August in Canada! P.S. We Move in a Week!!

Guess what??

We are on our way to HINSDALE, ILLINOIS!!!!  Just 30 minutes from CHICAGO!!!!!!  For a WHOLE YEAR!!!  YAY!!!!  Finally, a (small amount) of consistency for a little while!  And get this - we are going UNFURNISHED!!!  Why?  Because we can, because we can drive there with my parents and their van, and because it is cheaper!  Do we have an apartment yet?  No.  Have we looked up any churches?  No.  Do we have any real idea what we are doing?  No.  But what else is new!  Also, the only thing I know about Illinois is that it is a red property in Monopoly....so it looks like I need to do some research!!

So, Andee starts his first rotation, Internal Medicine, on September 17th!  We have 3 months in Illinois, then a month off, so back to Canada we go!  Hopefully we can squeeze in a rotation while we are home!  Then back to Illinois for another 4 months, a few weeks off, and more Illinois!  With Andee's last rotation in the State ending September 14th, 2013!  Yay!  So we are home for the holidays, and get to check out a new state!  Apparently, Chicago and Toronto are very similar, and so I am hoping that Hinsdale and Ajax are as well! 

With only a couple more weeks in Canada, we are scurrying around trying to get all the last minute everything completed, while also apartment hunting, hanging out with friends and family, and enjoying Canada in the summer!  Rush rush rush, move move move, good times.  Medical Student and his Wife.  Exciting/random.  Good thing we have Jesus on our side!!

Since I haven't blogged in a while, there are a lot of fun Canada things to talk about and provide photo evidence of these events!  Here it goes!!

Earlier in August, Cassie, Trevor, Andee and I decided on a day trip to Niagara Falls!  First stop - the Great Canadian Midway - our favourite; which was made even better by Cassie treating us to 90 tokens each, and an ongoing couples competition to see who would win the most tickets!  Trevor was on fire the entire day, especially at Ball Drop and Basketball, and they ended up almost doubling our ticket total!  We ended up with a few flinger toys, some sticky hands, 2 mugs, and a couple other fun treats for our tickets!  We also visited our favourite pizzeria in Niagara Falls for dinner, and some Wendy's for lunch!  And of course, no trip to Niagara Falls is complete without a photo op at the Falls!  It was a beautiful warm August day, and we had a wonderful time!!

We have also spent a ton of time at the Cottage this year, since we were home for almost the entire summer!!  We fed some ducks out of our hands, swam in the lake, jumped off the floating dock, paddle boated around, played games, lied in the sun, and had bonfires at night!  We also recently celebrated Andra's birthday with the extended family, and enjoyed the fantastic weather and photo opportunities!  The Cottage is the highlight of the summer for me, and the fact that we have gone up almost every weekend was a pleasant surprise to all of the moving around and schooling Andee and I have done in the last couple of years!  And the weather this year has been absolutely amazing, and I am so glad we got to spend it in Canada!!!

Another Cottage pastime that we have enjoyed this year is Fishing!  Andee and Trevor made a habit out of Night Fishing in the wee hours of the morning, calling this the "Magic Hour."  Just this past weekend, they happened on a prime fishing location around the bend of Fells Bay that they have names "Bass City."  The name speaks for itself.  Lots of fishies posed for pictures for us this year, and then they all ended up back in the water, safe and sound!  And the hero of these fishing pictures is, of course, the Crayfish lure, or Cray for short.  That shiz Cray.

Yet another highlight of Cottaging is the annual Fenelon Fair!  It was a horrible, rainy weekend, but we managed to make it out to the demolition derby with the family and the cousins!  It was lots of fun watching the cars smash in to each other, and we ordered delicious fair food and tiny donuts after the derby was over! 

The Aldridge Family was also able to experience one my my all-time favourite events both in August, in the Summer, and all year - The Canadian National Exhibition!!!  It is tradition for the Aldridge Family to spend the day at the Ex once a year, and I was a little worried that this year we wouldn't be able to make it.  But Hallelujah, tradition continues!!  We saw a Mexican circus act where Dad was called up on stage, a hip-hop dance crew where Cassie showed her dancing skills, and a Name That Tune contest where I competed and participated in a dance off!  Wow - the whole Aldridge Family was on Sta---......well, I think maybe Mom's sleeve was there!  We also watched an Illusionist and Hypnotist, which are always a crowd favourite, as well as the Acrobatics and Ice show with Canadian Olympians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moyer!  They were absolutely amazing!  We also played our usual claw machines and bowling games, and had a contest to see who would win the most with a roll of quarters, and guess who won??  ME!!  Yay, the least competitive Aldridge!  We also ate lots of fun things at the Food Building, including Dad eating the Krispy Kreme burger with all the toppings!  Disgusting, and delicious!!  And to top it all off, the weather was hot and sunny for the whole day!  We ended up spending over 14 hours at the Ex, and a wonderful day was had by all!  Hopefully next year we can do it all again!!  

Well, there you have it!  August in Canada, and where we are headed next!  In one week tomorrow, we will be driving a jam packed car full of stuff to Illinois to find an apartment, followed by my parents with a jam packed van on Friday!  I am very excited for all of this moving around to be finished, so we can be settled at least for a little while!  Pray for us, it's about to get crazy again!!  Until next time!!