Katy meets Banff relatives!

We just had a wonderful visit with my Aunt Gwenda and my 14-yr old cousin, Natalie. They live in beautiful Banff, Alberta, and I had not seen them in almost 6 years. Labour Day weekend of 2001, Benji and I were able to meet up with them for just a few hours. It was their only chance to have met Benji, and at that point we were engaged and went to Canada so that I could wedding dress shop with my mom. How time flies!

So it was wonderful to have an extended visit with them after all these years. They arrived the evening of Monday, April 2nd, and returned home on Tuesday April 10th. It was their first chance to get to know Benji and, of course, Katy! I was attending Queens University in Kingston, Ontario in '93 to '97, when Natalie was 0-4 yrs old. So it was nice to get to see her know and hang out with her as a very pretty, very hip teenager (when we could drag her away from chatting with her boyfriend on IM!).

We were able to do a few daytrips... one to Santa Cruz & Capitola, and another to San Francisco. Katy loved her new-found relatives... she always had tons of smiles and squeals each morning when she got up from her nap and realized Gwenda and Natalie were still at our house. Benji and I were even given a night to go out to the first night baseball game of the SF Giants season, leaving Katy in their very capable hands. She once again REFUSED to take a bottle, but thankfully still went to sleep. Stubborn child!

Here are some pics from their time with us. We appreciate you both taking the time and expense to come all the way down here and visit us! Hope you enjoyed your stay here. I know Katy will miss you! I'm so glad you were able to meet her. Hopefully it won't be another 6 years until we can see each other again.

Gwenda and Katy at the park in Los Gatos

Natalie & Katy (Katy LOVED reaching over to give Natalie big wet kisses!)

The 3 of us on the Capitola boardwalk

Katy desparately wanting our smoothies

Benji and Natalie by Pier 39 in San Francisco on Easter Day