Visiting Kentucky's State Capital

I got this great idea while we were in the middle of this cold winter here in Kentucky, to go visit the state Capital in Frankfort.  I got online to see their hours and get some information, and then I planned out the whole day.  I thought it would be a good way for Matt to relax away from his busy seminary schedule.  When we got to the capitol building, it looked completely deserted.  There weren't even any cars in the parking lot.  We walked around the capital building to see if any doors were opened and they weren't.  Well, as you probably guessed, I made another Cali girl mistake.  The Capitol building in Kentucky was not open in the winter on weekends.  It never even dawned on me to think that it would be too cold for any tourists to come.  We came.  :) :)  We had lot's of fun looking around the building and around town anyways.  So here's a few pictures from our adventures in the capital city of Frankfort, KY.

Here's the back of the KY, state Capitol Building

And... here we are in the front of the Capitol.

I was really cold, can you tell?

I think that most state Capitols pretty much look the same.  I guess we all like to try to copy the White House or something.  :)

Sun glorious sun!! For a little while the sun came out and I just had to soak up some rays.  :)

When we first got married and we were living in California and I made Matt a scarf.  He kindly said "thank you" and then it went to the back of a drawer and was never again used.  He said he didn't really like scarfs.  This winter he was begging me to make him a big thick warm scarf.  Let's just say, he likes scarfs now and he puts them to good use.  :)

We also visited the cemetery in Frankfort.  Here I am reading the historical marker for the grave of Daniel Boone.  If you look really close you can see the Capitol dome in the background.

Here's the monument for Daniel Boone's Grave.

At the cemetery there was a section dedicated to babies that had never been born (lost to miscarriage).  I've never seen anything like this at any cemetery that I've been too.  I found that it really touched me being that I have been through the loss of children through miscarriage.

Theses are the Bible verses that were displayed at the monument for the unborn children.

We enjoyed our tour of the candy factory at Rebecca Ruth Candies.  We felt like we were walking onto the set of the I Love Lucy movie where she was stuffing all of those chocolates into her mouth.  This candy factory is famous for making Kentucky Bourbon Balls.  Don't worry, we didn't try any, we're good Seminary students.  :)  Matt did find his new favorite candy though.  They're called Kentucky Colonels.  It's a mint filling with a pecan half on top covered in milk chocolate.  He loved them!  It was great touring and sampling chocolate from this world-famous candy shop that has made it through several of America's economic crisis including the Great Depression and even prohibition and the sugar rationing of World War II.  

Snow, Ice, Cold, Cold and More Cold!!

No one told me that it could get this cold in Kentucky!!  This poor California girl is freezing over here. I had my first experience of below freezing weather this January.  Did you know that the insides of your nose can freeze together?  Well it can and did.  This cold weather is crazy and amazing all at the same time. :)  At least I can now say I lived through the Polar Vortex of January 2014.  Well, all of you California family and friends enjoy your warm weathered winter as you look at these freezing pictures taken around Louisville and at the Seminary during the Polar Vortex.

Scraping ice off of your car in the morning is only fun the first time you do it.  But...sometimes the ice makes some beautiful feather like crystal structures that almost make it fun to scrape ice again.  :)

Don't I have the cutest ice scraper? :)  And look, he's using my super unique bear claw ice scraper that keeps your hands semi-warm while your scraping ice.

We had a small ice storm one night and the next morning we woke up to a crystal world.  Everything was covered in ice.  When the sun came up it looked like millions of diamonds everywhere.  It was absolutely breath taking.  On this day I could endure the cold for the unbelievable beauty that surrounded me.  The following pictures are from that ice storm.