Oh Canada!!

Since today is Canada Day, I have to do a quick walk down memory lane from my mission in Montreal. When I think of Canada, I think of:

President and Sister McKinnon

The many wonderful sisters I served with. Some not pictured. Sorry.My Amazing districts...not just this one, but all of them!

The AMAZING people!!! Kirsten and Adriana!

Emily. Oh how I love her!

Vincent. My first true Quebecois experience!Carole. Loves missionaries, loves to sing, loves the scriptures!Evelyne. The sweetest woman you will ever meet. Love her!Nadia. Gives the best hugs in the world!Jean de Dieu. He was prepared by God!Amazing members!
Rebecca. Love this girl!Some members of my English class from ALL over the world!Genie. Proud of her!Clareena. Best member missionary ever!Anika. She changed MY life!Jodanne. Loves God!

When I think of Canada, I think of all the amazing people. This is just a taste of the people that touched my life. It was the most incredible experience of my life! Now, when I think of symbols or things that remind me of Canada, I think of:

Our main source of transportation.

The Montreal Temple.
Of course, I think of SNOW!!!My favorite snow picture.

The Canal in Ottawa. In the Winter people skate to work.

Poutine. French fries, Cheese Curds, and Gravy.

This is supposed to symbolize Parliament.

So there you have it. Those are just a few people and things that remind me of the native land. Canada, you will always be a part of my heart. Happy Canada Day!!!

The Uhaul

If you look closely, you can see the stuff in my car too!

I talked about moving, but I thought I would tell you about traveling with a Uhaul. Like mentioned in an earlier post, we had little sleep and got a late start on our trip. We didn't know exactly how long the trip would take since the Uhaul would slow us down, but when you look at the directions and see that you are on the same road for 1,047 miles you know it is going to be a long drive! Driving at a normal speed, Mapquest estimated 25 hours and Google estimated 1 day and 3 hours. Well, it took us 2 days.

Day 1: We left at 11:30. Travis drove practically the whole way because my eyes were red and swollen from allergies. Therefore you will not see any pictures of me on this day. We couldn't drive too fast because of the trailer and we had to stop about every 3 hours because it guzzled gas. Well, when Travis started dozing, I decided to take over. We stopped 3 hours west of Omaha. The plan was to make it to Omaha because that was the halfway point, but we were both beat. I think that we stopped at around 11. It was probably the most restful sleep I had gotten in months that night. As soon as my head hit the pillow I was out.

He looks thrilled huh? This is what the scenery was like most of the way.

Day 2: The hotel served breakfast and we got back on the road at about 7:30. This time I started the drive because now Travis' allergies were acting up. He was to the point I was the day before where he couldn't wear his contacts. Luckily we practically have the same prescription so he wore my glasses. I drove probably the slowest I ever have on the highway. Even semi trucks would pass me every now and then (and that has NEVER happened before). I sucked up my pride and knew that getting there was more important than not letting a semi pass me. We did finally make it to Dayton at around 2 am I think.

Momentous event of the trip: Pep (my car, short for Pepper ann) hit 20,000 miles. She has already added about 1,000 more since then. I love Pep!

Proof, it was still 65 degrees when I left the West.

Overall, the trip went really well. There were only two places that we hit traffic and the rest was smooth sailing. We had absolutely no problems with the trailer, which was out biggest concern. We had to get gas every 3 hours, so we had lots of opportunities to jump out of the car and stretch our legs. We didn't do anything great and exciting, but overall I would say it was a great trip. It didn't feel like we were in the car 2 days straight. I think the biggest thing is that we didn't even get sick of one another.

After arriving in Dayton, we had to unload my car because Travis didn't want anyone to break into it. His car has been broken into there, as well as a couple others. Did I mention that my car was full to the brim too? I forgot to take a picture of it. I am super bummed. Oh well. So, we got my car unloaded and left the locked trailer in the parking lot to be unloaded in the morning. We successfully made it across the country!

Expired Milk

Every now and then on Facebook, someone I know getting married will post something cheesy. Well, this morning I thought of one of those cheesy posts I have seen in the past but couldn't bring myself to post it. For some reason I feel more justified sharing it on my blog. So here it goes. You know you don't have much longer when your milk expires on your wedding day!

Leaving Utah

Last week I closed the Utah chapter of my book of life. The much anticipated move finally came. After finishing school and moving out of my classroom, I began to pack up my apartment. It was a long process, but it was finally done. I sat with my stuff in boxes for about a week before the actual moving day came. I never did get a picture of my full living room. In my defense, half of my stuff was from my classroom.

On Friday, Brother Hatch helped me pick up the trailer. He and his nephews helped me load everything in. About halfway through I began to lose faith that everything would fit. The Tetris game began and Brother Hatch made it work somehow. It was all in there. I could not have done it without their help! That evening, Nathan and Bradford hooked up the lights for my car. They had spent hours trying to figure things out the day before and I finally had to order a special kit from Uhaul for the boys to put in.

That evening I picked up Travis from the airport. When we got to my apartment, he went to check out the trailer and check to see if the weight was ok. It was a little after midnight at this point. Apparently there is a certain amount of weight that can be put on the hitch and on the car. Well, when he went to test the trailer, he couldn't even get it to budge. He said it was too heavy and we would have to move some stuff to my car, take some stuff out, and shift around the weight. I thought, "we just loaded this whole thing and you want me to do what?" We went inside and brainstormed. He figured out that you can ship books for really cheap. He asked if I had many books. I said I had some. We went to Wal-Mart to get some boxes. Lucky for us, they were stocking their shelves and we got free boxes at 1:00 AM. We decided not to get the books out until the morning.

After a short night's rest, we got up at 6:00 and began to unpack the loaded trailer. I didn't think this would happen until we were in Ohio. I started getting out all the books I had. Children's books, school books, church books, etc. For someone who doesn't like to read, I sure had a lot of books...270 lbs to be exact. So, we boxed those up and shipped them off. Then Travis started rearranging the trailer so that the weight was distributed more evenly.

We just had hang-up after hang-up. We planned to leave by 7 and we left at 11:30. I guess all of the hang-ups did serve a purpose though. First, they made it so I was ready to get on the road. Second, they distracted me from the fact that I was leaving Utah until who knows when. When we were finally on the road and things were going smoothly, it did hit me. I started to cry a little, but I controlled myself.

I love Utah and have enjoyed the time that I have spent here over the years. You don't have to agree with me, but here are some things I love:

-the weather-I love that it gets hot and cold. I can enjoy the snow and the sun.
-the mountains-I love to just look at them, drive through them, drive up them and look out over them, rock climb and I am even learning how to enjoy hiking-as long as it is leisurely
-the people-I love being surrounded by people with my same beliefs. I also like not, but I love teaching at a school and having the kids say, "I saw you at church" or randomly sing praise to the man while they are doing centers. And of course all my wonderful friends!
-the opportunities-only in Utah can you go to the store and buy an Ensign, or attend Conference every year, or have your choice of temples to attend
-BYU-I loved going to school there. It was perfect for me!

As much as I love Utah, I am ready to start the next chapter in my life. It will be just as great as this chapter has been and I can't wait for the adventures that lie ahead!

By Request

For those people that do not live close enough to me to stop by and look at my engagement pictures, I have had a request to post some more. So, by request, here are some more pictures from our engagement session. Warning: there are some kissing pictures. They are in backwards order from how we took them, but that's ok. We had a blast and our photographer, Aria, was AMAZING!! Somehow she was able to make us look good in all of them!

Dressy Outfit (This was thrown together right before we left because I ordered a dress online and it didn't come in on time. Talk about stressful. We stopped and got a matching tie on the way to Liberty Park.)

Dressy Casual (Favorite part of this outfit? The boots!)

Casual Outfit at the Carnival




So there you have it. Now all you have to look forward to is pictures from the wedding. Hope you enjoyed them!

Sleepover!

Last week when I was over at Bradford's house, Brooke asked if she could sleep over at my house. Since she had family in town, I promised that we could do it later that week after everyone was gone. This past Wednesday she got to come over. We started the evening by going to the restaurant of her choice. We brought our food home to eat at her request. The whole drive it was fun listening to Brooke just talk or ask questions or make statements. She is at a stage where she is very observant and soaks in tons of information. After we finished eating, my roommate was getting a few last things from the apartment, so she helped her take those things down. Then came the exciting part of the night...we built a fort. I have a 4 poster bed, so it made the perfect fort! At this point, I had to meet my photographer to get my picture cd, so we ran over to meet her in the Macy's parking lot. While we were there, Brooke got to pick out some cereal and pay for it. It was fun to challenge her by giving her the money and then asking if she had enough or not. She is a smart girl. Hopefully I will take learning opportunities like that to teach my own kids. Then I got to teach her how to pump gas. I let her do everything. I think that was her favorite part of the whole night because as we were leaving the next day she asked if we needed to buy more gas because she knew how to do it now.After getting back home, we got inside the fort, we watched Strawberry Shortcake on my computer. It was "berry" exciting. By the time the movie finished, it was bedtime and we were both wiped out. I don't know who was yawning more. I had to take her back early the next morning because Heidi had to go down to the hospital to see Logan at a certain time. I love their little family! Like I mentioned before, Tyler and Brooke are so sweet and well behaved. While I am over visiting, Brooke and Tyler will both just come up and hug me or cuddle with me or tell me they love me. I love them too!

1 Month to Go

In exactly one month from today, a lot of big things will be happening. (sidenote: I am so emotional lately. I cry over everything...like writing this blogpost. It's my mom's fault.) It will be the day that I have dreamed about my entire life. I will be marrying the perfect man for me. I will be giving up the name Broadhead that I have held so proudly my whole life and take on the name Barlow. I will have my own family. I will live in the East once again. I am basically starting a new life. I will live in a new place (Ohio), with a new name (Barlow), and a new family (Travis). But, I guess one thing that never changes is that my family will always be there and the the covenants I made will always be there. It is an exciting time that I am looking forward to.

We got our engagement pictures back so I will show you some ways that Travis is perfect for me. :)

He always makes me laugh.

He is crazy. If you look closely, in the background you can see a guy doing these stretches.

He is willing to do anything...even eat popcorn that I am holding in my teeth.He lets me cheer him up when he is sad. He is a good sport when it comes to taking pictures.He shares the same talent of having a "pregnant belly."Even though I think mine is better. :)He is sweet when he wants to be. He follows me anywhere I take him.

He is the one that introduced me to Buckle. That was his mistake!He puts up with my nonsense.Most of all, he Loves me!