It's been awhile...

Well it's been awhile since my last post, I thought it might be time to update you all again. As you might of guessed I am finally home and have been for about 3.5 weeks now. Back into the routine again and it didn't take long which is always kind of disappointing after such an amazing trip, but nice to have the comforts of home back.

Since I've been back I got to visit with Dan's mum and aunt for a couple of days before they flew back home. They were here for about 3 weeks in total, touring around B.C. together with Dan as their chauffeur/tour guide. On May 28th Dan and I got to attend Danielle and Dave's beautiful little wedding. The bride was gorgeous and the groom was handsome and I just want to say congratulations to both of you!! So happy for you two!!

Dan and I are still waiting to hear back about our migration visa. It could take up to October until we hear anything about it which is really annoying because we're both so anxious to get it approved!! So cross your fingers for as. We're still planning and organizing to leave around October. So many things to do to move to another continent, who knew?! So we'll be plugging away at that to do list all summer long.

Other than all of that, not a whole lot else. No real plans for the rest of the summer yet, but I'm sure we'll manage to fit in some camping trips and some other trips as well. I think we'll be lying low for the most part at least until we start to really get ready for our big move. Hope life's treating you all well!

The local bear from Mt. Washington, we saw him two days after I got home from England

The Groom and his Groomsmen

The Bride and her Bridesmaids

Dan and I

Quick Update...

Well a lot has happened over the last couple of weeks including 2 full days in London a day there and a day back. We saw Big Ben, toured Tower Hill, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, London Tombs, went on the London Eye, Millennium Bridge, to Trafalgor Square, Buckingham Palace, walked through St. James's Park, shopped in Covent Garden, lots of street entertainers. So you could say it was a very full couple of days! It was good fun and great to see all the sites. There's so much more we wanted to do but not enough time! And we were lucky to have some decent weather!

I was supposed to go to Brighton this week to stay with one of my Aunts, but plans fell through so it will be a quiet few days for me which I'm well in need of anyway! Just had a busy weekend seeing more sites including Salisbury and Salisbury Catherdral, Lloworth Cove and two fairs which were good fun! This coming Friday us girls will be enjoying a spa day together and we are all looking forward to it as it's well needed! Then some more sites over the weekend and then back home next week! Crazy! I can't believe that it's already been a month and that I will be back home next week!! So happy to have been able to spend this time with my family but I cannot wait to see my man!!! Here are some photos of London, have tonz more but only have patience to put a few on the blog. Enjoy :)

London Eye

Top of London Eye

Tower Hill and Tower Bridge

Big Ben

Trafalgor Square

Buckingham Palace

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral

Lloworth Cove

England so far...

Well let's see, I've been in England for a total of 18 days now. We have been lucky enough to have been enjoying the warmth of the sun for a total of 17 days :) (knock on wood) The first couple of weeks of our trip were very hard and seemed very long. It was on Easter Sunday (two and half days after we arrived) that my Grandad passed away and on Thursday April 15th my family and I attended my Grandad's funeral. I feel so lucky and honored to have been able to have at least a couple days time with him and able to say my goodbyes.

We have since been doing a little traveling around the area and soaking up the sunshine as much as possible. There are so many nook and crannies around here with pubs, cottages and cafes to have lunch in, which we have been taking full advantage of almost everyday :) We have enjoyed Wimborne Minster (a super old church and absolutely beautiful) as well as Wimborne town itself. We have also enjoyed quite a few scenic drives around the country side, wandering around Blandford town, shopping in Pool, some beautiful walks and yesterday my favorite so far New Forest. In New Forest there are wild horses, ponies, cows, pigs and donkeys ALL over the place. It is amazing how many are around and so funny to watch people shoo them out of their yards and lock their gates up because they've been eating their plants. Then they just stand outside the gate looking in, wanting those plants to eat. So funny! We also nearly got plowed in the car by an angry cow who seemed quite p.o'd about something. It was funny, but we did not want to be in his way :P A horse also tried to take a nip out of me when I was being oh so nice to him. haha. It was an interesting day filled with lunch, animals, family, ice cream, a beautiful walk and a scenic drive.

Other then all of that I have just been enjoying the company of my family:) We have had lots of great laughs together and heaps of good memories already made. Our plans for the next couple of weeks include, Salisbury, Salisbury market, London, The Swanery, Brighton and few others which I'm not totally sure on what they are yet. Here's a few photos for you all, hope you enjoy.

Wimborne Minster

Inside Wimborne Minster

Wild New Forest cow.

Aunty Elaine petting Eeyore's brother :) So cute!

He's just about to try and take a nip at me. Grrrr.

My silly family :D

To My Grandad

In Loving Memory of

Peter Oliver Houpt

March 05 1933 ~ April 04 2010

Forever In My Heart

England so far...

So I've now been in England for a total of 11 days, although you could say it feels like I've been here a lot longer than that. The holiday so far has not been one that a person would think of as a holiday but I have to say that I have enjoyed spending time with my lovely and crazy, funny family. I'd forgotten how enjoyable and comforting it is to have family surrounding you. So far we have not done much 'touristy' things, that will all be starting as of next week, but here are a few photos of our events so far. Include some soppy, cute dogs and my Aunty Elaine's birthday. Hope you enjoy :)

Mum, Aunty Jo, Me, Nana and Aunty Elaine. All the girls :)

How could you say no to that face?! :P

An this one?! :P

Busy busy again...

So I'm sitting here with 7 days to go until I'm on a flight to England. Originally I was supposed to leave at the beginning of May, but situations change and now I'm heading out next week. Super excited to see my family and catch up, also to get out of the country and travel!! Not so excited because now Dan probably will not be able to go which we are both really bummed out about! 6 weeks away, gonna miss my man! :( Not to mention he broke his collar bone a couple of days ago at work! Oops and Oww!

Last weekend was Dan's 32nd Birthday, I just wanted to wish you a BELATED HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABE! :D We ended up celebrating the day before as I was heading down to Victoria on his birthday for Danielle's bachelorette. We started out with a yummy brunch at the Kingfisher, a chill day together and then dinner and drinks at Backstreet with a bunch of friends. Another exciting year finished and many more to come together! :)

Danielle's bachelorette was very eventful! Let's just say it included stripercise, appies, alcohol, make-up, accessories, pub, alcohol, jacuzzi and more alcohol. Here's a few censored photos to give you an idea of what went down. :)

It started with a blindfold.

Danielle demonstrating her pole talents. She was real good ;)

Pretty make-up for Danielle :)

Hawt! ;) The Bridal Party got some sexy make-up done, I think Danielle loved it :P

P.S. They gave me a butt chin! How rude :(

Meow.

We got to attack her with the make-up, she was so impressed! I think this was the best photo :)

This is what we looked like for the pub. I think we're a catch ;)

There's plenty of more embarrassing photos but too many to post unfortunately. We all had tonz of fun and lots of laughs. Thanks for an awesome weekend girls! :D

Had a wicked weekend with Britt! Included skiing, drinking, visiting, hydropathing, eating out and tonz of laughs! Here's a few photos from our weekend, gives a you bit of insight to what it was like :P

Say cheese.

Haha! Nice Britt :P

Ummm...

Nice dance moves!

Haha, I'm not sure what we were doing here, trying to dance I think.

Good fun! :)

Big Date Countdown;

47 days until Snow to Surf!

50 days until Dan's mum and aunt arrive!

56 days until we leave for England!

80 days until Danielle & Dave's Wedding!

Days until big move to Australia, still unknown!

Winter Wonderland...

Here's a few more photo's from our beautiful Mount Washington, it's a winter wonderland! And so much fun!

It's a hard view to look at ;) Sure gonna miss it!

That's me! :D

Me again :)

Going to hit up the Ozone this Friday! Should be fun!:)

Big Date Count Down;

3 days until Britt arrives!

55 days until Dan participates in Snow to Surf!

68 days until Dan's mum and aunt arrive!

74 days until we leave for England!

102 days until Danielle & Dave's Wedding!

Days until big move to Australia, unkown.

Quick Update...

So it's been a little while since my last post. It's been a pretty busy month! Of course Dan and I are still dealing with this visa migration application. But we're nearly finished and the most stressful part of it is over!:D Which feels good. We both have very busy few months over the next little while, so we're hoping to get this application done and outta here by the middle of March! Hurry up Canada Post!

So Dan and I just enjoyed a nice 'mini holiday' this weekend. We both went up the mount and it was a beautiful 'blue bird' day up there and nice powder! Wicked! Then we spent the night at the Kingfisher Resort and enjoyed going through the Pacific Mist Hydropath together and a yummy breaky the next morning. The following day we decided to go to Nanaimo to look for some shoes for the wedding we're going to in May, but we ended up coming home with a little more than one pair of shoes:S Hehe...oops.

Before the weekend I decided it was time for a change. Dan's been bugging me to become a brunette for quite awhile now and I thought it would be fun to surprise him. It was a shock for me for a little while until I got used to it. I actually scared myself walking into the bathroom the first day and saw myself in the mirror, then I remembered that it was me I was looking at.:P It's day 4 with the new hairdoo now and I think I'm getting used to it. Dan was very surprised when I walked in the door the first day, he seems to love it:) Yay. So I guess I'll rock with the brunettes for awhile until it's time to have fun with the blondes again;) Here's a pic below that I just took, not the best lighting/photo, but it'll do for now until I get some more.

Anywho, time to crash on the couch and veg for a little while. Until next time...

Busy busy...

Hi everyone,

So I thought I'd write a quick blog to update those of you that don't know what's going on in my life at the moment. As you may know I am planning to move to Australia in the fall this year with Dan, but who knew it could be so complicated!?

I was planning to get another Working Holiday Visa on my UK passport as I've already had one on my Canadian passport and I thought that was ok, turns out you're only allowed one per person to Australia, not one per passport. So that puts a jammer in things.

So our next option is to apply for Partner Migration Visa, which means Dan as my 'common law' or 'defacto' will be sponsoring me to live in the country temporarily (2 years) and than after that be reassessed by the government and hopefully get permanent residency. The application process is very confusing & expensive, but hopefully in the end it will all work out! It all stresses me out, but what stresses me out the most is if it doesn't get approved??!! What next?! Well apparently if it doesn't get approved it can get reviewed again and maybe then it will get put through. I guess one step at a time is the way to go and deal with things as they come along. Or as Dan's arm says 'GoWithTheFlow'. Wish us luck!

So that is the most exciting thing going on at the present moment. A few weeks back my mum, Dan & I all booked our plain tickets to England! Yay! Looking forward to seeing you all (Nana, Grandad, Elaine, Julian, Jo, Anita(& baby:)) in May!xx We (mum & I) will be there for a month leaving at the very beginning of May and Dan for 10 days joining us mid-May. Then Dan and I jump on a flight home at the end of May, and then race to Victoria the following day for Danielle & Dave's exciting wedding(which I'm a bridesmaid in:)! Also Dan's mum and aunt are coming out here at the end of April from Australia for a visit, first time seeing Canada for his mum(Susie) and second time for his aunt(Barbara). Exciting!!! Looking forward to seeing you both!xx

Also looking forward to seeing you Britt in March!!xx A good friend who will be coming out from Toronto for a nice little visit :) It'll be fun! :D

Let's see, so much going on. I don't think I've missed anything. Hopefully a trip to Kelowna is in the calendar this summer to visit the Purdy clan, will work hard to make that happen!!

Well, I can't seem to think of anything else at the moment, mind you it is the end of the day and my brain is tired. If I've missed anything I'll be sure to add it later. I hope life is treating you all well. Feel free to drop me an email and update me on your life when you have a chance or a phone call or a good ol' fashioned snail mail :) Chow for now

Brenna xxx