A Little Vomit Nerver Hurt Anybody

The State Capitol......not exactly Kangaroo Zoo, but since I only care about getting these kids some learnin', we........with some delay, decided to check out our state government.

I'm sure most people are 'normal' and the thought of hurtling through construction at 85 miles an hour, for 2 hours, with 6 kids....some of whom are prone to vomit, others to have anxiety, and others that coax you to pass all of the semi's, well it may not bother you.  I'm not that person.  I stopped my fitful sleep at 4:00 am that morning and gave in to the gut wrenching dread.  I don't mind the trip really, I just don't like being the one in charge.  I like being the one that tells the one in charge what to do, but bears no responsibility.



I like being with the kids and taking them to new places, even though I was skeptical that they would enjoy this field trip.  After a few puke stops, a stop to use the phone, and getting lost in construction, we met the lovely little partially deaf woman that agreed to give us a tour.  When guide, that was only as tall as our smallest children, asked what school we were from....I was prompted to say an exclusive private school. Very Exclusive.  I shouldn't be ashamed of homeschool, but I don't want her to mentally connect me to polygamy or the kind of person that is hoarding food and arms in preparation for dooms day.  Although I am the latter....it's best to play it cool.  Plus, she soon proved to know nothing about Utah history and she admitted to being a terribly liberal Liberal.  It was safer not to tell her much.

We were very professionally lead through some of the good parts of the Capitol.  On one level there were some busts of what I assume were supposed to be historically important people, but they had no plaques to describe their relevance.  We were shown the bust of a woman, whom our tour guide assured us was the first President of the Relief Society....however it was not Emma.  Emmaline B.  Wells as it turns out was a journalist and the 5th President of the R.S.  Luckily the kids were already crying for food and keeping their eyes peeled for the Secret Service, and paid very little attention.  This was helpful in assuring me that they would not be lead astray with misinformation, nor would they learn anything.  

Above is one of their favorite rooms....The Gold Room, where the Gov. entertains special people.  This and the newly installed Samsung flat screens everywhere lead me to rest easy knowing that my money is going to good use....who needs new Kevlar when we need new plum brocade so desperately.  We also went to the House of Representatives and saw the desk where the uncle of two of our boys parties when in session.  We visited the Senate and saw their staff being trained.  We also hit the Supreme Court, which is not used in this building any longer.

After standing on the opaque floor of the Rotunda and taking pictures of the shadows of our feet, the kids were near tears from hunger.  Our guide left us after saying that we were the best group she had ever had.  Even though her street cred was suspect with me, I chose to believe her on this point.  She also said that myself and my partner Kelly were fantastically amazing teachers.  Again we knew this to be true.  It was time to beat a path out of there and get some chicken!