Cherry Blossom Festival

I have had this dream of seeing the cherry blossoms bloom in DC ever since we moved here. It's not something that we'll fly out for in the future, and in years past Jeremy has had finals that conflicted with the timing, so this was our last shot. I had wanted to go last week. I knew the the blossoms were blooming early this year and it would have been the best weekend to see them, but we had Conference, egg hunts, and camping with friends planned already. I had hoped that they would still be beautiful for us this weekend. This was our view of the Tidal Basin when we arrived: No cherry blossoms-sigh. I knew this was a possibility so I had accepted it and decided to have a good time anyway. There were a few other beautiful flowering trees around that everyone took pictures of because that's all there was available.

We took a family shot by one of popular still-blooming trees.

I have a vision in my mind what this pictures could look like....we could all be wearing matching spring clothing and look really good. Unfortunately it didn't quite happen that way. It was a tricky day to dress for and Cambrie ended up in her very comfortable pants and boots, McKenzie was all wrapped up and asleep anyway so we are what we are.

Do you think we got enough pictures of flowering trees to make it look like we were there at the right time? Cambrie insisted on having one of the flowers from this tree. I felt a little guilty giving it to her because there weren't that many available. But she was "tickled pink" (ha ha), to have it.She went a little crazy when it was time to get out of the stroller. She ran around and played hide-and-seek with Jeremy for nearly thirty minutes. Peek-a-boo!We were there for the parade that included Cherry Blossom royalty, military marching bands, Japanese drummers, and random unicyclists and big balloons. It was rather slow actually, but we still enjoyed it. There was also a Japanese festival going on that looked awesome with performers, children crafts, games, products, food, etc., but we didn't stay to fully experience it. The girls both fell asleep before we had even eaten lunch, and I felt like I was on my deathbed. I was so sick. Jeremy teased me that I should just lay across the top of the stroller and he'd push all three girls because I could barely move. I felt bad leaving only a few hours after we'd arrived but it was better than wandering around DC feeling miserable. I actually spent the next two days asleep in bed so I was sicker than I thought. It was a fun and memorable weekend to say the least.