Cubs @ the Capitol

Cub Scout Pack 42 visited the Washington State Capitol and Museum a few weeks ago.I was surprised when this Saturday turned out to be the BEST day to visit, EVER!


It started with all the kids at the Museum, which is actually located a few blocks away from the Capitol Building. Here the boys are listening to the speech about PNW native Americans in a replicated, but authentic, native house.They learned the different ways to cook fish, how they slept in one room, and the differences between plain and forest indians.

Here Riley is playing the drum, we got to play with some fun artifacts including baskets, food tools and oars.

Give Riley a question and he's fixated until he knows the correct answer. Are those dried salmon real or artificial? Answer: both!

Love this saying, so true.

Riley with the statue that is supposed to have powers, don't get too close!

After the Pack toured the museum, they were kind enough to let up use nice spare room to each our sack lunches. After this some decided to go home, but a couple of us wanted to stick around a tour the actual Capitol building.

There are 4 reasons why Saturdays in late April ROCK for visiting.

#1. FREE parking, like close!

We parked 50 feet from this statue, it's a World War memorial.

Side track, this tree across the street is wicked awesome.

#2. No tourist crowds! Had to wait 10 seconds before it was clear enough to take Riley's picture on the front steps, he was amazed with all these steps.

Another detour, the chandelier is gorgeous, the gold accents on white marble is amazing.

#3. You actually see laws being made! Both the Senate and the House were in session, and we saw everything! I always thought that all the action happens during the weekdays, but wrong.

The Senate was discussing measure 1782, concerning parent participation in dependency matters. and 1619 concerning the use of capital projects funds by school districts. How cool is that?!

This other picture is of the House, I was explaining the difference to Riley but he already knew most of it.

Nick Reese and his son Andrew are another parent/scout pair from our group who sat with us during the Senate and were surprised to see later across from us in the House. After this, we met up, went back down stairs, and chatted a bit with the State Troopers before browsing the governor's office. Which leads me to...

#4. We met the Governor! Riley, I and the Reese's we went to the Governor's office just to have a peek, and there behind the desks was her and her aids. She smiled, welcomed us, ask the kids their names and what they saw. She was so nice and now the two of them have total bragging rights. Wish I took a pic, but thought it would be weird as she was 15 feet away.

Spring Fair

Lauren and I were supposed to go to the Puyallup Spring fair on Friday with friends, but the weather was not cooperative (which turned out to be a good thing, found out from my doctor a few hours later, I had strep throat :(. But Sunday after Riley's God and Family class at 3pm, Brian was working overtime and I felt the fair itch. So dispite a huge headache, I told the boys that we would go. I'm so glad we did! It's the first time that the fair got rid of my headache. Though we only had a few hours, we did so much.

GAMES

They each got to play one game, Lauren got her penguin (medium prize, I'm so proud!)

Riley got a sword from the strong man hammer game (so glad each person playing wins). Poor Nate tried and tried, and everytime got SO close to a perfect shot.

RIDES

Nate wasn't into the rides that day, but Riley wanted to go on something big, so all by himself, he actually went on El Nino, which spins you round and round while upside down!

Together Lauren and Riley went on the kiddie rollar coaster. She was fine until the 4th time around then my poor baby started crying to get off.

After that she wanted the much more mellow canoe ride.

And I'm so proud she went on her first off the ground ride, the hot-air balloons, all by herself! She actually really loved it but it was weird to see someome so small by herself.

All three kids went in the mirrored fun house, and I was surprized that each kid really had fun in there!

We also ate scones, elephant ears and my favorite, bull chip cookies. At the end we stopped by the Pavillion and saw Dan, the Lego Man whom I have known for at least 5 years (he used to have a shop in my mall, so we'd talk at least once a week).

On the way out, while the fair was closing, we went by the reptile exhibit, which I wish we would of visited an hour before, it was so cool! They had a giant tortise, yes the alligator is real and walking around, a giant mccaw, lots of snakes and of course the taurantula! It's okay Nate, Mom is perfectly okay standing 10 feet away.