Wow! we've had a busy week. On Tuesday hubby and I took both the boys to our state capital for home school day (hubby kept reminding me that technically we weren't homeschooling at present..) anyway it was great. We took a tour of the building & had a wonderful tour guide that told lots of stories. The boys got to see the Senate and House chambers along with the Governors office & reception rooms. After having lunch at the capital cafe we headed to the inland maritime museum to take a tour of the USS Razorback submarine. This was great! our tour guide served over 11 yrs on a sub just like her, he was very friendly and good with the kids. What a great way to bring history to life. They are getting ready to start giving overnight parties on board the sub. Z's already got his sights on having his 13th there. I can't believe how cramped the service men were on these submarines, they sure earned all my respect for giving so much of their lives to protect us. We took lots of photos. Here are the highlights...

our state capital building

over looking the house chambers, flags from all 50 states sitting at the Governor's table

Then on the Razorback... going down into the sub...

you can just make out the plastic cots along the sides in the second photo, can you imagine living for months at a time here, with 60 or more of your buddies!!!

the Razorback was named after the razorback whale ( all submarines were given names from marine animals.) The sign below shows the 12 battles she was in, the 6 Japanese ships she sunk (the larger middle sunburst stand for battleships) the five flags above them represent the 5 downed U.S. pilots she rescued. We are Lucky to have her here in Arkansas, (we were chosen because of her name.)

After our tour we all went to visit sissy, she was going to go out to dinner with us but she started coming down with the stomach bug and was vomiting.. :( So we had to cut our visit short. We are planning on going back Sunday for dinner with her. She is doing really well and seems to be learning coping skills for changing her behavior. We all miss her so much, I can't wait till she comes home.