Las Vegas

 I took Courtney to Las Vegas to go school shopping.  Things were so cheap with amazing sales so we made off like bandits. And since the time change is in our favor, we didn't have to go down so early in the morning so that was a plus!

We went to the South Outlet Mall and things were 50-75% off regular prices.  I think they are just trying to lure people into the mall to spend money.  It worked for us but, I will admit, it was nice not to have so many people in the mall.  The day started off kind of slow and Courtney didn't see anything she liked.  We wandered around for about 30 minutes before something caught her eye.  It was off to the races after that.  She was able to find a bunch of stuff that she really liked and we got everything on her back-to-school shopping list.

The only store that had a crowd was the Nike store.  We had to stand in line to get in (I think it was 20 minutes but Courtney "swears" it was only 5).  They had armed policemen at the door watching people.  I kind of felt like I was back in Guat. But Courtney found some awesome deals on Nike stuff that she wanted.  So it was a plus.  I tried to get her to buy this shirt, but she just rolled her eyes and moved on.

We decided that we should have gone to Vegas mission shopping for Ethan's suits after we saw these beauties.  And they were on mega sale so we could have saved a lot of money.

When we were finished shopping, had eaten at Cheesecake Factory, and we were ready to go home, we decided to drive by our old house...what a sad experience.  When we left this house it was fixed up.  There was a cut lawn in front with a tree in the center.  We had flowers planted next to the house and there wasn't tin foil in the windows and cars all over the side lawn.  I was so sad to see the state the little house was in now.  We spent so much time fixing it up and making it a cute house and now the poor thing is just abused.  It was sad.  And then....

we looked across the street and saw this...

Wow!!  I have no words for it.  Our neighborhood looked really sad and run down.  They say that neighborhoods have a lifespan, just as people do.  They are new with young families, then they get older and the families move on, then they are filled with rentals and people don't take care of them because they don't own them, and then the neighborhood dies.  It's sad to see.

I took Courtney up to see the Las Vegas Temple while we were there.  The gates were locked, obviously, but there were people outside taking pictures.  It was still pretty to look at.

We drove home in time for dinner.  It was a fun day and we got a lot done!