Fire and Ice (Jonathan Toews)

Broken

Cassidy

After making it through the National championship in California I made it to the finals. The Blackhawks barley made it to the post season then ended up taking the presidents trophy winning Canucks on a ride to a game seven where the boys eventually lost. And as much as that sucks it kinda worked out for us. It gave us a few days to spend in Moscow, Russia before I skated in the world championships.

So we got to take our baby out and around to some cool new places. We even got her a hat and she looked so freaking cute with those deep brown eyes.

Eventually it came down to the fact that I was there for a reason and the day of the competition comes up quickly. While I loved our time there as a little family vacation, I still had a job to do and I wouldn't wait to do it.

World competitions are my favorite because it's a cultural melting pot. Not everyone spoke english but most of them did. And the ones who didn't still was able to communicate making for some interesting conversations.

I get to the rink early the morning of the competition and walk around so I can familiarize myself. I find where my family will be sitting to watch the competition so I'll know where to look. Most of it was in Russian so I picked out what I could figure out.

"Do you need help finding something" a lady with a heavy Russian accent asks. I turn around and see a girl I was very familiar with. I've been competing with and against here for almost ten years now and she is one of my closest competitors.

"Natalia" I smile opening my arms.

"Cass" she squeals as I wrap my arms around her.

"I'm so happy you're here" I admit.

"Same to you. I wasn't sure if you were going to come back this quickly. I thought maybe I finally had a chance to win his thing" she laughs as she pats my back.

"I missed you too" I joke and she laughs.

"How are you enjoying your time here" she asks.

"I love it. You know, I always loved traveling and I don't think there's any place prettier than Russia" I admit.

"If you want I would love to give you a tour of Moscow. Is your family here too" she wonders.

"My fiancé and baby are but they're asleep in the hotel. I can't say I don't blame them this jet lag is a pain in my ass" I chuckle.

"Well if you guys are up for it I know a great place to get dinner" she insists.

"I'll have to ask Jon but I'm sure we will join you" I assure her.

"Perfect" she nods.

I go back and decide to stretch out and warm up. I listen to my playlist of emotional songs to get my emotions going high. It helps me connect to the songs I use and get everyone to connect it to. When I'm feeling it is when everyone else does and only then is my performance doing what it's supposed to do.

I do my usual pre-comp ritual as I go through the routine while singing the song and Denise watches over me. It was a eerily calm day in the warm up room. No one said much but I didn't mind, I wasn't one to walk around the room hyping people up anyway.

I was the last person to go today so I was the last one in the room. I pull my locket necklace out of my outfit and smile. I put my ring on there since it was hard for me to perform with it on so it rested next to my locket. I open it up and see that picture of Jon and I under the oak tree back in Minnesota. And on the other side was a new picture of us at Christmas. It was the first picture we took, before he purposed, but I know what comes next and that's what made me smile extra big.