North Carolina State Capital Road Trip!

I know I already posted a similar picture of Chloe Jo and her cousin, Brianna Elisabeth Jo, but it is so cute I couldn't resist posting it again!
Chloe Jo seems to miss her cousin a lot. She was really happy to get her room back, but she told me today "I miss B." Those girls had so much fun playing (ahem, and fighting) together. I very much regret that I wasn't able to give her a playmate that close to her own age.

Anyway, last Monday, Chris (my sister's husband) didn't have to work so we all loaded up in their rental van and headed up to Raleigh, North Carolina. Chris and Chelley love to visit capital buildings. She told me that they have visited around 25 and are hoping to be able to visit them all one day.

We parked in front of a very old, beautiful church building and had a photo op. These doors were enormous (obviously by the miniscule size of my daughter) and extremely heavy. Chloe Jo decided to mess with this door until she opened it! None of us could believe Chloe Jo (whose name may be changed to Hercules now) could get it open! I, of course, wouldn't have let her even try if I had known she would be able to do it.
Here is another door of the same church building. I love this shape and the architecture of these old buildings. They are so beautiful.
After our photo op, we went across the street to tour the grounds of the capital building. Chloe Jo was a good sport to sit on this statue and let me take a picture. This is probably the only time she will ever get a photo op with Presidents James Polk, Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson all at the same time.
Brianna (aka Wiggle Worm) can't be trusted to sit on a statue like that so Chelley and Chris put her in this cannon instead! I laughed so hard. There were 3 policemen standing in the vicinity and one of them said that there had to be a law against that, but he sure didn't know what it was!
After touring the grounds, we toured inside. I love capital domes. They are so beautiful. This one was hard to photograph because the sun wasn't in a very good position, but still beautiful.
I can't remember what this room was called (and I have no idea what happened to my brochure). Chloe Jo was good enough to sit at this desk and take a nice picture. Brianna....eh, not so much.
But we did get this cute one of them in another of the meeting rooms. I love that Brianna is waving at us!
This is the same room as above, but from the second level. This building was so old. I'm sure the second level seating was roped off because it is unsafe by our standards.
Again, I can't remember exactly what this room was called, but I think it was some kind of apothecary. My sister will correct me if I'm wrong about that!
This is the capital library. I would have loved to be able to curl up in a leather chair by the fire and read for a few hours.
And here is the outside of the capital building.
We had a great time on our little trip to Raleigh. Russ and I had not been except to the airport so we enjoyed getting to see some of the city. Of course, the company made it that much more fun!