The first few days boasted some seriously hot and beautiful July style weather in the middle of September! Which of course for the Aldridge Family means lots and lots of time outside! Let's break down our typical vacation day here in Iowa!
We started most of our mornings with a delicious hot beverage outside sampling a variety of coffees, teas, and hot chocolates! Perfect for those cool Fall mornings (or in our case, warm Fall mornings!). Delish!
We then made our way to one of my favourite American stores - Hobby Lobby! We had a blast reading all the cute, inspirational, and hilarious signs for decorating you home, and my parents ended up with a few new items to decorate their newly renovated cottage!
If you know my family at all, you will know that if the weather is hot, we will find a beach! And that is just what we did! We ended up on more than one occasion at the George Wyth beach in Waterloo enjoying the beautiful weather and the very lightly attended September beach! We also boasted our brave Canadian spirit by swimming in the lake only a few days from the start of Fall! We like to get the most out of our summers in Canada!
And those beautiful warm summer nights mean just one thing - a bonfire! We roasted marshmallows, spider wieners, and enjoyed a beautiful fire atop our third floor balcony overlooking a beautiful Iowa field with an even more beautiful Iowa sunset! We love Iowa!
An Aldridge Family tradition that we like to carry on wherever we go is to find a claw machine or two, and have a little friendly competition to see who comes out with the most animals. This year we took turns playing the game with a predetermined amount of turns allowed, and tried our luck with the claws! The score was tied with two animals a piece for Mom and Dad, and in the bottom of the 9th, with just one turn left, Dad won his third animal with the first ever claw machine claw-off! And he definitely let us know that he was this year's winner!
Another fun tradition that has emerged is a trip to the Cattle Congress Fair! For a small fair, it really has some fun shows! We watched a ventriloquist, a frisbee trick dog show, a show with real live bears, and a wildlife show complete with a beautiful and stealthy leopard!! What a treat!! And what would the Cattle Congress Fair be without lots and lots of cattle?
And of course, we enjoyed far too much of America's favourite pastime...and no I don't mean baseball! What we enjoyed were the massive portions and reasonable prices of American FOOD! Whether it was steak dinner(s) at Texas Roadhouse or the giant pork tenderloin "sandwiches" at Newton's, we definitely had our fill of delicious American and specifically Iowan cuisine! YUM!
In true Diana fashion I also orchestrated a little Iowa photo shoot, complete with Iowa sweet corn and bales of hay! I needed something to fill up my handmade (by a talented friend, not by me of course) Iowa picture frame! Enjoy!
So I think it is safe to say that my parent's second Iowa trip was a big success! And only three more months until we travel home to Canada for our Christmas vacation! But until then, we will be enjoying our current home right here in Iowa!
...Meanwhile in Canada, some exciting news ensued in the last couple of weeks! After much anticipation, my sister Cassie and her wonderful now fiance Trevor are engaged!! With the many wedding plans and celebrations they will be engaging in in the next few months, we are so happy that we get to participate in them, at least from a distance! And a special way in which I get to be a part of their special day was disguised as a birthday gift and sent to Iowa! That's right - I get to be a maid of honour! Andee and I will be heading back to Canada next year to see two of our favourite people say 'I Do!' We could not be more excited for them!!
And to add to the excitement, our cousin Andra has also accepted a ring, and will be getting married to her fiance Scott soon after Cassie and Trevor tie the knot! If we play our cards just right, we may end up with the oppourtinity to attend both Canadian weddings! While we work on this, until next time readers!
