After the nonstop action in Las Vegas last week, we were really looking forward to a slower pace in Arizona. We got exactly what we were looking for! Every day, we've laid in the sunshine, ate hearty homemade meals, laughed, and played games. This has been the most relaxing week! The weather has been amazing for the middle of winter. I've been able to go on easy runs every morning and enjoy yoga on the front patio while taking in the sunrise.
The home we're renting in Surprise, AZ is incredible. It's fully stocked, I mean... it's EXACTLY like our home in Oregon! For someone like me that likes to cook, the kitchen has literally everything I could need. The kids are asking if we can buy this house and I'm asking Greg the same question. Hahaha! We love the weather, the pool, and the house (at least in the wintertime). I keep having to remind myself (and the kids), that it's probably miserable here in the summer heat. But we're enjoying it while we're here.
We've taken some time to get familiar with Surprise, AZ. It's a really nice community. The city planning did a wonderful job building these neighborhoods around green spaces and various amenities. I can totally see why someone would choose to live here.
We're going to get out of this small town this weekend and go spend a couple days at the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, the weather doesn't look like it's going to be very cooperative. It's supposed to rain and maybe even snow while we're there! But as my father-in-law always reminds us: "Expectations low, sense of adventure high." We're going to just be grateful for the experience... sunshine, rain... or snow! We may never come back to the Grand Canyon, so I'm sure our experience will be memorable one way or another.
We have one more week here to try and see some of what Phoenix, AZ has to offer. We're going to try and see a couple more art installations before we head out and also get a couple packages delivered and shipped back home before we leave. This is the longest we're staying in any one location so it's a great check-in point to make sure we packed enough, to send home the extra we can actually live without, and to order the few items we might have forgotten. This is the end of our second week and it looks like we did a pretty awesome job packing! We're going to send home some extra computer equipment we can do without, and we ended up having to order an extra memory card. Otherwise, our initial planning seems to be just about right.
We bit the bullet and paid our bills for the month today. We were pleasantly surprised to find that we only spent about 75% of what we were expecting to initially. This protected our savings account and helped us ensure we are still meeting our financial goals while on this crazy adventure. It's better (financially) than what we expected and we are just so grateful.
Life is good. We are safe, healthy, and happy. Love you all!
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