in the halls of government

 Today we ventured over to the state capital and it was really quite amazing!

 I have never been there myself in the forty plus years of living in this great state but I sure was impressed with what we saw today.

 The girls had many questions, mostly: how do people get down on the floor of the court room and why did they build the dome so tall?

 Sophia was most impressed with the house of representatives gallery. 

 And we were all in awe with the governors reception room.

 I was glad that the girls did not ask me any questions regarding government.....

 ...not that I'm cynical. I'm just old.

back in the polar vortex

We left Minnesota last week grateful to be leaving before the big chill hit but nature decided to save the really cold weather for our return. The photo from above was from before we left. All the schools state wide were closed yesterday with wind chills in the -50 ranges and that continued through today. At least we can still look back on some of the good times had in Florida last week. 

the princesses return to the kingdom

ringing in 2014

 Today we rang in the new year with a bang while taking in the fireworks at Disney. 

It ended the same way, but everything in between was sheer magic