I posted about this earlier this Summer but Emily was awarded the Paul Morris Character Educator of the Year for the state of WV. She was formally presented the award yesterday and we attended a recognition dinner last night. There are some links here and here that talk about her and the award.  I know she hates the pictures and all of the attention but she is a great counselor and a great wife and I am super proud of her!

A while back we took a visit to the WV Capitol grounds and were able to tour and take pictures of the area (and play a little soccer on the grounds).  The Capitol building is imposing at 535,000 square feet but sits upon a magnificient grounds of proportional size.  The exterior is made of Indiana limestone and the majority of the interior is marble.  What we all noticed is how beautiful the golden dome is.  It turns out to be covered in 3 inch squares of gold leaf over copper and lead.

It’s amazing!  In its current form and location, the capitol was built between 1924 and 1932 at a cost of $10 million.  Inside, there are numerous offices but also several displays taken from the exhibits in the nearby WV Cultural Center.  We saw displays on shoes and walking sticks (much more interesting than it sounds) and talked to the folks stuck working on a Saturday when we visited.  It’s really an interesting place to walk through, especially on weekends when it is not busy. We saw tons of beautiful bits of artwork formed into the building as well as incredible craftsmanship around the rotunda area.

Some folks say it is overdone and wasteful but I think it beautifully illustrates that good government should be beautiful and strong, neither extravagant nor cut to the bone.  Meh, I won’t get all political here, but I think the Capitol building is a beautiful symbol of WV!