Wind, Rain, Surf & Sand.

I only planned on writing the blog for the duration of our trip, but we thought that it would be an effective tool for keeping everyone updated on the goings on here.  As I watch my Oilers at 1:00 AM (this is going to take some getting used to), I will try and summarize our first two weeks here.

For the most part, it's been a fairly gloomy couple of weeks.  We've experienced sideways rain on more than one occasion, and the grass that I shouldn't have needed to cut will in fact need to be cut if we get any more rain!  However, there has also been a few beautiful days (both Saturday's) where the sun shines and we have been able to get out and experience a bit of the island.  I haven't made any attempts to venture out golfing or fishing, but our family did head out to PEI National Park near Cavendish early this week and we walked the oceanside boardwalk today in Summerside.  PEI National Park has one of the nicest beaches I've ever been on.  We flipped off our shoes, rolled up our jeans (wearing shorts is a stretch on PEI, and people look at you funny if you do) and made our way onto the sand.  I was the first to dip my toes in the ocean, and Liam wasn't far behind.  Cold, yes it was cold...but you got used to it.  I don't know if I would go swimming there though, I might have a heart attack dipping my whole body in.  The locals seem to know where the good beaches are though, and where the warm water is.

Speaking of locals, we've met a few neighbors and acquaintances/friends of our landlords.  We introduced ourselves to the gentlemen who's going to come and get the two cows that are busily eating the acreage grasses.  He owns an organic farm about 1/2 km down the highway and puts produce in a little hut he built for people to come and buy, completely on the honor system (something you rarely see these days).  We've a farmer named Gerard who owns all the pretty land that surrounds us.  He's dutch by heritage and moved here 23 years ago from Holland.  Gerard hooked us up with another gentlemen, Sam, that supplies seasoned (dried) firewood.  Sam was the first, true islander that we met.  He rounded up the wood that will hopefully keep us warm this winter and keep the propane bills down.

Last Saturday was our first day at the Charlottetown church.  The congregation is quite a bit smaller than we are used to, which will force us to get out of our pew-warming mentality.  In such a small church, everyone has to help out in order for it to run, and we are looking forward to helping to serve the church and community any way we can. In fact, after meeting some wonderful people, I think I might already have become the new web guru for the church and possibly the Maritime conference.  Shan wishes that she was a good piano player, or had no fears of standing up front and singing.  When you have music behind you as a skill, it's easy to be integrated in a church setting because those are jobs that churches like to have and the people like to do.

The kids have had a good couple of weeks since arriving.  You can see that being settled in a home and not living a transient life really does wonders for the behavior of your toddler.  Liam is more relaxed and more "in control" than our trip out here.  Shan and I were both hoping that the trip and extended stay in Medicine Hat wouldn't have any long lasting affects, and it's seems that is the case.  Alaina is always relaxed, but she's begun to teethe and is chomping on everything.  It will be fun to see them both grow up a little in this environment.  You have to remember, we are on an acreage, 10 minutes out of a small town, and 15 or so minutes out of Summerside, a larger small town of 30,000+.  All this after previously living in a city that equals the population of the entire island here, and further back, a larger, bustling city of over a million people.  You can already see the country life creating little memory pathways in their mind.