LIA

LIA

Brian has been in a "training" program called LIA - Leadership Idaho Agriculture

for the past 4 months. Starting in November Brian went to different locations in Idaho to learn more about the area and their agricultural impact in the state. They spent 4-5 days at each location, starting in Coeur d'Alene then Pocatello, Twin Falls and ending in Boise. (of coarse this is my, the wife's interpretation of what it involved).

He graduated on February 11th, 2010, class 30.

Brian with his "diploma"

As part of his meetings in Boise we were invited to attend a special tour of the newly restored capitol building. It was very beautiful. Here is a picture of our family and my parents at the capitol.

This is a bowl that was carved from the trees that were removed in order to build the wings on the capitol. Each tree that was removed was taken by an artist. In return the artist had to make something that could be returned to the capitol for display. This is one of those pieces.

This is a picture taken in the new west wing of the capitol. Even though it was undergroung they had these nice skylights to make it nice and light. If you look close you can see the dome on top of the capitol.


Our tour director allowed anyone who wanted to get a picture in the Governor's chair. I thought this turned out to be a nice shot of Jared as Governor of Idaho.


This is a picture of the dome from the inside of the capitol. This is what I remember the most from being in the capitol when I was in the 8th grade. We learned lots of fun facts about the capitol building. Here are a few that I remember:

1. The capitol is made from local sandstone that was hauled to the site by convicts from the Penitentiary. Each block weighed 10 tons. This allowed our capitol to be build way below cost.

(I was very impressed by the effective use of "free" labor)

2. I won't have to pay a dime to pay for the newly constructed wings of the capitol building. It is funded by raising the taxes on cigarettes.

3. The capitol building base was shaped to resemble a log cabin.

4. Our state capitol only 1 of 3 other capitol buildings built in resemblance to the US Capitol.

5. The red marble in the capitol is from Georgia, the gray is from Alaska, green from Vermont and black is from Italy.

6. We are the only state that heats our state house with geothermal water from 3,000 feet

underground.

7. The artform that was used to make the pillars inside the building to resemble marble is a dying art.