DC//post one

Our first Sunday in Virginia we had a great lesson in Relief Society. The teacher opened by showing us a book of amazing pictures from the Library of Congress and explaining the enormity of the library, how many different items they get daily (10,000) and how widely visited it is. She then quoted George Albert Smith, saying 

"We may not possess a library of two or three thousand volumes,

 but we may possess at small cost a priceless library..."

He previously states that this library consists of  The Bible, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price. I looooove books so the lesson really helped me gain an understanding of how vital it is to have our scripture study above all other reading. 

Anyway, long introduction! After the lesson I told Kimball I really wanted to go see the Library of Congress so we made it our first stop in DC the following week.

True to myself, here are some pictures.

We were not aloud to take pictures of a collection of Jefferson's books or any of the exhibits on hand as they were extremely delicate and of course we were not aloud to take pictures overlooking the actual library. I strongly suggest to anyone near or going to DC to check it out, it is full of history and amazing architectural details! 

Kimball has a friend who works for VP Biden who was able to get us a West Wing and East Wing tours! (Thanks Billy!!) It was AMAZING to see the rooms we see in pictures and even on tv in person. (Spoiler: they are so much smaller than you'd think! But very cool nonetheless). Of course we aren't supposed to take any pictures in the Oval Office or Rose Garden, etc but Billy let us take a couple in designated areas and was a trooper photographer. 

Left is just outside the side doors and right in in the Press Conference Room (which is tiny but where the cameras are located it looks huge). Every chair has a name or a company name on it, seniority gets the closer seats.

Random Fact: The conference room is built over a pool that was installed by Roosevelt for his Polio therapy. It was then changed to a fun kids in-door pool and eventually Nixon covered it for the conference room. There is a small hatch on the floor that opens so you can see in and the White House Correspondence sign the pool side when they retire. 

It was a crazy experience to walk the halls we've seen so many presidents walking and hear the history behind plaques and furniture, paintings and even candlesticks! 

We were so lucky to have connections! We even got a little swag bag of neat stuff (including cuff links that say "Vice President of the United States of America" that Kimball will definitely be rocking --though he was wishing they'd said President hah)

More DC pictures to come!

because i am blessed.