apple pie day...

The kids and I attended our first ever Apple Pie Day at the Oregon State Capitol. I used to work at the State Capitol as a Legislative Assistant to Representative Meek and it's a time that I will never forgot. It was exciting, draining, frustrating and wonderful.

I'll admit I was a little nervous driving our 12 passenger van and then try to find parking. My fears were justified and I may have made a panicked call to Brian when I couldn't find parking and didn't know where I was. I circled the block one more time to find a 2 hour spot right across from the Capitol steps. By then we had been trying to find parking for almost 20 minutes so I figured if anything we would leave in 2 hours. Then I remembered that I could get a all day pass in Legislative supplies (where I used to spend lots of time running to get office supplies).

(sorry for the bad quality of pics, I took them with the iphone)


We arrived just in time to take the tour to the top of the Capitol to see the golden pioneer. I was never able to do this when I worked down there.

We were climbing the narrow stairs when Graedon's voice drifted down to me. "This is where Darth Vader and Luke fought." Why is everything about Star Wars?




It was pretty.

At noon we attended a rally on the steps of the Capitol to listen to Will Estrada of HSLDA

Right during his speech, we heard some chanting and saw some pink shirted women coming toward us. At first I thought it might be the teacher's union but it turned out to be Planned Parenthood.

They were shouting "Our bodies, our lives". In their crowd were no children, meanwhile in our crowd there were far more children then adults. Would they agree with our decision to have 6 kids? I don't care. I just felt sorry for them.

While we were waiting for our appointment to meet our local House Representative, I took the kids up to the House Gallery (session was ended). I showed them where I sat when I attended session and where we had to line up to wait to until we were allowed to enter. It brought back such good memories.

The energy at the Capitol is amazing and I want to work there again. Lauren felt the same excitement and is going to be a day page for our local House Representative this year.

Grae is very excited to pose.

I'm glad I went and next time I want to get there earlier so we can attend some classes!