4:55:00

The official time for my "First Marathon," the P.F. Changs Phoenix marathon, which I ran last Sunday 1/13/08. It was an amazing experience, and, although you probably came here looking for pictures of Nora, you're gonna get pictures of me running instead!

Mile 18:


Mile 20, stopping to say hi to Greg and Nora:


Somewhere near the end, I think around mile 25 or 26:


And finishing:

I think I look like I'm trying to fly across the finish line (maybe I was, I don't know?). And in my posed shot, I swear the photographer told me to stand that way!!

It was an amazing experience, I cannot wait to do another one!

... and a Happy New Year!

A belated Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas with the Babbitt family in Ohio! I was somewhat neglectful in not taking a ton of pictures, but here are a few:

Nora and her "Nana" trying on Nora's new Christmas sweater...


Nora playing with one of her favorite presents - her "Baby" - she loves to dress, diaper, and sleep with Baby every day...


Nora and her Aunt Ash - since we've been back home, Nora has been asking about going back to Nana and Bobo's house and to Ash's house!


Nora at the Bob the Builder exhibit at COSI. Our trip to Cosi was amazing, especially visiting with our friends Wendy, Eliot, and Karen at the Kidspace exhibit (which I of course forgot to take pictures of...)

Here is what Nora has to say about this subject:
iduuuqqqqqqqqqq...88w88uhhyhnvhbddgfgf
fgfgfgfggfg/oooooooooooaaaaaa0000

Graduation, part 2

Not to go on and on about graduation (it was almost a month ago now), but it was such a special weekend, that it deserves a little more blog space. One of the reasons it was so special was because not only did my grandmother, Mary Lou Whitfield, attend my graduation (picture 1), but I was able to attend her "graduation" (picture 2).

Grandma received the first honorary Associates of Arts degree ever awarded by North Florida Community College (described here). One of her recent accomplishments, at age 95, was authoring a book of collected works that were originally published in her Tallahassee and Perry newspaper community columns.

In addition, the celebration was even more momentous because my brother Rick also earned his degree the weekend before (picture 3; Rick- please don't be mad at me for using your picture without permission). Unfortunately, I was not able to attend that ceremony, but was proud of him nonetheless, all the way from Arizona.

It was a good year for the Whitfields!!!





Next time, I promise more Nora...