November 26 - Phoenix, Arizona

Anderson, Madeline, Abigail, Rose

Anderson, Madeline, Abigail, Iris, Ken

Rose, Wilder

Madeline, Anderson, Abigail

Rose, Wilder, Iris

Thanksgiving feast in Tucson

The McLaughlin’s

Kaity, Allie, Conner, Joey

The cousins

Back row: Joey, Weston, William

Conner, Allie, Kaity, Willow, Rose, Abigail

Dalton, Drew

The Youngberg’s 

Kaity and Abby

Abby and Maddie

Ken, Abby, Anderson, Madeline, Sawyer, Wilder

Rose, Jenn

Sawyer, Maddie and Wilder

The Youngberg’s

Reminders when leaving campground

We are now settled in Phoenix and will be here until the end of the year. We were going to be at the same campground for 6 weeks but are now moving down the street at the end of this month. (They have a pickle ball court and 24/7 laundry in addition to a pool and hot tub - and monthly rates so a win-win!)

Abby arrived early in the week and we drove over 2 hours south for a lovely Thanksgiving feast with the Haebig clan. (Aunt Mil is my mom’s sister). It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of great food. 

We hung out several times with Madeline and family and Anderson. They are both doing great. Anderson has his own garage door repair business and showed us his lovely townhouse. Madeline is planning to finish up some required college classes in the spring so that she can pursue diagnostic medical sonography (ie ultrasound tech). Abby is considering moving to Phoenix for school next year (also looking at sonography) so she looked around at apartments. 

Maddie, Abby and I ventured out on Black Friday for some shopping mostly at Fashion Square Mall (HUGE). It was a lot of fun. Maddie complained that her feet were killing her, I was sweating just standing still (it’s one of those indoor malls where you still need to wear sunglasses), and Abby looked like she needed more hands with all of the bags she had. Prices are so much cheaper here (Abby says “it’s like free” when there are 40% off sales) and there are a lot of options which we aren’t used to in Alaska. In our town you can find the majority of clothes at Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer, or Sportsman’s Warehouse.  Limited.

The girls and I played pickleball at a nearby park several times and this may be Abby’s new sport. She even bought a pink “Pickleball Queen” hat. Our campground also has a nice pool, hot tub, pool table (billiards for my French friends reading this who may be confused) and ping pong so we have plenty of activities to keep us busy. 

Abby and I are staying at a hotel nearby and Rose had a sleepover once so far. She was still awake at 2:30am so she slept at the camper the following night to get better rest. The suite is HUGE! Way more room than our camper AND the laundry is 24/7. (Can you hear the angels singing?) There is even a full sized oven. The laundry at our current campground isn’t great and apparently only one dryer (propane one) works well but we were warned that it could catch fire if overloaded which apparently happened there in the past. Since I’ve had a fire in the oven before, I didn’t want to take chances. Hence, laundry at hotel is much better and I’ve been waking up early so it is usually done by 8am.

Ken was able to see a surgeon last week for a consult on his knee (meniscus tear) and is scheduled for surgery December 1st, the day after his birthday. Rose thinks he should go to a trampoline park on his birthday which may not be a bad idea since he will probably never again jump at one. (His injury started right after he stopped jumping at a trampoline park on August 11th, Rose’s birthday)

Rose and I are taking a little break from school since Abby is here but will resume next week along with gymnastics lessons. 

Signing off for now. 

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! 

❤️