The Journey Begins...sort of.

Well, this is the first post of our new site. This blog was inspired by the fact that we realize how much we miss some of our dear friends and family and how desperately we need to stay in touch. So here we are.

Our journey, for those of you who've been on hiatus or unable to get ahold of us, has taken us to the great white land of Hinton, Alberta (although the Chinooks took care of the snow for most of last winter). We're a fifteen minute drive from being deep into the Rockies, which makes for some beautiful mid-afternoon drives. I (Shaun) am working at Hinton Alliance Church and Michelle is at home taking care of the wee one, Kaelyn. And, as of a week ago, Kaelyn is mobile and able to walk across a room and find joy in just about everything. So here we are! We're comfortably settled into this community, I'm coaching volleyball with a great bunch of kids over at the school, and Michelle is loving getting to know some of the population of our city. It seems odd to fill in every detail in one day, so perhaps I'll cut it off for now. I don't want to give away too many Smith family secrets...

At this point in time, we're looking to head to Prayer Retreat in Banff for the next few days. So Grandma and Grandpa Smith are here, "forced" to look after their granddaughter while Momma and Poppa go and relax in Banff. Four days without dog or baby! I give us until day two until the desire to come home will overwhelm us. Either that, or we'll skip the country and invite everyone to a white-sand beach in Dominican Republic...hmmm. But, as for tomorrow, we're heading through Jasper National Park (located 20 minutes away), then onto Banff National Park, then through the Columbia Icefields and then we finally get there! Tomorrow we're heading out as a staff (and family) of HAC to go climb one mountain before continuing our journey. Then it's four days of Banff Park Lodge and hanging with old friends. So this should be a great week; we're looking forward to it!

So that's it for now! We're looking forward to hearing from all of you (even you Rowaans over in Afreeeka)!