Post-Ottawa summer shenanigans!

There was pre-Ottawa, there was Ottawa, and now this is post-Ottawa... we managed to soak up another wee summer getaway, folks.

Our friend (and Lowell's former colleague), Kabir, paid us the absolute honour of including us in his son's traditional Bangladeshi wedding. There was one other Caucasian lady in a sea of beautiful Bangladeshi folks, so it was a good thing we had some Indian clothes to blend in as much as humanly possible (which wasn't much- haha)!

Lowell wore his kurta from our friend Zab's wedding. Truth be told, we lost the pants and made a desperate last minute stop at a store that sells such things in Calgary. PHEW. Pantsless husband averted. Thanks to Zab & Ruth for getting married and including Lowell in the wedding party so he had such fancy duds on hand!

The sari I wore was lent to me by my friend, Saara. I neglected to receive a tutorial and felt overly confident that You Tube videos/instructions would help me out no problem. Well, after 30 minutes of Marti and me attempting to have some semblance of success wrapping me in the sari, I realized we were getting nowhere fast and I'd be better off pleading with one of the many Bangladeshi women at the wedding. When we arrived, I sheepishly sauntered into the venue with yards of sari randomly draped about when a very kind bridesmaid came to my rescue. She scurried me upstairs and did me right up nice. She even went so far as to pull bobby pins out of her bridesmaidy hair to secure my outfit. For me. The little white girl who had no clue what she was doing. I assured her, however, that I had some safety pins in the car, so her lovely hair do remained in tact... but how nice was SHE?!

Seriously. How beautiful is this bride?

I loved all the colours. All the women were so vibrant and stunning (but especially the bride of course).

We thoroughly enjoyed being a part of their wedding day, and considered it a privilege to be acquainted with so many wonderful people. The Indian feast didn't hurt either (I loooooove me some butter chicken and naan bread). Thanks so much, Kabir!

This is apparently a very culturally typical couple pose.

While we partied Bangladeshi style, our boys were busy exhausting Uncle Lando & Auntie Marti on what turned out to be their busiest day of the summer (they own and run the Sled Parlor). Haha- oops. Sorry guys. And THANKS!

At Lowell's old stomping grounds, we got some serious family visiting time in.

Like, with Grandma & Grandpa T as well as Great Grandma...

Grandpa teaching his grandsons some essential tool skills.

Lowell used to play with those Tonka toys, and they were lovingly passed along to our boys for much fun sand play!

Big smiles with Great Grandma!

Story time with Grandma!

Grandpa made the boys a toy box! I painted it (a white-ish/vintagey/distressed look), and now it's a perfect fixture in our living room. Remember us when you become a millionaire toy box maker, Grandpa!

I just think it's adorable that the boys have a toy box made by their Grandpa. And also, Auntie Erin gave that giant bear to Fraser when he was born, and it seems to appear in a lot of our photos! Well done, Erin.

 As always, we enjoyed catching up with Uncle Dave, Auntie Lori and their passel of adorable and goofy gals...

Carmen

Charlotte

Remember Evelyn? Who got kicked in the head by a horse and scared the daylights out of all of us? Well, she's fine. She's juuuuuuust fine. xox

Lynelle

 

Carmen and her mom playing an impressively lovely duet!

Before heading home, we enjoyed a slew of other aunties and uncles including Uncle Stephen- one of the admirable men Stefan was named after. Stephen, his wife Tricia, and their three kids live in Zanzibar, so this was the first time that Stephen & Stefan met. And cute it was... they even matched!

Stephen has a son named Ian, and the T family name rests on the shoulders of these three cuties...

Jubilee & Hope are delightfully adorable big sisters!

We had a very idyllic afternoon of playing around Uncle Lando & Auntie Marti's property, and picnicing at their little lake.

Some of the clan even ripped around on jet skis. Fraser was a total poser...

But Auntie Joni? She's the for real deal. She is Stephen's mom (Lowell's for real aunt), and a GRANDMOTHER. Sooo speaking of hot Grandma's...

And thus concludes our summer traveling. We also had tons of fun and project time at home sweet home this summer, but that's 10 other posts for sometime in the next 10 years!

Now to embrace leaves, boots, sweaters, scarves, and most importantly... the pumpkin spice latte.