Hooray Hooray it's election day!

Owen and I went and voted this morning. It's a lovely day here in MN so we walked to the school where we vote and then went to the park. Owen was a little irritated about voting. He thought we were going to "boat". He kept talking about boats and such and I kept telling him we were voting, not boating. Which of course just made him mad. But then I told him we could go to the park after I voted and that seemed to perk him up. It was nice to get some fresh air. This is one of the trees at the park. I've taken very few pictures this fall so I took my camera with me to see if I could capture a bit of the warm fall weather we're having.

I am so thrilled for today to have finally come. In the 17 years I've been of voting age I don't think I've felt anticipation for an election like I do for this one. First for it to be just plain over and second to find out who wins. In MN we've had a particularly vicious senate race going on between Senator Norm Coleman and Al Franken. It's practically overshadowed the presidential race. And I'm not big on publicly advertising my vote I can say that I did not cast my vote for either of them. I chose the independent man, Dean Barkley. He's a long shot (which surprises me) but I have hope that neither of the mud slingers will get elected.

Both Morgan's mom and sister tried to change his mind on his vote yesterday. I find it interesting that neither of them bothered with me! Morgan and I can talk politics and have frequently during this election. While we disagree on some issues and candidates we always hear the other out and respect the others decision because we know it's an educated and thought out decision. I don't think either Morgan's mom or sister gave Morgan that same courtesy yesterday. They basically approached him with the thought that his choice was the wrong one and he was making a bad decision. Both of them have made their choice based heavily on one issue with little consideration of other issues and also for fear of what the "other" candidate might bring. This is just not how Morgan or I think or approach things. We both tend to be optimistic regardless of which direction the election goes and we also try to examine a broad range of issues. I believe in any election it is the choice of lesser evils and a person has to decide who they believe is right for what they believe is important. I guess that is what Morgan's mom and sister did but I got the feeling that their decisions were not as informed as they could be.

Happy voting everyone! And may the person who wins to the best they can with what they've got!