THE DAY!!!

So here it is.... THE DAY!!!!! We got up early and packed all our dresses and cases into Judge Rader's car and headed into Washington DC. Judge Rader told us interesting stories all the way in and then showed us around the federal building that he works in. We then left our stuff in his office (well it's a suite of offices). Here is the door to his office....
Courtney and I had seen everything we wanted to see the day before. We were still recovering from Friday/Saturday. So we decided to do some shopping at the Macy's that was a few blocks from the Federal Building. We were able to pick up some great jewlary for our new dresses and to buy the Red Dress Pin that Macy's sells as a fund raiser for heart health awareness. Then we went and got our nails done. That was a first for me. I loved my nails!! After that treat, we met Mom and Kathy for lunch at a great little pub/restaurant by Judge Rader's building. We then walked back to Judge Rader's office, got our stuff and got ready for the reception, I personally think the results of that session were stunning!!
Here we all are, in our red outfits, all made up! We're standing in the entrance area of the White House.

We then caught a taxi to the White House and went through security. We had a hold up though, Kathy wasn't on the list!! We gave our names to the guards and had a our photo ids ready. Mom, Courtney and I just walked right on through, no problems. But poor Kathy was detained! They said it wasn't a big deal though, they just had to get her info and then she'd be cleared to come in. So Mom waited with her, well kinda....Mom was on one side of the fence and Kathy was on the other! In the picture, Kathy is behind the fence, sticking her leg through and Mom's waiting on this side, to the right of the picture.
It turns out that she was on the list as Kercy...... So Courtney and I went on into the building, which was a small building separate from the White House. There we went through the same security that you do at the airport. You dump your pockets into a pan and place your bags on a x-ray machine. Then you walk through a metal detector and here they added a step, we got scanned with an additional hand wand. Then we picked our bags up and continued through that building, out the door and into the White House it's self!!!

Here is a link to a page with a split view of the White House, it might help to see a little better where and what we did. http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/whtour/ The picture has the rooms labeled and shows the first two levels of the White House in detail. We came in the Visitor Entrance in the lower right corner of the picture, walked through the hall to the Vermeil Room and Library and then we went up the staircase on the outside wall of the Library. If you click on the room names in the picture, it takes you to a page that is a write up on the history and items in that room.

WOW, what an amazing experience, to walk where all that history was. We checked our coats and bags and then walked through a hallway to two rooms, one was the Library, which also has a Men's bathroom area, the other was the Vermeil Room, which had the Women's bathroom area. Kathy and Mom caught up with us there. We did steal a paper towel embossed with the US Seal from the bathroom...... We also received, as in it was handed to us, a different Red Dress pin. So we came home with two Red Dress pins.

Here Mom and I sit on one of the couches in the Vermeil room.


Here Courtney shows off some of the gold plates and vases displayed.



When we came up the stairs we were in the Entrance and there were lots of people mingling and walking around in there and in the Cross Hall. So we just started to walk around also. It was such an amazing feeling, I guess I just can't say that enough!! We walked through the Red Room, Blue Room, and the Green Room. We could go anywhere in those areas. The rooms were full of people, but everyone was taking pictures, so we felt free to take as many as we wanted also!! We didn't feel like the only tourists!! We knew who the "important" people were, they had people following them around! But we only could tell they were important, not who they were!

Two of the people who had people following them around were big name designers and a few weeks after I was home, I saw them on America's Next Top Model! We actually stood in front of them in line, while we waited for Mrs. Bush!

Here Kathy and Courtney look out onto the south lawn, which us humble folks usually only see from the opposite view!!
Here Mom and I sit on the couch in the Blue Room.

While wandering the rooms and being tourists, Courtney and I got separated from Mom and Kathy. So Courtney and I had just wandered from the Red to the Blue and then the Green Room, (which are all interconnected),when Kathy tracked us down. She told us that Mom and I were going to get to meet the 1st Lady personally AND have our picture taken with her!! So we went to where Mom was, waiting with on of the 1st Lady's staff members.

I have to take a moment to say that all the staff people we interacted with where amazing patient and gracious with us country folk! They always answered all of our questions, no matter how silly, or how many times they may have heard the question before. They really made us feel very comfortable and at ease.

So then it was explained to us that we had second row seats in the center section in the East Room, where Mr. and Mrs Bush would be speaking and that Kathy and Courtney were to go there and find their seats that had their names on them, while Mom and I went to the Red room and met the 1st Lady and had our picture taken with her, by her photographer!! HOLY COW!! What a surprise that was!!

When we went to the reception, we had no idea if we would get to meet Mrs. Bush and if we did, we never dreamed it would be one on one like that!! We were the first in a line of about 15 people who got to meet her in the Red Room. We all stood in a line by the door and then we got to come in and spend our 30 secs. with her. 30 secs may not seem like a long time, but it's plenty of time to say hi, thank her for her efforts and have her say a few words to us. Then we got our picture taken and then we walked to where Kathy and Courtney had found our seats. Everyone else, except those of us in meeting the 1st Lady were already seated, so when Mom and I walked in, everyone looked at us and all kinds of cameras went off!

Here we are in our 2nd row seats!!

Here is a new's picture of us in our 2nd row seats! At one point Courtney went to move and there was a camera at her elbow, aimed at Mrs. Bush. She was tempted to wave her hand in front of it!! I had to laugh, cause when I noticed the camera, I had the same thought!! It was practically touching her!!
Here is a picture of Mrs. Bush through the heads of the two Ambassadors in front of me. This is from my seat with no zoom on the camera. Yes, that's really how close we were!!

Here's how close we were to Mr. and Mrs. Bush when they were seated, listening to a speaker.

After the speakers, they opened the Dining Room up and we feasted upon heart healthy treats, chicken, sea food, and heart healthy desserts with fruit and such. Very yummy. Also there were servers walking around with trays of drinks, juices, water, sparkling water and I believe a few other drinks behind the bar.... Sooooo posh!!! I loved it! Here Mom is at the buffet table.


Here we are at a table in the WHITE HOUSE!!! It still at times seems very surreal to me. From this table we made calls to different family and friends, so that they could say that they got a call from the WHITE HOUSE!!
But all good things must come to an end, so we had to leave eventually. Here is the White House at night as we were leaving. The envelope Mom is carrying is the proclamation by the President stating that Feb. was the Heart Health Month.

We walked from the White House to the Metro and rode it home. We had a lady take our picture of us riding in our fancy dresses on the Metro. She was from New Zealand and she ended up taking a picture of us on HER camera!! Too funny. Kathy is in the front seat, Mom is behind her and then Courtney and I had a seat behind Mom. You can almost see us!

We talked a mile a minute to Vica and had such a good time telling her all about. Our plan when we got home was to change into our clothes and then drive back into DC to see the monuments all lit up for the night. So I'm on my way downstairs where Courtney and I were staying and I all of a sudden had a sinking feeling.......I didn't remember picking up the car keys after going through security!! Sure enough, I couldn't find them..... So what do you do? Call the rental company and tell them you left your keys at the White House? Yeah, right. Call the White House and tell them you left your keys? Who do you call? Hmmmmm

So I called the rental company, the lady was sympathetic, but not in a position to do much. They don't have spare keys, and it would cost me $300 to replace the ones I left at the White House. She wasn't real sure who I should call at the White House though...... So Mom called her people at the White House (the 1st Lady's speech writer) and she (Meg) called the Head Usher, and he called Security who said...yep, got them right here! So our very, very kind, gracious hostess drove us back in and we didn't even have to get out of the car, the guard brought the key right up to us! So then we had a brief drive around the monuments and back home we went.

What a day, what a night!!! And we still can't talk about my leaving the keys at the White House without laughing! For the next 48 hrs anytime I did something stupid, we'd say, well you did leave your keys at the White House!! We think that security must have thought we couldn't leave without them, so they didn't bother to track down whose keys they were. But we don't really know.

I'm so very grateful for this experience and in fact for this whole trip. It was made entirely possible by the World's Best Husband and Dad, Brent. He not only funded the trip, obviously, but he took an entire week off of work to stay at home with the kids and run them to their various activities and keep the home fires burning! What a MAN!!!! He did an awesome job and I'm so grateful and blessed to have him for a husband.