Paint the town

Artists abound!

Well, it's happened already. I've officially fallen in love with Annapolis Royal. This weekend the town hosted their annual 'Paint the Town' event where 70 artists are invited to spend the weekend capturing the local scenery.  Cale and I spent our Saturday wandering the streets of town, and around every corner we'd see someone painting something wonderful - the shoreline, boats on the wharf, the bustling farmer's market, downtown storefronts, the fort, crows sitting on a telephone wire - it was amazing to see these incredible works coming to life before your eyes. But the real fun happened this evening. Every piece created today was brought to the 'Paint the Town gallery' where it was displayed and put up for sale in a silent auction. Better yet, the gallery was in the Legion which just so happens to be in our backyard. So, Cale and I set out to see if we could purchase something special.

 The opening bid prices were amazing, but with so many tourists in town for the event, we quickly started to realize that our top picks were likely not going to be coming home with us. Caleb was not impressed. He was determined to take home every single piece in the gallery. I took him outside for a quick 'team meeting' to run through again how silent auctions work and to talk about our budget (which I set at $20, since all the fun is happening again tomorrow when Alan will be home and we can decide together which pieces we might want to buy). As the final minutes wound down, we watched all of our pieces go to other bidders. All except one. We kept a very close eye on what was Caleb's number one choice from early on in the day. And I'm happy to announce that tonight we are the proud owners of 'Fundy the Snail'. It's not quite what I had imagined walking away with, but it came in under our budget and Caleb couldn't be happier. He was walking around the place like a king at the end of the night, smiling at other people's purchases, but you could see on his face that he knew we had won the grand prize. And tomorrow we get to do it all over again!

Our snail.  Caleb first named her Suzy, but since we already have a Suzy the caterpillar and a Suzy the snake at home, I was glad to be able to convince him to try a different name this time around! Fundy it is. 

We thought we should do our own painting of the town this afternoon. Caleb really wanted to bring his piece to the gallery, but in the end we decided someone might outbid us so it would be best to put it on the fridge right away.

Whirlwind

That's what our lives have been over the past month. A complete whirlwind! Packing, moving, unpacking, finishing up my job, starting a new job, finishing up daycare, starting a new daycare....but now, here we are, one week into our new lives. And so far, so good. I've definitely had my moments of wondering if this whole upheaval is going to be worth it, but I must say, I'm pleasantly surprised with how things are turning out.

Exploring Fort Royal, overlooking the Annapolis Basin

Annapolis Royal is beautiful. It is a picture perfect town, with a tiny (but thriving) downtown, incredibly friendly people (there are only 500 of them, but they have all chosen to live here for a reason), and it is located right on the amazing Bay of Fundy, one of my absolute favourite places in the world.  We've rented an old heritage home downtown and we are starting to settle in. Being in a 'city' is very different  for us. For the first time in years we can walk everywhere. Literally! To the playground, grocery stores, pub, post office, restaurants, farmer's market, daycare...And, I can carpool to work. Alan happens to be away right now and I don't need a car while he is gone. It feels truly amazing.

My 'First Day of Work' Party. Mom and Colleen came to visit and help us get settled (and celebrate!)

Caleb hasn't missed a beat. He is so amazingly adaptable, he had no qualms about saying goodbye to his friends at daycare, packing up his toys and leaving the house we promised him he'd stay in for years. He was up for the adventure and he is embracing it every step of the way. He loves his new town, loves his new school, loves making trips to the store in his wagon, loves counting the boats from the wharf and especially loves walking over to play in the 'pirate ship playground'. He'll happily tell you he lives in Annapolis Royal as if he's never lived anywhere else in his entire life. It makes me really proud.

 It still feels surreal to think that we now live in the Valley,  and it feels even crazier to think that there is a real potential that we'll be here for many, many years to come. This little town might be the place where Caleb grows up and always calls home. After all these changes I'm not going to place bets on what our future holds, but for now we are happy and excited to discover what else this little town has to offer.