A Sweet Surprise, Vine App, and Bad Weather

I feel like this blog post could be three separate blog posts, but they really should go together. So, I'll be as brief as I can!

Today my husband and I took a vacation day from work, and we planned on going to Ottawa to do a bunch of fun things. But, a messy snowstorm hit our area and we had to turn around about 10 minutes into our trip. Boo.

One of the things we were going to do was surprise someone - who I've never met in real life - at her work to say thank you for something she did for me.

Here's a little back story...

It all begins with a really cool girl named Laura Kidd:

Isn't she gorgeous? Like, look at those eyebrows.

I've only met Laura through Twitter and blogging and Instagram and so on. She's a Communications Assistant with The Royal, and she's blogs at The Fashion Kidd.

A few weeks ago, she asked me if I would mind if she nominated me for The Royal's 10th Annual Inspiration Awards. I was all like, "Whaaaaat!? Me?", and I just couldn't believe it. It made my life. It meant so much to me that someone I had never met in real life wanted to take the time to nominate little old me for such a cool award.

So, of course, I said, "Yes!"

Last week, Laura told me that unfortunately I hadn't been chosen for this year's award. But, I was very cool with it! I had read about last year's award winners, and I hadn't done nearly what they had in terms of mental health awareness and action. I really would have been shocked if I had been chosen. I was just so grateful to have had the opportunity to be associated with something so cool.

The whole experience made me realize that I obviously had to do something for Laura to say thanks! Obviously! But, what? Well, instead of just mailing her a gift, I decided to go surprise her in real life!

So, my hubs and I planned on going to Ottawa today to bring Laura some flowers and a thank you card. He was going to take a photo of us for this blog. It was going to be awesome. We also planned on visiting the Partners for Mental Health office - another place I had never seen in real life! Oh, and we had to make a stop at IKEA.

These were the flowers I was going to give her. Yes, WAS.

We bought the flowers and headed on our way. And, then about 10 minutes into the drive, our car fishtailed on the highway. Luckily, it was very slight, but it was enough for us to realize that we couldn't go any further.

BOO!

The roads were gross.

Unfortunately, today just didn't go the way we had planned. But, that's okay! Thanks to Instagram and Vine (hello, have you tried that yet? So cool.) I was able to photograph and videotape a bit of our trek and her flowers.

Since Vine is so new and you can't embed videos into blogs, here are the two videos I took: One and Two.

Thank you Laura for taking the time to nominate me for something so amazing. It means the world. And I'm just super grateful to have met a new friend... one that I can hopefully meet FOR REAL some day soon!