that left my hair brush at home so bought a new one. yesterday found said hairbrush. bummer. at least my new one is cute. Thursday was the day we had spent the past two weeks planning for: TEA PARTY. if you're friends with julia on facebook you can see the pictures. basically though, it was super cute. then it was off to a park that afternoon for some magical moments ;) Friday was super chill and included me babysitting for the sellers...aka the coolest family with the cutest kids e v e r. Saturday Maiya, Kimber, and I did baptisms at the temple again. that's twice in one week and feel AWESOME. then off to a pool party. I ended my night with payden waiting for jared to get out of the shower, listening to jared play guitar while payden tried to play the banjo, and lastly hot chocolate and cheesecake from kneaders. Today I went back to my old ward for the first time since we moved. it. was. so. werid. good to be back, but at the same time nothing here has changed, and I have. tomorrow m off to EFY with rachiecakes and I'm so glad I've been able to attend the temple and really prepare for EFY. two in one summer? can you say spiritual overload? It's a good thing though. It's hard to believe that my trip is almost halfway over. I've thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend the past few weeks with such amazing people who have welcomed me into their friend group over and over again. these next two weeks are going to be different, but good. I don't ever want to go home. though I miss my friends, and my ward, the social life I have here is so much better. staying here would have been so easy. so here is to another fantastic week. more parks? maybe.
Forever And Always,
Sarah Leslie.

the first of many FANTASTIC weeks.

if i said that this week was fantastic, that would be such an understatement. seriously. i think that i don't ever want to go home. let's start with monday, i got here super early and accidentally ended up in terminal two instead of terminal two which caused some chaos but whatever. then we went to this super crazy rock formation with payden and it was way too wet to do anything so we ended up at a park lying on some towels getting our fair share of sunlight. then it was off to Jareds to make dinner. awesome. Tuesday we went to a super cute candy store in provo and then went out for pizza and a movie with Payden, Jared, Rachel, and Taylor. Wednesday involved a trip to DI, and dances in the rain. thursday we went to breakfast at kneaders and then shopping with Rachel. Friday involved a lot of tea party planning and a trip to orange leaf and the park behind lone peak with payden. we also went to see water for elephants with Julia's mom later that night. also fantastic. saturday was another shopping day that ended in babysitting for super cute kids. that takes us to today i can't believe that i've already been here for a week. it has gone by so fast and just watch, before i know it the entire summer is going to be over. not going to deny the fact that there is a little summer romance going on right now with a boy whom i favor muchly. of course, what else is to be expected. seriously. anyways, this week has been fantastic ad i'm excited for another super chill summer week. what am i looking forward to the most? a temple trip, and a fantastic tea party. love. seriously. of course, i'm also looking forward to a few visits from a boy, more laughs, giggles, and summer butterflies.
this summer = best summer ever. seriously.
forever and always,
sarah  leslie