Another Doctor in the Family

When writing about Abigail's Match Day in March, I mentioned that her medical school commencement ceremony would be in May. Well, that happened this weekend, for which our family made the trip to Miami, Florida. (Abigail attended the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine on the island of St. Maarten, but their administrative offices are in Miami, so that's also where they hold commencement each spring.)

Susan and our daughters got to Miami on Friday and relaxed together at a house that we had rented for the weekend. Because of work, I waited until Saturday to fly in and join them. After Saturday's commencement, yesterday we had a relaxing pool day (our rental had a backyard pool), and today we returned home. Check out some photos below of the festivities in Florida.

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AUC holds their commencement ceremony at the Watsco Center at the University of Miami. Before the ceremony started, it was fun to see "Dr. Abigail Moberg" appear in rotation on the digital scoreboard overhead! Also, her photo and biography appeared in the program because she was the student speaker! Her classmates had voted ahead of time and selected her to represent them.

Because Abigail was a speaker, AUC reserved seating for us near the stage. Our location gave us a good view of her as she processed in with her classmates.

Fun fact: Because AUC's main campus is on a Caribbean island, they have a Miami drum corps play "Pomp and Circumstance" on steel drums in an arrangement that has a distinctive island flair. It was great!

Here is Abigail just a few steps away from being hooded on stage by one of the medical school faculty. (Like her classmates, she stood facing the audience while a professor draped her doctoral hood over her head and around her shoulders.) Her official graduation was August 29, 2025, upon completion of all her requirements ... but it seemed to make it "official" to see the hooding and hear the "Dr. Abigail Grace Moberg" announced to the crowd!

Abigail's commencement address was terrific: full of insider references that were meaningful to her classmates and professors while still being accessible to the rest of us in the crowd, and a nice balance of looking back and looking forward.

Family photo: Jacob (Suzanna's fiancé), Suzanna, Dr. Abigail, Hillary, Susan, and Dr. Kevin

Susan arranged for there to be food in the rental house for the weekend's meals, and she had this beautiful cake made for us to celebrate with Abigail after the ceremony.

Another family pic!

Yesterday morning we had a delicious brunch at Sunny Side Cafe and Eatery. Seated between Suzanna and Abigail is the girls' friend Haley, whom they have known since childhood. Haley, Madison, and Elise are three Dickinson-area friends who spent the weekend in Miami with us for Abigail's commencement!

The Big Reveal: Abigail's Match Day!

For those unfamiliar with the medical school world, "Match Day" is a massive deal. On one designated day, at the same time all across the country, graduating medical students receive an email revealing where they have been matched for their post-med-school residency training. It's a high-stakes, binding system that determines where new doctors will spend the next several years of their careers--so our family wanted to make sure that Abigail had a full cheering section on Match Day today.

Abigail and Susan came to my office, where I had blocked out my calendar so we could wait together for the designated email time. The med school had sent T-shirts and announcement signs in advance to encourage Abigail to share the results on social media. However, the real highlight was the family surprises. Suzanna and her fiancé, Jacob, secretly flew in from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, the night before so they could walk into my office just minutes before the reveal! Meanwhile, Hillary cleared her work schedule back in Murfreesboro to join the countdown via video call.

When the email arrived, Abigail was elated to learn that she has been placed at her top choice: Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia. She applied to and interviewed with dozens of children's hospitals throughout the winter and spring and even flew out to her top-ranked possibilities in February, and Norfolk became her favorite--so she ranked it #1 on her preference list and hoped that they had ranked her highly, too, based on her interviews. Apparently, she made a good impression on them!

We are so happy for Abigail and are glad we could share this milestone in her medical school journey. Of course, we went out for supper to celebrate; and we look forward to joining her at her med school commencement ceremony in May (stay tuned).

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Match Day ends the ultimate matching game: students rank the hospitals, hospitals rank the students, a computer algorithm sorts it out and delivers the result ... and Abigail has ended up exactly where she wanted to go!

Surrounded by love, surprises, and the best news ever. Congratulations, Dr. Abigail!

Celebrating Susan

Susan's birthday was on Monday, and the celebration started then and continued today as we hosted visitors who came to our home bearing birthday treats for her. Read on for the details.

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Susan had to work on her birthday, so the festivities had to wait until the evening. We went out for supper at Los Cabos but had dessert at home: Susan's requested birthday cake was actually brownies, which Abigail baked and served with vanilla ice cream.

I had flowers delivered to Susan at work so she'd have a bit of birthday cheer during the day. Her colleagues treated her well, too, with more flowers, a German chocolate cake, and other treats.

Susan opened her birthday gifts in the evening. The girls gave her gift certificates for nail salon and spa outings for some pampering. On her Christmas wish list, Susan had requested games that we could play as a family, so I got her a couple of those and a scented, weighted wrap that you heat up and then drape across your neck and shoulders to relieve tension. I also gave her this "birthday date night" experience, and we have already scheduled it for next month.

Fast-forward to today, when my sister Sandy and our dad came to Dickinson to spend the day with us. As a birthday treat, Sandy made lemon cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, which we had mid-afternoon with coffee. We also had a mini spa day with everyone choosing from our collection of sheet masks for a little facial in the afternoon--and even Dad participated. We ate tater tot hotdish for dinner and lasagne for supper ... and more cupcakes for dessert.

Before Sandy and Dad headed back home, we had a video call with our Tennessee daughters. In this screenshot from our call, that's Sandy and Abigail (in our basement); Hillary and her dog, Dodger (in TN); I and Dad (in our dining room); Susan (in our bedroom); and Suzanna, her fiancé, Jacob, and their dog, Zoey (in TN).

Dad and I. Don't we look youthful and rejuvenated from our spa day?

Christmas in Tennessee

Happy New Year (almost)! Not only are we nearly at the end of the year, but we also are nearly at the end of our two weeks of Christmas festivities with our daughters. Tomorrow Susan, Abigail, and I will fly back to North Dakota and get ready to resume our daily routines. Here is what we have been doing the last couple weeks in Tennessee with our kids.

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Sat., Dec. 20 -- Susan, Abigail, and I flew from Bismarck, ND, to Nashville, TN, where Suzanna, Jacob, and Hillary met us at the airport and drove us back to Murfreesboro, where they live. We got to meet Hillary's new puppy, Dodger, whom she brought to the airport! And he was a very good boy, napping in my lap on the drive home.

Sun., Dec. 21 -- After a day of running errands and playing with pets and relaxing, we made a supper out of our favorite dips (for chips, veggies, etc.) and had a family movie night, watching A Very Jonas Christmas Movie. It was pretty funny ... and it starred the Jonas Brothers, whom the Moberg sisters had just seen in concert in October!

Mon., Dec. 22 -- Instead of buying one another a bunch of things for Christmas, we decided to give each other experiences. Each person chose a day to sponsor an experience for the family. This was Susan's day, and her experience was a family game night. She made us homemade pizza for supper, and we played Catch Phrase, Farkle, and Wicked Christmas at the dining room table while snacking.

Tue., Dec. 23 -- This was my day, and my experience was a night out downtown. We started with cocktails and live music at High Society, then had a delicious meal at The Alley on Main (pictured here), then walked around the Public Square to see the shops' Christmas-y window displays and enjoy the temperate weather, and then had dessert from Andy's Frozen Custard on the way home.

Wed., Dec. 24 -- After the Christmas Eve service at Advent Lutheran Church, we gathered at Hillary's home to make our traditional Scandinavian Christmas Eve meal. Well, it's tradition for us to make a Scandinavian meal on Christmas Eve, but we don't usually eat the same foods every year, other than to start the meal with a shot of ice-cold akevitt ("Skol!"). This year we made halibut, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, carrots, beets, lingonberry cocktails, and dessert parfaits made from Icelandic skyr. Then we gathered in the living room for gift opening. (Yes, although we mainly gave each other experiences for Christmas, we did also draw names for a gift exchange so we'd have something to unwrap for Christmas.)

Thu., Dec. 25 -- Susan's sister, Cassie, and her family (husband, Nick, and kids, Davis and Marly) live in Murfreesboro, too, and invited us over to their place for Christmas. We lounged outdoors on their patio in the afternoon because it was 62° ... quite a difference from a Christmas Day in ND! Supper was prime rib, twice-baked potatoes, creamed spinach, baked corn, and blueberry cobbler for dessert--delicious. Pictured (left to right) are Davis, Nick, and Cassie next to Jacob, Suzanna, Abigail, Susan, me, Hillary (holding Dodger), Marly, and Nick's mom, Kutzy.

Fri., Dec. 26 -- Friday is "date night" in our family, and that usually means going out for Mexican food and margaritas ... so that's what we did this night. We had delicious food and great service at Las Trojas Cantina. Then Susan and I relocated from Suzanna's house to Hillary's to spend the weekend at her place.

Sat., Dec. 27 -- We got back to our experiences today, and this was Abigail's day. Her experience was an afternoon in Nashville, starting with an outdoor igloo reservation at Game Terminal, a "super arcade" and bar. We had cocktails and food delivered to us in our igloo out on the patio area (where they have games like shuffleboard, cornhole, and ping pong) and then went indoors to play a variety of arcade games, like Space Invaders, Q*bert, Frogger, and Dig Dug.

Then we went downtown and visited a couple Christmas pop-up bars for seasonal cocktails and views of the Nashville skyline. It was so bizarre to be sitting outdoors on December 27 without a coat on a rooftop bar's patio with the neighboring skyscrapers in the background!

Sun., Dec. 28 -- This was Suzanna's day, and her experience was an at-home variation of Liquor Lab, a place for mixology classes that she has taken before in Nashville. Before we all arrived in TN, she had each of us tell her the ingredients for a Christmas cocktail that we would make for everybody else. Suzanna had everything ready for us on this day, and we took turns making small versions of our chosen drink for the others (e.g., pictured is Suzanna's cocktail: a peppermint white Russian). We sampled and snacked while playing card games throughout the afternoon and evening.

Mon., Dec. 29 -- This was Hillary's day, and her experience was taking us to see the Dancing Lights of Christmas, a drive-through holiday light and music show in nearby Lebanon, TN. On the fairgrounds they have an enormous setup of Christmas lights, all of which move in sync to the holiday songs playing on their radio station. After driving through the light show, we stopped at Santa's village, where there was a petting zoo, several carnival rides for kids, and backdrops suitable for Christmas photos ... like this one!

Tue., Dec. 30 -- This was Jacob's day, and his experience was providing a feast of Polish food from his own family's traditions. Pictured are pierogi with a half-dozen different fillings, two kinds of sausage, potato pancakes, stuffed cabbage rolls, sauerkraut with caraway, beet salad, and two kinds of dill pickles. It was absolutely delicious.

This was also ... Suzanna's birthday! We went out for lunch and pedicures in the afternoon; and after the Polish feast, dessert was Suzanna's birthday cake, which Susan made and topped with homemade chocolate fudge frosting using my mom's recipe.

Wed., Dec. 31 -- Our New Year's Eve frivolity included a trip to Arrington Vineyards, about a half-hour west of Murfreesboro. There we met some of Suzanna's friends from work to sample wine flights while playing trivia together. When we got back to Suzanna's, we made our usual surf-and-turf NYE meal. Jacob grilled filet mignon and made garlic mashed potatoes to go with our lobster tail, carrots, wedge salad, shrimp cocktail, and stuffed mushrooms.

Now we're watching country music stars perform on Nashville's televised NYE countdown and pouring the champagne so we'll be ready when the clock strikes midnight. Tomorrow we'll have brunch in Nashville (at SweetMilk) before heading to the airport for hugs and tears and the return flights to wintery ND.

North Dakotans in Tennessee

After Suzanna's two-week visit to North Dakota with her dog, Zoey, they returned to Tennessee last weekend with Susan joining them in the vehicle for the drive back. Suzanna and her fiancé, Jacob, will marry in October of 2026, and Susan has spent this past week with Suzanna, helping her with preliminary wedding planning. I worked most of the week but left early on Thursday to fly to Nashville so that I could join them for a long weekend.

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Susan, Suzanna, and Hillary

Suzanna had been living in Murfreesboro, a suburb south of Nashville, where she teaches high school. When Hillary moved to Tennessee, she lived with Suzanna because Hillary also works in Murfreesboro. However, Suzanna recently moved to Antioch, a neighborhood of Nashville, where Jacob owns a townhome; and Hillary moved into a townhome of her own in Murfreesboro ... her first time living without parents or roommates! Susan and Suzanna drove down from Antioch one evening for a mani/pedi date with Hillary.

Suzanna and Jacob took Susan to tour the wedding venue: Owen Farm, located about 30 miles west of Nashville in a scenic location with lots of trees and rolling hills overlooking the Cumberland River. They were impressed with the views, the amenities, and the hospitality of the owners, who have made Suzanna and Jacob feel confident that they chose well.

When I flew in on Thursday, Hillary picked me up at the airport and took me to two of our favorite spots to eat: Hattie B's for some famous Nashville "hot chicken" followed by Bobbie's Dairy Dip for some milkshakes.

Zoey and I were reunited after a week of being apart! She's so danged sweet.

On Friday, I, too, got a tour of the wedding venue. (Tears were shed. By me.) And then we drove back to Nashville and headed downtown so that we could tour Jacob's office building. He works for Amazon in one of two office towers they have built in the Nashville Yards development. Jacob showed us some of the highlights throughout the building, including this observation deck on the 20th floor, where employees can have meetings or just get some fresh air and enjoy the views.

Jacob, Susan, Kevin, and Suzanna

Pardon the squinty eyes ... the sun was doing the most, but we wanted a pic from the observation deck with downtown Nashville in the background.

Suzanna and Jacob

Hillary, Kevin, and Susan

For supper, we had a delicious meal--and fantastic margaritas--at Rosepepper, a restaurant in East Nashville that specializes in Sonoran-style Mexican cuisine, which uses flour tortillas more than corn, beef more than other meats, and spices in the sauces more than in the main dishes. We followed that with a nightcap at Mickey's Tavern, one of Suzanna and Jacob's favorites.

Zoey on Hillary's guest bed

On Saturday we invaded Hillary's new townhome in Murfreesboro with coffee and donuts to start a day of helping with I-just-moved-into-a-new-place tasks. Those ranged from moving boxes to mounting a TV on the wall to hanging shelves to shopping for, and putting together, furniture.

In the middle of the day, we paused to meet Susan's sister, Cassie, and her kids, Davis and Marly, for dinner at Bad Daddy's Burger Bar. They and Nick (Cassie's husband/Davis and Marly's dad) live in Murfreesboro, too.

Hillary has a spacious two-story home with two bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. She already had the guest bedroom set up and ready for Susan and me to spend the night (see photo of Zoey above). Her furniture acquisitions included a couch for the living room and a dining room table. (Actually, Suzanna and Jacob were inspired during the day's furniture shopping, so they bought a new dining set for themselves, and Hillary will buy their old one from them!)

This morning we ate brunch at Noshville, a New York-style delicatessen in Nashville. The food was delicious; highlights were the "everything" bagels with flavored cream cheese (e.g., chive, caper), the deli omelet (with corned beef and pastrami), and the potato pancakes topped with sour cream and apple sauce.

Then we stopped by the GreenHouse bar, which is literally a bar inside a greenhouse. See the photo above: that's Susan and I standing near a table placed in the midst of hanging plants, potted plants on the pebbled ground, and shelves of plants around the perimeter. The cocktails were great, but the unusual setting was the main attraction.

Then we went to Puttshack, a high-tech mini golf establishment at which each golf ball has a computer chip in it to identify it as your own. When you set it down on a tee, the computer screen above that hole displays your name and score, and it tracks your strokes and points at that hole, too.

I must humbly admit that I did indeed win the game. (However, when prompted to key in my name at the start of the game, I entered "Manolo, King of the Cheese-Filled Pastry" ... so the final screen displayed Manolo, not Kevin, as the winner. Lesson learned.)

Then it was time for Susan and me to fly back to North Dakota. There were the customary airport hugs, kisses, tears, and waves through the glass windows until we had gotten through security and could no longer be seen by the girls and Jacob. What a lovely week for Susan and weekend for me!

Tennesseans in North Dakota

Since moving to Tennessee, Suzanna has made an annual road trip back to North Dakota in June or July during her summer break from the school year. She drives so that she can bring her sweet dog, Zoey, to visit us, too! Here are some highlights from Suzanna's two-week stay with us this summer.

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Suzanna and Zoey arrived on Saturday, June 21. On each visit, it takes Zoey no time to get re-acclimated to our house (and the sound of the refrigerator's cheese drawer opening in the kitchen). Zoey alternates between being rambunctious and cuddly. I love playing with her, but I really love snuggling with her.

We know Zoey is here for a visit when we see the pile of dog toys and canine paraphernalia stacked up in front of the china hutch. Here, Zoey has the tennis ball ready for a game of keep-away, if only I will put down the camera.

While Suzanna was here, she and Susan, both secondary school educators, attended a professional development workshop for teachers. It was offered by Bismarck State College and involved three days (June 24-26) of hands-on experience in a variety of career areas, like robotics, unmanned aircraft systems (drones), cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and mass communication. The aim was for teachers to be able to help their students make decisions about their career options after graduation.

One of those nights, the college gave participating teachers tickets to a Bismarck Larks baseball game. Susan and Suzanna took me as their guest, and we had a meal and some drinks at the Bismarck Municipal Ballpark while enjoying the game. (I've got my cap tilted to use the lid to block the setting sun.)

Suzanna's fiancé, Jacob, flew in to Bismarck and spent a long weekend with us. We had a delicious meal at Huckleberry House, a restaurant in Bismarck that serves Nordic fusion dishes and creative cocktails. It's located on the Missouri River, right where people board the Lewis and Clark Riverboat for evening cruises. (The next night we ate at El Sombrero in Dickinson so that Suzanna could have her favorite: P5, which is grilled chicken on rice with queso ... ¡such bold Mexican flavors!)

On Saturday, June 28, we spent the day in Medora. We started south of town at Badlands Ministries, the Bible camp that all three girls attended for years ... and later worked at for years! Then we explored the town and drove up to the amphitheater where the Medora musical is performed nightly throughout the summer--a perfect spot for a photo. We ate at Boots Bar and Grill, a dog-friendly restaurant where our server fawned over Zoey.

The drizzly morning turned into a sunny afternoon, which we spent driving around and hiking in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We saw wild horses in the distance and bison and prairie dogs up close. Our photo folders are full of scenic pics like this one ... but I'll spare you the comprehensive slideshow.

Jacob, Suzanna, Kevin, and Susan in the Badlands

The next day (Sunday, June 29), we went to church in Dickinson (St. John Lutheran) and then took Jacob back to the airport in Bismarck. First we met Susan's dad, Roger, and his girlfriend, JoAnn, for dinner at Laughing Sun Brewing Company, another dog-friendly restaurant that made Zoey feel welcome.

Suzanna and Zoey had a low-key week in Dickinson, and then we spent the Independence Day weekend in Tioga with my dad and my sister Sandy. I had to work, so I drove separately ... and before I got there, Dad took Susan and Suzanna to Dakota Drug Company in Stanley for a Whirl-a-Whip. It's a whipped ice cream treat, like a Dairy Queen Blizzard or a McDonald's McFlurry, but made using a vintage machine that once was common at drug store soda fountains and ice cream shoppes.

I grew up 35 miles from Stanley but never had a Whirl-a-Whip as a child ... or as an adult, for that matter. Dad has taken all three of his granddaughters for a Whirl-a-Whip and now his daughter-in-law, too, but never his son. It's an outrage.

On the 4th of July, we gathered at my cousin Jon's for what in recent years has become an annual get-together for the Moberg cousins, aunts, and uncles. We spent the night trying to shield Zoey from the sounds of the fireworks being shot off by Dad's next-door neighbors on both sides.

On Saturday, July 5, Susan joined Suzanna and Zoey for the road trip back to Tennessee. Susan will spend a week there helping Suzanna with preliminary planning for the wedding (which will be in October 2026). I will fly down at the end of the week to join them there.

Meanwhile, I stayed in Tioga and joined Sandy in the Freedom Fest parade. Sandy works for Hess Corporation, an operator of oil and gas processing plants and infrastructure in northwest North Dakota. I donned a Hess T-shirt and joined her in following the Hess entry in the parade while tossing candy to the spectators.

Today Sandy hosted Dad and me for dinner on the family farm, where she lives. The three of us hopped in her UTV and drove around the farm, touring the property and listening to Dad's tales about his childhood on the farm and admiring Sandy's work at upkeep. This photo was taken out on her deck before I departed for home.