Last weekend we heard that an original copy of the Declaration of Independence was going to be at our state capital, so on Saturday, we headed down for a quick look. Apparently there are only 25 copies left out of 500-1,000 that were originally printed in 1776 (quick history trivia for you!).
Well, seeing the actual document certainly was quick (we had just enough time to take a picture and look over it) while the line was anything but! From the time we got in line to when we were finished looking at the Declaration, it was just under four hours. Yes, we know, that pretty much puts us in the nerd department. And Ella? She was fabulous! We took turns for the first little while taking her for walks around the capital and got to see where the Supreme Court meets, where the Utah House of Representatives meets, and a few other places. In one hallway, there were some stone busts of a few past politicians and they reminded Ella of a few weeks ago when we were at the church conference center and saw the busts of the prophets.
She pointed to Lincoln's bust and goes, "Look mom! A prophet!" After Ella explored much of the capital building, she was tired of wandering around and decided she wanted to wait in line. Of course, we did not come prepared with a coloring book and crayons (perhaps it would be a wise idea to keep and emergency set in the car.....) but Mom happened to have a pad of paper and a pen in her purse. So we played pictionary for a good portion of the time, and then during our last 20 minutes or so of waiting, they provided us with a sheet of paper that had pictures of different items in the capital on it.
The search game was fun to play, but it would have been a little nicer to have it at the beginning of the line! Anyway, we finally got to see it! And when we got back in the car, Ella gave a sigh and said, "Wow, for a minute, I thought we were going to stay there forever!" She behaved so well (a perfect angel compared to the behavior some of the older kids and young teenagers were displaying) with so few complaints that we decided to take her out for some dinner as a treat. We were headed to Applebee's and then she saw a McDonald's playland on the way and changed her mind! We gave in because she had been so good and made it through cold french fries and room-temperature hamburgers.
To treat Mom and Dad for putting up with McDonald's we went to Coldstone's Creamery! Yummy! It was quite the day! Well, other than all of that, we are counting down the days till we start school (Mom on the 25th and Ella on the 29th) and of course counting down the weeks till our due date (much to Mom's dismay, we are not quite at days yet). Mom and Dad are finally realizing that it's really going to happen, and Ella keeps asking WHEN it's going to happen! And she is still quite insistent that the next one be a girl so she can have a sister. Yikes! Once Mom and Dad are able to experience this whole labor process, we'll decide how soon we'll have another one. 5 years, 10 years, or never! So this last picture added to the blog is Ella and the first sign of "regression" she's shown so far.
She found the baby bottles and wanted to drink from one. Well, Mom wanted to tell her to forget it, but she had just finished an article a few weeks earlier that said that it was okay to let them regress a little. The article promised they would get bored soon enough, decide that being a big kid was better, and move on. So Mom decided to try it, filled the bottle with water, and gave it to her. Ella quickly realized that the hole at the top was extremely small and it wasn't easy to get the water out! Less than ten minutes later, she decided it was too much work and tossed the bottle in the sink! Don't forget to check out our baby's development for this week (31 weeks as of 8/18) and our new book of the month called, "I Am a Mother."
Well, seeing the actual document certainly was quick (we had just enough time to take a picture and look over it) while the line was anything but! From the time we got in line to when we were finished looking at the Declaration, it was just under four hours. Yes, we know, that pretty much puts us in the nerd department. And Ella? She was fabulous! We took turns for the first little while taking her for walks around the capital and got to see where the Supreme Court meets, where the Utah House of Representatives meets, and a few other places. In one hallway, there were some stone busts of a few past politicians and they reminded Ella of a few weeks ago when we were at the church conference center and saw the busts of the prophets. 
She pointed to Lincoln's bust and goes, "Look mom! A prophet!" After Ella explored much of the capital building, she was tired of wandering around and decided she wanted to wait in line. Of course, we did not come prepared with a coloring book and crayons (perhaps it would be a wise idea to keep and emergency set in the car.....) but Mom happened to have a pad of paper and a pen in her purse. So we played pictionary for a good portion of the time, and then during our last 20 minutes or so of waiting, they provided us with a sheet of paper that had pictures of different items in the capital on it. 
The search game was fun to play, but it would have been a little nicer to have it at the beginning of the line! Anyway, we finally got to see it! And when we got back in the car, Ella gave a sigh and said, "Wow, for a minute, I thought we were going to stay there forever!" She behaved so well (a perfect angel compared to the behavior some of the older kids and young teenagers were displaying) with so few complaints that we decided to take her out for some dinner as a treat. We were headed to Applebee's and then she saw a McDonald's playland on the way and changed her mind! We gave in because she had been so good and made it through cold french fries and room-temperature hamburgers. 
To treat Mom and Dad for putting up with McDonald's we went to Coldstone's Creamery! Yummy! It was quite the day! Well, other than all of that, we are counting down the days till we start school (Mom on the 25th and Ella on the 29th) and of course counting down the weeks till our due date (much to Mom's dismay, we are not quite at days yet). Mom and Dad are finally realizing that it's really going to happen, and Ella keeps asking WHEN it's going to happen! And she is still quite insistent that the next one be a girl so she can have a sister. Yikes! Once Mom and Dad are able to experience this whole labor process, we'll decide how soon we'll have another one. 5 years, 10 years, or never! So this last picture added to the blog is Ella and the first sign of "regression" she's shown so far. 
She found the baby bottles and wanted to drink from one. Well, Mom wanted to tell her to forget it, but she had just finished an article a few weeks earlier that said that it was okay to let them regress a little. The article promised they would get bored soon enough, decide that being a big kid was better, and move on. So Mom decided to try it, filled the bottle with water, and gave it to her. Ella quickly realized that the hole at the top was extremely small and it wasn't easy to get the water out! Less than ten minutes later, she decided it was too much work and tossed the bottle in the sink! Don't forget to check out our baby's development for this week (31 weeks as of 8/18) and our new book of the month called, "I Am a Mother."