Historic Day for Newton, Slight Disappointment for the Muhs Crew

For those of you not in the know, Barack Obama visited Newton yesterday. I really thought this was a huge event for our little town and felt that it was important for my boys and I to be a part of it. I mean, after all, how often is it that the President of the United States visits your town, just a couple of miles away from your house?! Alas, his visit wasn't open to the public. Since it was a nice day out, I decided we would head to the park instead. As we were getting ready we heard a helicopter flying over our house. Owen and I ran out to the deck to see it. He said, "Welcome to Newton, Iowa, Barack Obama!!!" He was so excited. We got loaded up and I figured since I knew where he was landing I might as well just drive in that general direction and see what was going on. I turned onto the road where the plant is that he was going to and this is what I saw:

Naturally, you could not drive up and down this road. However, it just so happened that there was a park right there near the plant! As we were getting out of the car FIVE more helicopters flew right over our heads. I felt compelled to instill in my young son just how momentous this was in his life. Even if we didn't see him, the fact that we saw his helicopter and knew that he was yards away from us was still a big deal to me. I was moved.

"Owen! It's the President! This is such a special day for our town. Not everyone has the President come to their town. This is a historic day for Newton and for us."

"Yeah, cool! I'm going to go on the slide now!!!"

Apparently, though moved, he wasn't nearly as moved as I. Cameron was even more oblivious to the whole ordeal but stayed happy as long as he was shaded and well-stocked with Cheerios:

There was a decent amount of people up the road hanging out on the opposite side of the street hoping to catch a glimpse. I didn't think they'd see much and opted out of the short walk up there. Instead Owen played on the slides and took time out to be cute and entertain his brother:

We did that for a bit until we saw the caravan of cars transporting the POTUS from his helicopter to the entrance to the plant. As people walked back to the park parking lot, I talked to a few of them. I asked one woman if she got to see anything and she told me they could see him waving in the car and she got a great picture of him! Of course, I was bummed that I didn't walk up there so I lured Owen away from the park by telling him that we could go look at these:

We walked around the area for a bit and people were still hanging out waiting for him to come out. Hoping to get a blurry picture of him waving at us through his tinted window, I decided to stick around as well. We walked up and down the road checking stuff out. Like all the news crews in the parking lot:

A nice man was even handing out little flags and gave Owen one. I let him accept it, even though I feared it may be used as a weapon against his brother at some point in the afternoon.

We stood across the street from the plant waiting...and waiting....and waiting. We stared at the entrance checking for any signs of him but mostly saw policemen, drivers, and possibly some Secret Service.

An hour and a half and 3 lbs. of Cheerios, crackers, fruit snacks, and Goldfish crackers later, we were told to stand behind a certain squad car because he would be coming out soon. The obligatory first helicopter took off, which someone in the crowd joked was carrying the First Dog. About 20 minutes later the caravan started making it's way out of the entrance. This was it. This was what I had put off my childrens' lunch and nap for. They were hot, hungry, and tired but, dammit, they were going to see the President of the United States!!! My small moment of history was finally going to happen. I was going to have a cute picture of him to post here and show everyone....

And that was my historical moment. I'm certain he was in one of these two cars, though which one exactly I cannot be sure. Hell, he could have been driving one of them and I wouldn't have been able to see. They zoomed by us so fast and my two children looked up at me like, "That's it? That's what you made us stand here for? Some cars driving by? WHERE IS THE FREAKING PRESIDENT YOU PROMISED US?!?!" Ok, maybe those weren't the exact thoughts on their faces, but I assure you it's close.

We were then told we couldn't move until the helicopters took off.

Not exactly the outcome I had hoped for but we still had a good time. And it was actually pretty interesting to see how everything played out. Oh yeah, and we got to get Burger King on the way home.