Thursday, April 16, 2009

Cherry Blossom Festival


Brace yourselves, we went to another Festival! I LOVE FESTIVALS!! The Cherry Blossoms are a huge deal in DC. Over 17,000 trees and they all get these beautiful blossoms and look amazing. Unfortunately, we missed the peak,(a kind sir advised us that we missed the peak but we might see some petals on the ground or in the water, bah! I saw plenty in the trees) got there at the end, but the fireworks were our consolation prize. My dad served his mission in the DC area and has always talked about the blossoms, so I feel great to have seen them for myself now.

How cute is that, she took of his hat and gave him a kiss. Kaci's kisses or more noise than touch, "mmm wha". She typically just presses her cheek to our cheek and makes the noise, what a treat to get a real kiss! Well deserved, poor Brad was sick and out-of-it from one of his dizzy spell vertigo deals (don't worry all, we're looking into the problem). Kaci also threw up that day, she tends to get car sick. What troopers! I was giddy with excitement to see those blossoms, one less life necessity checked off! (I did offer to turn around several times, but Brad wanted to press forward as much as I did, we went to the temple too--see future post-- and it was his turn to go in while I watched Kaci)

HUGE HIGHLIGHT of the day, we NEVER got lost. That's right folks, we made it in and out of DC and NEVER got lost!! We even exited the freeway early because of traffic (a huge no-no in a city not built on a grid system). Kaci was an awesome navigator, so was Brad!

In addition to the cherry blossoms, they had this "tulip library". Every color tulip you can imagine. Kaci loved "smelling" the flowers. She prefers to pick them, but I convinced her to smell them instead. Essentially that meant leaning over each individual flower, scrunching her nose, and giggling before going to the next one.

As the sun was setting, Brad noticed we could try some silhouette pictures. I think they look fun! Does anyone know how to make that guy in the background disappear, in photoshop maybe? If you do, let me know!

I love silhouette pictures, they are so cool!! Aren't the colors phenomenal?!!

On our way to see the Jefferson Monument (super cool, loved all the quotes on that monument) we ran into fellow BYU-Hawaii alumni WILBUR(yeah, Hayley's ex-boyfriend). Crazy beans huh!!

On our way to our spot for the fireworks, Kaci found a lone duck swimming in the water. Definitely a highlight for her. We watched the little guy swim for a while, she loves ducks!

We sat by the water under a cherry blossom tree to watch the fireworks. We didn't sit on the bench just a few feet away because a guy was sitting there. Brad really liked the thought of that bench, no matter how snuggly I was with him on the concrete ground. The firework show was fabulous (still the show at Waikiki two July's ago has been my favorite because of those crazy jelly fish ones they set off). The finale was so cool, the most colorful I've ever seen by far. It was fun, Kaci was mildly amused. I think she was totally pooped by that time. I, on the other hand am still living off the buzz I got from going to the festival!! I LOVE FESTIVALS--fun, food, facts "for freeeeeeeeee!"

6 comments:

Brandon Bolander said...

I might be able to get rid of the guy in your sunset picture, I'll play with it and let ya know.

Krystal and Bruce said...

LOVED All the pictures. you guys are like the picture perfect family! i love it! the first thing i thought when i read it was Mulan!! When i come out there better some type of festival for me to go too. i'm jealous of all the fun you are having without me!!!!!

newsinaminute said...

wow--pretty --pretty
glad you got to go

Brianne said...

It is soooo pretty out there. All those pretty flowers and trees. We need some more of those out here! I love kaci's smooch on brad's head. That's the coolest. I love free things too! What a fun day for you guys!

Hayley said...

so fun it looks beautiful. funny that you saw will

Liam said...

How much fun! You guys are awesome! You can use the clone stamp tool to remove the dude from the picture. Its the button that looks like a rubber stamp. Just hold down alt, click on the water, let go of alt, and then click on the dude. This will turn him into the color of the water. It takes a little practice, but you are supper savvy so I know you can do it!