Well, it's been ages since my last update!

We arrived at the Higgs on the night of Friday the 6th (almost two weeks ago!) and settled in. It was such a relief to finally arrive and have the travel behind us!

We had a relaxing start to the day, a leisurely breakfast and chatted with Uncle Geoff and Aunty Cindy before we headed off for a catch up with Jonathan's family. Everyone was delighted to meet the kids, and Mary and Hannah especially loved chatting to Silas and listening to his accent (surprise ;])! All the kids made themselves right at home with everyone, like they have done at most places here ;)

Saturday night we had dinner at the Higgs', Mark and Kayla and kids were there when we got back, and the boys all ran around. Jacob, their youngest, is one, and squeals like Zeke, and so many times we were telling him to quiet, only to realise it was Jacob...! So it was noisy! Kayla also brought across with her a huge back of snowsuits, boots and gloves for the boys to wear, which was super helpful. Mark and Kayla live in Vernon, which is in on the mainland about 5 hours from Vancouver. It was really good of them to come over to see us, and Silas and Shane really hit it off.

Sunday we went to Sunday school and the meeting. Sunday school starts with a hymn and prayer with everyone down the front of the hall closer to the piano. After the prayer, everyone goes back to their seats and there is a reading, followed by short discussion lead by the superintendent. After this everyone goes to their classes. It is really nice, and everybody goes to Sunday school, young and old. There are three adult Sunday school classes at Victoria meeting, which means there are many more adults than kids - less than 30 kids, some of whom aren't from Christadelphian families. It also means they have really good adult Sunday school classes, and I got to sit in on Revelation with U. Harold Causten, A. Cindy's dad. Sunday school finishes back in the hall, much like in Australia.

Uncle Mack MacPherson did the exhort, who is Aunty Sandra McStravick's dad, some of you may remember him. It was a great exhort, covering some principles for living crossing over from James back to Leviticus. We got to see lots more people we knew, including Jonathan's (great) Aunty Joan who is now in her 90s. Jonathan also didn't recognise a tall blonde teenager who came and said hi, he said to him he knew he should know who he was, but what was his name again? And he said "Josh McStravick" which gave Jonathan quite a shock and the McStravicks lots of amusement ;)

We went out for lunch to Quiznos (a fancier/warm food kind of version of Subway) with Hannah, Mary and Justin, Mary's boyfriend. Then we headed back for the boys to have naps before lecture.

Monday to Wednesday we just hung around Victoria, doing bits and pieces and catching up with people. We went to Shane's birthday on Monday night at the Bennetts' with all the Higgs co. Tuesday night we went out for tea (to a real restaurant, not fast food ;]) with Peter and Hannah Lawrence, while Hannah babysat for us! (Big treat!) Peter and Hannah came for our wedding and Peter was the photographer, if you remember them. We had dinner down in the city, looking out over the Victoria Harbour which is very pretty and lots of lights with the Parliament buildings etc.

Wednesday night we went to the McStravicks for dinner and readings. Mark and Kayla were invited and came too, seeing as they don't make it to Victoria too often. It was really nice to have a catch-up and Aunty Sandra made dessert in Australian quantities ;) Uncle Mike said in Australia he would always forget about dessert and eat too much dinner, and be annoyed that he forgot when dessert came out! We ate some of the McStravicks chicken - they feed about 100 at a time for eating. Josh and Ethan were really good with Silas and did all kinds of fun things with Silas.

Thursday we packed up and headed up to Courtenay, where David and Kessia now live, as well as Matt and Bek Enns. This is right at the base of Mount Washington, where there is usually excellent snowfall, and we planned to get in some snowboarding. Much to Jonathan's dismay, the mountain wasn't even open...not enough snow yet!

Courtenay/Comox Valley was about a 2-3 hour drive, for us probably well over three! Dave works ~10am-10pm so we had dinner with Kess and Tycen when we got there. We got the kids to bed and of course stayed up chatting....

More to come!