Visit to the Capitol Building!

I'm a state worker. So I had the day off work. As my dad says, I'm "in the trough now!" Hey, I was going to take advantage of it. So we all decided to go the Capitol Campus and partake of the energy. Since we're in the Legislative Session there was a lot of people. Today, it was mostly union folk (SEIU was well represented).

Anyway, I love Capitol Campus. Not only is there energy, it's just so darn pretty.



There she is! A few earthquakes have almost brought her down. But now it's been stabilized.



Sterling is just the cutest child. Comin' out of the chute, I wasn't so sure that would be the case since I was supplying half the genes. Kid got lucky, though!



This is look UP one of the pillars on the front of the Capitol building. Most people look up when they're inside the building and can look all the way up to the dome. But there are several beautiful places that most people don't bother to look at. This is one of them.



This must have been one heck of a router :)!!!



From one of the levels inside the capitol building, looking out over many of the people lingering below.



Sometime in the 70s, this World War I statue was painted a hideous gold color. At a great cost to taxpayers - but worth it if you saw the gold paint - it was finally restored to its original bronze.



Me and Sterling.

- Brandon

Just a quick note...

I love my wife.

- Brandon

Game Night!!!

So, we had our friends over for a game night. We played two games, the first of which was Mad Gab.

Rob and I had our butts handed to us by Sarah and Heather. But, in some regards, the fact that we were so bad at Mad Gab was what helped us keep our dignity.

The girls were really good but at what cost? Sounding ridiculous! Don't believe me?

See for yourself:



Anyway, it was really fun. Rob and I got a kick out of watching the girls make up their own language :).

- Brandon

It's a small world

We made some new friends at church. The Yorks. They invited us to their house for the Super Bowl. Rob got a new high-def TV and high-def cable to go with it. If it weren't for the fact that he didn't have it set up right, I would have never seen this, because the picture was SO small. But because I went to go help him look behind the cable box, I saw a small picture. In fact, I did a double-take. It was our friends from Pullman, the Holmstroms!!!!!

I asked. Sure enough, Megan Holmstrom is Heather York's sister.

Here's Megan:



And here's Heather, with Hyrum and my beautiful, pregnant wife Sarah:



The last time we saw the Holmstroms was 2004. So five years later, without even knowing, we were friends with another part of the family. You can totally see the resemblance.

Too weird. What a small world.

- Brandon

Point of Clarification.

My wonderful wife is not my infallible wife. She needs ginseng for her memory or something. While I DO have snow pics, I don't have pics of the kids in the snow. How quickly she forgets that those types of pics reside on her parents' camera and not ours. If we do not have pics of the kids in the snow, it is because she has not requested or subsequently obtained the aforementioned photos, thereby and in conclusion vindicating me and laying any and all blame squarely on her shoulders.

- Brandon

Hyrum is so cute!

Snow + Western Washington = Bad roads

OK, so I realize I was a pooper when it snowed (see previous entry). We're just not equipped to handle it here in Western Washington. Give us rain any day!

Anyway, here were some pics:






So, the pics aren't too bad because this was just day one. We would end up getting a couple more feet. But you can see how bad the roads get.

– Brandon