A Leap of Faith

Today marks exactly a year and a half since our wedding day! I felt like doing a post reminiscing back on our special day & everything it took to get to it!

A little flash back before the big day...

Sean and I met in Cancun, Mexico on vacation in March 2009. He was the first Canadian I had met &   we talked the night away on the beach about our different worlds. We instantly clicked. We only had 2 short days together in Mexico, but exchanged numbers and said we would keep in touch. Little did we know, that spring break trip was going to change our lives.

We went back to our daily lives and talked every single day with texting, Skyping, talking on the phone and through Facebook. I remember sometimes feeling like I didn't understand WHY exactly I felt SO drawn to someone that I barely knew... He lives in Canada for crying out loud! We had something special though and I couldn't let that go. (Funny fact, when we met I was currently living in a city called Little Canada in Minnesota. A little foreshadowing?)

First trip to Canada (I look so young!)

Before dropping me off at the airport from my first trip up to visit Sean

We did long distance for a year and a half, had a few trips to visit each other & finally had the discussion about what exactly we were going to do if we continued our relationship. I'll be honest, I never thought about moving to Canada. Ever. But I was 19, young and didn't exactly know what or where I wanted to go in life. Sean was starting his career, more settled where he was living at the time and I guess it just seemed right. I'll never forget telling my mom that I was going to start looking into moving to Canada. The look on her face and the long pause. She wasn't exactly happy. I mean what mom would be happy to hear that her 19 year old daughter is moving to a different country to be with a guy that she barely knew?? My mom told me something really interesting though. Her mom, so my grandma, actually loved Canada. One of her favorite places in the world was Vancouver. (My grandma passed away when I was 1 years old so I never got to know her.) My mom also told me that in my grandma's casket there were maple leaves printed all over. I remember it gave me goosebumps.  I believe hearing my mom talk about my grandma and her connection with Canada helped make my decision. Even till this day I know my grandma is the reason I met Sean and guided me to make the big, difficult & unsure move to Canada to be with him. 

Sean's first trip to Minnesota

Seems like so long ago..

Flying back to Canada for another trip

Moving to Canada wasn't easy. It was a complete leap of faith. I left my family, friends and everything I knew to come to a small town in northern British Columbia. Besides going through frequent lonely and homesick moments I was going through a lot of stress with applying for Canadian residency. (This is a whole other subject/post I could write about! Uh.) There were many moments of feeling like everything was against us being together. 

So after 2.5 years of living in Canada as a visitor so I could live with Sean, working on a work permit, filling out endless paper work, collecting every photo that we had together for proof & asking friends and family to sign a form starting they were aware of our relationship... I FINALLY received my Canadian residency! I'll be honest and say that wasn't an easy time for our relationship. We had to stay strong & stay focused on WHY we were going through everything. To be together. I think some couples wouldn't have been able to make it. It was a very long, draining, made you question yourself and stressful process! But we did it and I really believe it made us closer. To receive my residency made me feel like for the FIRST time I could breathe & know that I can stay in Canada and be with Sean. Everything we had worked for was worth it!

My approved application!!

After I walked across the border into Canada and received my Canadian residency! I can't even explain in words how I felt on this day. 

May 1st, 2014

Our wedding day of course was a special day and meant the world to me, but I felt it symbolized more than becoming man & wife. For me it also felt like a celebration day of "we did it". After some days of feeling like everything was against our relationship & us being together this was the day all of that went away. We had been through quite a rollercoaster ride and now here we are standing back in Mexico on the beach exchanging vows. 

For my "something blue" I had a piece of material from my grandma's dress that she wore to my mom's wedding sown into my dress

 

To have our family and friends together for the first time was amazing! With everyone living so far away from each other we knew this wasn't going to happen very often, so we definitely appreciated it and took in the special moment!

 It was the best day of my life so far... soon with the birth of our baby girl I know I will be experiencing an even MORE best day of my life! I couldn't be happier and feel more blessed to be married to my best friend every single day. 

You just never know where life will take you.

xo Ashley

Baby Shower

During my trip to Minnesota my mom & sister hosted a baby shower for me! It was pretty surreal to be at MY own baby shower! I was very excited to get together with some very special ladies in my life to celebrate our baby girl. The baby shower was hosted at a park in my mom's neighborhood under a cute gazebo. 

My sister know's exactly my style & did such a cute job with all the details at the shower! She ended up having a lot of pieces at the shower that I would be able to use again in the nursery and I absolutely loved that!!

It was a nice August summer day, but man oh man was it windy!

From the pink bow paper straws...

beautiful pink roses...

all the precious baby clothes & goodies on the clothes line...

to the adorable baby rattle cupcakes I was overjoyed with all the cuteness!

Eek! I had been trying to order one of these precious piggies for SO long and I was so surprised to see one hanging on the clothes line!! I just have a feeling our little girl is going to love pigs as much as I do! :)

Now my mom & sister definitely know me because they had Chipotle catered for the food at the shower and oh my goodness was this preggo a happy gal!

It was so yummy! And what a great idea right?!

After chowing down on Chipotle we played a cute game of "Mommy or Daddy." Everyone was given 2 popsicle sticks which had a pair of lips on one representing me and another that had a firefighter hat representing Sean. My sister asked questions and everyone had to hold up their answer with either the lips or firefighter hat. I was pretty impressed with how many ladies knew all the answers! I guess that's a good thing with how well they know me ;) It was a really cute game. She also planned a cute game with little babies frozen inside ice cubes. Everyone got a baby ice cube in their punch and once the ice cube melted and the little baby was floating inside their cup they had to yell "My water broke!" first to win! I then opened all the lovely baby gifts and wow did baby girl and I get spoiled! 

My sister had asked guests to bring a baby book instead of a card and I really loved that idea! Now I will have all these adorable baby books in the nursery & will be able to read the sweet notes from who purchased it for us every time we read their book! 

I am so grateful for each and everyone one of these ladies that are in my life...

(sorry missing a few!)

 

(Sean stopped by at the end just to say hello!)

I had such a great time at the baby shower and felt so blessed and thankful. It's moments like these that are a huge reminder to just how lucky I am to have these close friends in my life. I do not get to see or stay in touch as often as I would like to with everyone with being so far away, but they are always there to support me and for that I am so grateful. I can't wait for everyone to meet our baby girl!

Oh and I had a lot of fun with the fabulous giant confetti filled balloons...

 '

Thank you mommy & Did for a wonderful baby shower and thank you again to everyone who came to celebrate our baby girl!

xoxo Ashley

Blue or Pink...What do you think?!

We had our 20 week ultrasound and it was absolutely amazing to see our baby moving around like crazy in there! His/Her arms were moving around, putting it's fingers in it's mouth and kicking. The ultrasound tech laughed a few times and said he couldn't believe how much the little bugger was moving and was having a hard time taking good pictures! We left the appointment feeling so blessed and even more anxious & excited to find out if we we're having a boy or girl!!

We had our doctor write the gender of baby inside an envelope for us and then we were going to decide exactly what we wanted to do with it! We held on to the envelope for about a month and MAN was it killing me haha! We were hoping to be able to get both of our families together to meet at the cabin and to do a gender reveal party, but unfortunately it was not able to happen. With having our families living so far away and in different countries it sure makes it difficult being able to get everyone together. Either way, we were very excited to share the news with our families!

We headed down to the Murphy family cabin and Sean and I had the first night to ourselves. We had decided that we were going to open the envelope together, just the two of us. After unpacking and getting settled in at the cabin Sean had set up a game of cribbage for us at the kitchen table to play. I sat down and was like "Okay, I can't stop thinking about the envelope. Are we going to open it tonight?!" He then lifted the crib board up and the envelope was sitting under it! We both smiled and got so excited! 

Sean ripped open the first envelope and then I opened the little envelope that was inside...

(I'll never forget how anxious/excited/nervous I felt! We were about to find out if our first baby was a boy or a girl! Is this really happening?!)

IT'S A GIRL!!!!

I believe the words "Oh my God! It's a GIRL!" came out of my mouth while tears filled my eyes! We hugged and just felt so overwhelmed with happiness. It honestly took a few minutes for us to realize we just found out we're having a baby girl haha It was such an amazing feeling and moment to share together. We laughed and said we didn't want to play crib anymore cause we just wouldn't be able to focus! We pulled out Dominos and played that instead haha 

The next morning I was awoken by text messages from my mom and sister saying "WAKE UP! We are ready to Skype!" They knew Sean and I opened the envelope the night before and they were SO excited for us to tell them the news!! We hoped out of bed feeling on cloud 9, made coffee and got the laptop ready to sign onto Skype. I wrote a little sign to hold up to show them with Lilly that said "I'm getting a... SISTER!" 

My mom was shaking she was so anxious for us to tell her and once I said "Okay, Lilly wants to tell you both something..." they both got so intense and froze staring at the screen. Once they read the sign they flew out of their seats with arms thrown into the air yelling "Oh my God!!!" haha it was hilarious. We are adding another girl to the Etchebarren side!! :)

The next night we planned a little way to reveal the gender to the Murphy side at the cabin after dinner.  (I am lacking photos from this night) Sean and I stuffed a box with helium pink balloons and wrapped it with baby wrapping paper.

Everyone wore a party hat either pink or blue for their guess! Lilly was thinking a sister...

We all gathered in the living room for the reveal and it's funny because I started feeling anxious/nervous/excited all over again! Everyone counted 1..2..3..! and Sean & I pulled the strings on the box and the pink balloons floated out! It was so fun with everyone cheering and congratulating us! Now we can shout it from the rooftops!!

We then posted a photo on Facebook to share the news for all our other family members and friends. 

"Lilly has a big announcement to make..."

So now that we know we are having a girl... let the shopping begin!! :)

xoxo Ashley

Lake Louise

This past Christmas we went down to Cranbrook, BC to spend it with my husband's side of the family (we take turns every year spending it with each sides of our family). We were going to fly down, but we decided to drive so we could make a stop through Lake Louise and stay at the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise! We have driven through Lake Louise many times, but we have never stayed to enjoy it. The drive from Fort St John to Cranbrook is about 12.5 hours so it was a great way to break up the drive. Let's just say our stay at Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise was even better than we had imagined! 

Quick stop at Tim Horton's and our road trip begins!

The drive from Northern BC to Lake Louise was so beautiful!

The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is just stunning

Upon arrival we had a cute box of chocolate covered blueberries & a sweet note in our room...

and a dog bed & food dishes for Lilly!

The view from our room was so pretty!

Our view from one of the restaurants while enjoying drinks.

Time to go ice skating!

Recognize this ice castle from The Bachelor by chance?? It was on the season with Sean when him & Catherine had their date in Lake Louise! 

Keeping Lilly warm haha (don't worry he was skating super slow & extra careful)

I was trying to act like I knew what I was doing ;)

We had so much fun!

What?! Well this didn't make me feel safe!! 

Sleigh Rides

They had such a cute ice bar set up near the lake. 

They had a few ice sculptures that were pretty amazing.

Exploring! 

Drank some champagne in the room while getting ready for dinner!

Yummy!

Dinner was AMAZING. Sean and I love Indian food and the chef's at the restaurant we chose for dinner happened to be from India. So of course we had to order the Indian dishes on the menu! Sean had the lamb vindaloo & I had the butter chicken. Delicious!

During dinner we had a "pet sitter" watch Lilly because pets are not allowed to be left in the rooms alone. It was so nice they offered this for a little extra charge & we were able to enjoy ourselves while Lilly had a friend to walk around the hotel and hang with.

Relaxing by a fireplace after dinner... 

and playing with Lilly! 

The Christmas tree in the lobby was so pretty! The whole hotel honestly felt a bit magical with all the Christmas decor & Christmas activities going on.

Walking around the hotel... Lilly was loving it!

Another cute Christmas touch in the lobby... Gingerbread houses!

Everything was amazing about our stay! I feel like it was the ultimate Canadian experience during Christmas time :) I hope to stay there again during the holidays and have my family come stay with us. I know they would love it! Sean and I also agree that we will have to visit again during the summer time. Lake Louise is definitely something to see!

xo Ashley