History

Yes, that's right. Darin and I were in the sea of over a million and a half people yesterday. It was quite and adventure. I wasn't sure I even wanted to go because of the crowds, but then Darin got tickets from the Washington State Representative....so off we went. Actually on Monday he went down to get the tickets. He took Jordan and the line wrapped around the building for about 3 blocks. He went around the building and found another entrance that was extremely shorter.

The actual ticket Here are some things inside the packet:

Here is our timeline for the day.

8:30 am leave our kiddos at Carla Price's house

9:00-arrive at the metro after parking a few blocks away.

Here is the crowd at the Metro just waiting to get to the turnstyles!! It was crazy. We couldn't figure out why we stayed in one spot forever, then all of a sudden it was really fast through. We got on a train and were amazed that they let it leave before it was packed. Metro really could have done a much better job.

11:00 we arrive in DC-yes it took us 2 hours to get there. The Metro stopped before every station and it took forever at each station. It took forever!! And there was a high school group on our train that were not schooled in Metro ettiquete. Their teacher was really loud and gave a free tour to everyone on the train

By this point they had closed off the Mall, and also the entrance for our tickets. Everyone was really annoyed, then there was a rush and the crowd smashed down a fence and we think we ended up in the area we were meant to be in anyway. About 11:45 we made it to the place we stayed for the ceremony.

A view of the Capital building .

About 11:45 as the program is underway I looked around and saw all the snipers on all the buildings-they were on all the buildings.

Here I am just before noon.By the way, I have to thank Carla for the use of a really warm coat-much better than mine!!

A shot of the crowd. It was unbelievable. People from all over were there. And parents with small children. The family next to us had a boy probably 9-10 and he was up on his dad's shoulders taking pictures. Darin and I were among very few caucasian people the whole time.

Here we are about 12:10 or so after President Obama was sworn in. I couldn't really see much, but sometimes there were breaks in the crowd so I could get a glimpse at the gumbotron.

12:30 ish...Crowds leaving-a massive push of people. I hung on to Darin for dear life. My biggest fear was getting separated, even though I could find my way home if I had to.

The line getting into the Metro to go home. We were privileged to have on one side of us a mother and daughter arguing about getting separated, and on the other side a group of roudy teenage boys, of which one or more of them had body odor, or bad breath or something causing a smell. The ride home was much better.

So it really was a cool experience. It was great to witness the excitement of the people-tears falling, exclamations of joy and hope and to see all the young children and teenagers was awesome. I had been very cynical about Obama being "the first black president" because I had felt that Obama didn't truly represent the real "black" people of our country-he was raised by a white mom so how could he identify with the real "black" people. I have lived and worked in my life with populations of african americans from the inner city and wondered how Obama identified with them-I saw what they had been through in their lives.

But being down there yesterday was amazing...the african americans in our country are so so excited-they see the possibilites....I imagine they feel like they are heard and counted now....being there made me see the significance of Obama being elected. It didn't seem to matter where they from-the getto, middle income neighborhoods, or even the more prosperous aftrican americans. There was a huge black guy a couple people in front of us and I swear I could see a huge superbowl ring on his finger. Everyone around him kept handing them his cameras to get closeups of the jumbotron and he graciously took every camera handed to him. I saw so many different people-from different walks of life-even heard lots of different accents. The cool thing was that I felt so united with them-we were all excited for the possibilites for our country.

When Obama was proclaimed the president the cheers were amazing. People were waving flags, crying, screaming, etc. Wow!!! It was really cool. Then he spoke and people really listened. Oh, I just remembered that during the prayer so many people around me quoted the Lord's prayer while he was saying the prayer. Anyhow, Obama really is a great speaker. He said some great things. My brain was a little cold, so I don't remember it all...but I do remember him quoting the scriptures saying that it was time to put childish things aside. I hope this spoke to the politicians...that they can stop acting like "children" when they "don't get their way" and to go about things in way to benefit the whole country and not just their own interests.

I do have to say the only one disappointing thing was when the crowd booed Bush. I know that he has made some bad decisions, but respect the man for simply being the president for 8 years (after all, he was elected!). Respect the office of the President no matter who holds it. I really believe that Bush is a genuine and decent person and thank him for his efforts on behalf of our country. I will also miss seeing Laura-she is a class act.

We are praying for you President Obama, Michell, Malia and Sasha-take good care of us!!