Civic Duty

Saturday I took Nathaniel to the Code Red rally at the state capitol. All joking aside, the reason I was depressed Friday was because of the looming Health Care vote, that and also that I'm still not pregnant. Anywho, so I was feeling helpless so I decided I should go to the rally so that at least I could say that I did something. It was really hard to get out of my comfy comfy bed, but the thought of taking Nathaniel along with me helped get me moving. Plus, it was early enough that Nathaniel and I could stop at McDonald's and get some breakfast. I'm NEVER out and about early enough for the breakfast menu, so that was a little extra motivation for me as well. Nathaniel was a little reluctant to go, but after explaining why I wanted to go he understood why we make these sacrifices. He told me that he doesn't want to go and also that he does want to go. His words: "I want to play on the computer but I also want to be free." So he decided to go with me.


So here we are on our way to the rally. I was worried about parking, but we were early enough that it wasn't a problem. Plus, it was a last minute rally so it wasn't as well attended. More people came later and all total there were probably a couple hundred people there. Not too bad.


Nathaniel is a little agoraphobic so I like to take pictures like these so he can see them later.


It was neat to be there. We said the Pledge of Allegiance, and sang the national anthem.


We heard from Mike Lee who is running for Sen Bennett's senate seat. Also in that last picture is a lady holding a flag with the Title of Liberty on it. I thought that the flag was really cool. I just wish she hadn't been standing right in front of me blocking my view.


We also heard from Cherilyn Eager who is also running for Sen. Bennett's senate seat. I haven't decided who I'm supporting yet, but either one would be a huge step up from Bennett.

After the rally we decided to look around inside the capitol. I don't think Nathaniel has ever been inside and I haven't been inside in probably over a decade.


The murals are so cool! Nathaniel had to sit down to look up, but look he did and he thought it was cool too.


And just in case you're reading this, Julie G., I included this picture so you could see the seagulls painted on the dome. It's kind of hard to see, but they're there.


Nathaniel had a lot of fun looking around. He had to hug me to look up at the sky lights.


We even saw Brigham Young. I said to Nathaniel: "There's Brigham Young." He said: "But Brigham Young is dead." Then he saw the statue and understood. Sorry it's kind of blurry, all I had with me was my phone. I had meant to bring my real camera with me, but I forgot. Oh well.


There were these cool tiles on the floor. We thought they were just cool, but when we went downstairs to see the displays and paintings of the Utah governors, we noticed that they were sort of sky lights. We could see people walking around above us. It was neat.


So much to look at. Nathaniel said that the rally part was boring but that looking around inside the capitol was fun. We were able to talk a lot about how government works and other things too. It was nice. Nathaniel loves to learn and genuinely enjoyed looking around and talking about Utah history and government. We should do this more often.

Thanks for sticking around for the whole post, sorry if it's a little long.