Ruth's mom and dad came to Canada from England in 1957, but Ruth and her siblings were born in Canada. So all of their aunts and uncles and cousins were across the pond in England, and they only saw them once every five years or so while growing up. Ruth and her cousin Helen were about the same age, so they formed a bond over the years.
When Ruth and I first met in March of 1983, she already had a trip planned to visit England on her own in September of that year.
It wasn't long after we met that I had a ticket as well! So that was our first international trip together.
Ruth at Trafalgar Square, London in 1983.
Helen and her husband Tony were already married and had a young daughter during that visit.
During our working lives, we didn't make it to England very often. But Helen and Tony came to Canada several times over the years and we still managed to make it to England and saw Ruth's other relatives as well.
Tony, Helen, Kevin, and Ruth outside my parents house in Ottawa, September 1985.
Of course over the years the aunts and uncles have mostly passed on. Ruth has one aunt remaining who lives in London and we'll be seeing her next month after we pick up grandson Cameron at Heathrow airport.
But, there are still lots of cousins and their children, and now of course their children's partners.
So yesterday, Helen invited all of the local family over for a lunchtime get together.
From left, Helen's sister in law Lindsey, Helen's niece Emma, Helen and Tony's daughter Kelly, their son Stu, his fiancé Harriet, Kelly's boyfriend Wayne, Emma's husband Steve, Helen's brother Clive.
12 of us for lunch, with Tony doing the grilling.
Mmmm.
Ruth made her famous gluten free chocolate cherry cupcakes.
And Helen made toffee pavlova.
Yummy. Lots of laughs with this crowd, and it was fun getting caught up with everyone.
Today, we've got some more visitors coming through. Regular readers will remember David and Mirsie who we met in Kosovo last October, and then again in Albania later that month. They are coming through this area and heading north after having been in Spain so they're going to stop in and say hi for a night.
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Samsonite Hard Sided Carry On. Great deal.
And in Canada...
What fun seeing everyone, and the food looked to die for, especially both desserts. YUM!
ReplyDeleteIt was fun to have everyone together, well almost everyone. We were still missing three people, one grandson of my cousin and one daughter and her soon to be husband of my cousin, Clive. We had lots of laughs and caught up on all the family's happenings.
DeleteThe food was delicious, we haven't had a BBQ for ages, other that the steaks that we had bought for the first night that we arrived here so it was nice to have a hamburger for a change.
Those were some cool vintage pics! Fun to see family.
ReplyDeleteLol, old but not vintage! :-P
DeleteYes, it was very nice to see more of my family here in England.