Today Jordan, Trevor and I went to the Arizona state capitol building for Jordan's Citizenship in the Nation merit badge. It's his last requirement needed to pass it off. Now all he has to do is meet with his counselor. (Sidenote: Jordan has passed off 4 merit badges this summer and this will be his 5th. Three of them were required for his Eagle. He is also in the middle of 3 more. He ALSO only has two more requirements to get his First Class rank.) The capitol building has been turned into a museum of sorts with many displays and exhibits. Some of them are: a display on how a bill becomes a law, how the Arizona Constitution came to be, a memorial on the USS Arizona which is in Pearl Harbor, the Gratitude and Merci Trains, the Navajo code talkers, wildlife of Arizona and much more! They also had several rooms displaying what the first governor's office, the first House of Representatives assembly room, and other government offices from the beginning of Arizona's statehood looked like. They had a wax figure of the first governor sitting in his chair, and Trevor thought he was real for a while. So funny. Jordan sat up in the Speaker of the House's chair and proposed several bills like "Who loves mom" and such and Trevor voted on them. It was cute.
They have separate buildings where the current House of Representatives and Senate meet. We were able to go up in the gallery of both and look down. Cool stuff. We then went to the big 9 story wing that was added to the capitol building. This is where the current governor and other government offices are now. We even got to go through the metal detectors. I forget that we still have to do that in all our government offices. We also visited the park across the street which has several memorial statues for veterans of most of the wars we have been in. Among them was a mast and anchor from the USS Arizona. I had no idea an anchor could be so big. Jordan and I were both touched by the memorials and enjoyed it--even in 112 degrees. :) They had great quotes on the monuments that said things like "Freedom isn't free" and "To honor those who fought when uncommon valor was a common virtue." Isn't that beautiful? We had a nice talk about that. What a good time we had.
Then tonight the family (except Chase) went to the new Bass Pro Shop that opened up in Mesa. When I say it's huge, that's an understatement!! It was overwhelming to be in there. They sold EVERYTHING. There was a shooting arcade, every outdoor thing you can think of and more, a restaurant, a fine gun room, boats, quads, a rock climbing wall, huge aquariums, etc. I don't know if any of you have seen the Circuit City commercial where the wife is talking to the husband in the parking lot before they go in, and she's telling him that they had a plan and weren't going to get stupid in there. The man then runs in all crazy. That's how I felt when we first went in there.
I knew it was like an Sportsman Disneyland when Tanner came up and said, "For my souvenir . . ." I just had to laugh. I was like "We're not on vacation. It's not like we're at Disneyland." But when the kids (and Jerel) are uttering statements like "This is the greatest store in the world," "I wish I had brought my camera," and "This is better than Toys R Us," then it must feel like a vacation spot. :) lol
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