Today was our chill day. We have a really hectic next four days so we took it easy. I woke up around 6 in the morning, still a little jetlagged and had some more poached eggs. When I first woke up and saw this ring on my finger, I nearly forgot. This is crazy. Absolutely crazy. Is this really my hand?????

Margaret drove us to their shop where they make ‘signs’ for everything from company logos to art that hangs on walls in fancy hotels. It’s all so colourful and three dimensional and it was so awesome to see! Then she took us to White Rock where we walked along the pier and had iced teas on the waterfront, talked about Scottish history and politics and the fact that we’re actually engaged!

Margaret and Wayne’s kids came over today and we caught up with them because I hadn’t seen them for 10 years. Everyone asked about wedding plans and where we would live and my initial reaction is like WHOA THESE ARE PERSONAL QUESTIONS but then I’m like OH WAIT WE’RE ENAGED WE’RE ALLOWED TO TALK ABOUT THESE THINGS WITH OTHER PEOPLE and then my third reaction is WHAT IS LIFE I DO NOT KNOW THE ANSWER TO ANY OF THESE QUESTIONS…

Margaret & Wayne have three beautiful grand daughters (i stupidly didn’t get photos with them) that I pretty much spent the entire afternoon and evening with: playing hide and seek, ‘I spy‘, and other games that they make up on the spot. We got a ton of fresh fruit and sushi in and we picked our way through a huge bowl of cherries, finding the best and grossest ones, passing all the smushed soggy ones on to Ali which the girls found hilarious, as they giggled with cherry juice dripping from their teeth, lips and chins. They were absolutely adorable, confident and friendly.

We were sitting on the swinging chair and they just made conversation about what they found interesting. It was so cute. Natalie asked “Where is your house?” She must have been so confused as to who I am and where I came from.

“Well, my house is very far away. You have to get in a plane and fly all the way over Canada, all the way across the ocean and all the way into another country.”

“How long does that take?”

“A whole day.”

“How long?”

So I explained how long a day is and how much you can do in a day and that during all that time, I’d be sitting in an airplane. And after all that, they point to the neighbours house and go “Is that yours?”

It was so nice to spend time with people who are related to me. Although I barely know these people and haven’t seen them for over a decade, I can sense the strong bond of a family. I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such awesome people.