This year I decided to visit Nicole and Chuck in AZ for Thanksgiving.   Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I wanted to celebrate with family.

Buddy and I left on November 15th.

Here we are at the Asheville airport waiting to start our trip.

Our first morning in AZ having breakfast.

Buddy finishing his breakfast.  Scout is on the floor in the background.

Nicole always smiling.  Unusual at that time of the morning.

Chuck getting ready to treat Scout.  The only reason Scout is alive is because of Chuck’s medical expertise.

Scout after her treatment.  Very happy couple.

After breakfast we head out to do some serious shopping.  Buddy was such a brave soul.  He came with us.  We were gone all day.  At the craft store we ran into Sherry and I was just thrilled to see her.  Nicole took our picture.  Sherry is a crafting buddy of Nicole’s.  She lost both her parents this year and it has been very difficult for her.  This Christmas will be very difficult.  

Sherry was taking a class at the store.  She will be teaching classes in the new year.

We went to lunch at a place I have never been.  

We ordered hamburgers and they were delicious.

At the In and Out.

Buddy and I getting ready to eat lunch.

That evening Nicole and Chuck went to the gym.  Chuck is better at going than Nicole.  Since she teaches in the afternoons, it’s difficult for her to get the energy at the end of the day to work out.

Strong able bodies.

When Buddy and I arrived, there was a very bad odor in the kitchen.  It smelled like dead fish.  Nicole said it might have been from some of the fish juice that dripped in the fridge.  She said she wiped it up, however, it still smelled.  It was really bad.  I told her that Buddy and I would clean out the fridge when she went to work the next day.  Buddy and I emptied out every thing in both the fridge and freezer. 

We put things on the table and all the space available on the counter tops.

Buddy and I washed everything in the fridge.  EVERYTHING!  It took us hours.  We scrubbed the inside of the fridge with hot water and baking soda.  

Look how clean and empty the fridge looks.  It was sparkling!!!  We were so proud and very tired.  However, the smell still was present.  We put boxes of baking soda in the fridge and hoped that by morning the smell would be gone.  I looked up on line after we cleaned how to get the smell out.  They suggested vinegar.  Now why didn’t I think to check before we took all day to clean.  Well, by the next morning the smell was completely gone!  Yeah!  Mission accomplished.

 Two very tired people after spending all day cleaning the fridge.

That evening Buddy helped Chuck work on the car.  I don’t know how he found the energy to work.

As you can see, they worked even when the sun went down.  

The next day Nicole and I worked on a craft project.  We made angels out of bottles.  What a fun project!  We used a certain kind of wax to coat the bottle and layer the lace.  Nicole has tons of old lace.  She is a regular at the Goodwill Store.  I had a wonderful collection to select from.

We worked on her kitchen table instead of her craft room.  There was no room in her craft room to work.  Too much stuff.

This was an angel that Nicole made with her crafting ladies.

Buddy did not want to be left out, so he just joined in to do his own thing.

Nicole working hard.

My angel starting to take shape.

I was in my element.  I had a ball working on my angels.

Even Scout had to get into the act.

Scout was a big help.

Nicole’s angel.   We didn’t finish that day.  We had to continue at another time.

Sunset in Apache Junction.

Blessings!