Well! to end out my study abroad program, I spent four lovely days in Italy before returning for a few days to London. We ate gelato at least twice a day, we ate pasta that was lit on fire inside of a cheese-wheel and hiked in the Italian Alps, and it was amazing. The people were so kind and the food was amazing and the sights were even more lovely! See pictures below:
Downtown Desenzano
Our Cheese-wheel pasta
Venice
Juliet's Balcony in Verona
A cool bridge by an old castle, and my main ladies!
More Castles...
The Italian Alps a.k.a breathtaking
Random mannequin we found in the woods...
Milan and the Duomo
Sirmione Castle and other fun adventures
So Italy? AMAZING. Recommend it for ALL! Then London came to an end, and it was time for...a visit to India! My Aunt Heather and Uncle Ty are living there on business and since I was already part-way around the world we decided it would be a convenient time for me to go and visit! We did a so much it would take me a lifetime to explain all of my adventures but it should be known that my Aunt Heather is basically a saint. She does SO much Charity work there and it was a blast to meet all of the people she serves there. We also took part in a humanitarian project with a group called Days for Girls. I recommend you all go and check them out if you want more details, but essentially the group does work with providing feminine care products and human growth and development knowledge to women in villages where these kinds of things are unavailable. They seriously change lives and it was such an honor to be apart of a trip out to the villages to distribute these kits and educate some girls and women. Pictures below!
Henna..a must!
Doing Laundry
India Gate...a tourist must?
Indians spelling American names :D
All the Migrant school children my Aunt works with
Our heaven
The view from their apartment in Mumbai
Hiking in the caves that have existed since 100 B.C
More Indian Spelling
Bingo with the old folks :D
Things you only see in India
Some of the girls and women from out trip to the villages
Sightseeing and eating our favorite food (dough balls)
Whew. Still with me? Things are about move at a crazy speed, so hold on to your seat! So after this amazing trip I made my way home. If I learned anything while abroad it would be these three things:
1. The more I travel, the more I realize how big and how wonderful the world it, and I add about 500 more things to my bucket list.
2. While there are people from many different walks of life in this world, and we may seem wildly different, we are really at our core quite similar.
3. Traveling is what has enabled me to develop a more compassionate and open-minded outlook on the world. I feel that everyone should feel obligated to make some sort of effort to experience this feeling.
Okay. So I come home, and decide I want a dog...so I adopt a dog. The dog is NOT adjusting well to the little condo I purchased before leaving and is super unhappy. Dog goes back home, and my co-worker brings home a litter of homeless kittens and there is only one left without a home....cat comes home with me. What's his name? Nox. Yes, like the spell in Harry Potter to turn out the lights. Why? Because he's midnight grey, adorable, and my spirit animal.
OHHHH yeah. He's a cutie. A terrorist...but a cutie. So it was just me and him for a little bit...well like...a few days. Then, enter this guy:
Trent and I grew-up in the same hometown. We're a few years apart so we ran in different crowds. I got baptized while he was on his mission so I knew basically his whole family, but not him. We did however know OF each other. So Trent comes back from his mission, I move off to college and then go on my mission. Meanwhile Trent was married and had a beautiful little girl and had later gotten divorced. Having taken some time to heal and move forward, Trent was moving back into the dating world have having a rough time. I was going on 22 and in my second decade of trouble with boys and dating. His sister Brielle and her husband John have the brilliant idea for Trent and I to go on a date. Trent was getting his daughter Harley in Bountiful for visits every other weekend and I lived in bountiful, and for some unknown reason made out to be super cool and fun, obviously it was meant to be! One problem...I was on another continent (unbeknownst to Trent) and none of his sisters had any contact info for me (American or otherwise). Trent figured that was the end of that and tried to let it go. He keeps getting bugged with this thought that he has to get to know me. This persists for over a month until he realizes he is facebook friends with one of my best friends. He sends her a facebook message explaining that he was divorced, had a kid, wanted to take me on a date, and that I should have all of this information before deciding if I would go on said date. So Amy calls me all excited and saying I should go on this date with Trent, and anti-boy pro-cat lady me just decided to go with it and say yes. So he comes a weekend later and picks me up and takes me to sushi. Automatic keeper right? We hit it off the second he came through the door. We spent the next three days straight together and it was apparent I was in trouble because I just went head over heels for Trent. It didn't take us long to figure out we wanted to be together forever. This is where things get complicated. Several things were kind of working against us at this point...Trent was up at BYU Idaho finishing school so we were seeing each other only on the weekends and skyping a few hours a night on the week days. Trent was supposed to finish school in April, meaning we would either have to wait until May to get married, or get married and be long-distance for awhile. Harley also lives in St.George (we meet halfway to pick her up) so it was hard for Trent to be so far away from her and to be driving so far every other weekend and for me to be driving to Rexburg every other weekend. Also since Trent was married in the temple previously we would have had to obtain a clearance to be sealed which could take an indefinite amount of time. So we knew two things: 1) We were going to get married 2) It was going to be complicated no matter what we did. We counseled with church leaders and we evaluated our circumstances and it became apparent that our original plan to get married in December and have a long distance marriage until May was NOT what was intended to happen. So, in one fell swoop we pulled Trent out of school, moved him to Utah, Eloped, and were married. While a rather bold and crazy way to solve our complicated situation there have been several things that have proven we made the right choice. First, Trent found an amazing job in his field that pays well and offers benefits a week after moving to Utah. Second, his work at BYU Idaho will transfer almost flawlessly to Weber University. Third, we no longer are long-distance and driving 3-4 hours a week to see each other and are happily married and loving every minute of it. To include our friends and family in this crazy time of life we chose to still do a reception in December (as originally planned) and also an Open House in Washington as well. We've received a crazy amount of support and love throughout this whole time and we have just been so grateful for our family and friends! Now. You've read a LOT of information. So enjoy some pictures from this whole crazy time and make sure to add extra "awhhhh's" for our adorable Miss Harley:
Buddies
Oh also. For my birthday, Trent bought me this little guy. We named him Lumos (yes, the spell to turn ON the lights in Harry Potter...because he's white).
Start the "awwwh's"
Princess Harley loves her new space in our home. Particularly her fish "Sushi"
Now Trent's proposal was something else. We were at the Bear and Wolf discovery center near Yellowstone. We attended a show about birds in which a little tiny adorable owl named Acadia came and "delivered" my Hogwarts acceptance letter and book list. Trent was carrying one of my books in his back pack, which was the sixth Harry Potter. In which, their is a chapter titled "The Unbreakable Vow". The book had been drilled to this chapter where there was a ribbon with my ring tied to it. Then he got down on one knee and asked me to be his eternal companion <3
Then, a week later, we got married! We don't mess around.
Then come Happily Ever After! Beautiful baby girl, Handsome Hubby, and two growing boys.
Last but certainly not least, is our last adventure. We recently had the opportunity to take Baby Harley back to Washington for Thanksgiving. Since our parent live about 20-25 minutes from each other we got to see both families and Harley got to see Grandma and Nana's for the first time! We had such a blast and can't wait to go back for Christmas!
Harley LOVES the trees and LOVES collecting leaves!
She also LOVES Grandma and Grandpa's! Grandma got her some comfy new pj's and minnie mouse dishes and she just HAD to share and get Grandpa's approval!
Nana and Pappa's was the coolest too! But not life-jackets.
Well! That's everything for now! Thanks for staying tuned so long! This life is a crazy one, but it sure is wonderful! More Richards family updates to come!
Much love,
Kendra
