Joy List Monday

 Joy List Monday

♥ a weekly ritual ♥

a reminder to stop and pay attention to the little beauties and graces that make life 

magical and to set a aside time for gratitude each day

♥ a great adventure to Wisconsin's Capitol ~ Madison

 ♥ enjoying the best cheese curds ever at 

The Old Fashioned

♥ historic buildings

♥ friendly strangers

♥ safe travels on the highways

♥ Wisconsin way stations / rest stops  ~  nice and clean ... each one a unique park setting

Madison's skyline ... this photo was taken with my phone. As soon as I get the photos uploaded to the computer from our real camera  I will share what my husband was able to capture. I think you will like it.

On the Road Friday

Yay! We head back to Texas...well you know what they say"EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS"

The Capitol has an amazing museum. It is well done for kids, it has several  hands on projects for kids to do. They can dress up like Davey Crockett, purchase land and create a map of their land. The above story breaks my heart.

We did not get to see much of the Mansion due to the construction. This photo I took inside the museum.

All of the Capitols we have visited so far...have amazing grounds. We did not get to tour all of the Texas Capitol grounds because we ran out of time. We will have to go back. This tree was amazing! The flowers and the fragrance of the tree was so romantic. The grounds has a trail of trees, 27 different trees. This is the Texas Mountain Laurel.

The flowers and fruits of this tree contain poison. Consumption of one seed produces nausea, convulsions and sometimes death.

Take a peek at the lights.

Yep, a STAR...and it spells TEXAS!

Can you make out TEXAS!

Yep, more STARS...that was the cute thing about the boys. They continued to say "Texas does not want you to forget they are the Lone Star State!"

We made it! Another State Capitol! We have 44 more to go!

My boys were walking back to our car...sweet car Mom!!

A few more stars!

Sam, do not get too close to that car! I was so afraid some kind of alarm would go off and my son would be carted away. He might sneeze or toot and cause an alarm to go off.

 Texas! We enjoyed visiting Austin. Texas has done a great job of sharing the history of this great state. The boys loved every bit of it. Kid friendly and that makes it a great place to learn!

On the Road Friday

We are back inside the Texas Capitol building. I enjoyed this story about this young lady, who helped fight for Texas freedom.

Johanna Troutman

Sam Houston - a true Texas hero!

Several flags were on display from the many battles Texas fought for freedom.

On the Road Friday

South Dakota

Missouri River...after the flood of 2011

Capitol Journal - the newspaper of Pierre, South Dakota. Using round bales for help during the flood of 2011. We visited in August, the folks were still cleaning up from the flood.

We met so many wonderful people during our visit to South Dakota. The boys felt South Dakotans were the nicest people in the world. We were busy taking our family photo in front of the Capitol building and a lady came up to help us out. We visited for a view minutes. After we left, I had this feeling she was the Governor's wife. When we got to our next city, we checked on line and sure enough we had been visiting with South Dakota's First Lady! 

Have you visited South Dakota? Do you have any stories to share?

Have a great weekend! 

Tour of South Dakota State Capitol, Pierre

My favorite part of the tour was looking at the First Lady Gown Collection. Each case shows a replica of the gown worn to the Inaugural Ball by the First Lady when her spouse or brother was elected Governor. Often times, the replica is made from the exact material worn by the First Lady.

I had so much fun. I had the boys guess which was my favorite.