London at Christmas

London, like most children, is terrified of Santa. She was crying mid transfer to his lap.




This picture was taken in Vegas. For those of you who didn't know, we got a snowstorm here. It's like the biggest one they've ever had and it's our first winter here. Go figure. I can't get away from it!!!!!


Nika is London's only girl cousin here in Vegas and London thinks Nika is the coolest. She copies her all the time. It's so cute.

This is London's favorite present. Her and the cat hang out in it all
day!

Las Vegas Half Marathon

Tim and I ran the Las Vegas Half Marathon this Sun. There were just under 15,000 runners. WOW! It was a lot of fun. They had many entertaining things along the way to help make the long distance a little less painful. There was a huge firework display at the start, then we ran down the strip, there were Elvis impersonators everywhere, some ladies with Jesus posters shouted at us that Jesus was happy we were running, but that we should also be at church :), there was a run through chapel at mile five, and then the last four miles went down Industrial Ave... otherwise known as stripper row. So it was fun, but let me tell you, those last four miles hurt like crazy. It felt like there were nails in my knees. Luckily Tim was there to encourage me not to walk, or I might have started to crawl.... and cry. We ran the whole way, which was our goal, so I guess it went well. I did walk a few yards at mile twelve because I stopped for gatorade and just couldn't figure out how to run again. It may not have been the most scenic run, but it was a good one to do for a first marathon because it was flat the whole way. Now if I can just stop limping I'll chalk it up to a good experience!!!!!

Book Group

I've joined a book group here in Vegas and I've really enjoyed it. It started out as the Mommy and Me East Las Vegas Book Group, but since the Mommy and Me Group no longer exists, it's open to anybody. It consists of women from all different backgrounds, religious beliefs, and careers so there's always intellectual discussion from many various view points. I'm actually taking over as the coordinator for this group, so if anyone out there in the area is interested in joining, let me know. One person from the group picks a book for the month and the restaurant we eat at. We try to match the restaurant style with the theme of the book. It's really fun. The book for this month was The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne. We always discuss the history of the author before the book so it's quite informational. I think the general consensus for this book was that it's a clever story line, it's a great classical book, but it's not something you'd read for pure entertainment purposes. There's pages and pages of character descriptions that you kind of find yourself skimming over. But overall it was a perfect story for the Halloween season and I think it should be made into a movie. It also gives good insight on how the upper class could be a curse. Our next book is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I hear it's a pretty heavy and emotional read so proceed with caution.