Cherry Blossom Walks and General Conference Weekend

 

We met up with Tyson on Friday to take a peek at the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. There ended up only being a few trees in bloom (Taryn and I will probably go back later this week) but the weather was perfect (but a bit windy) and taking the time to do the whole walk around the Basin was amazing. I was able to see the George Mason memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. memorial, the Jefferson Memorial and FDR's memorial all for the first time that I can remember since being here when I was 12 with my family.

 Taryn followed a duck around as it swam in the water and loved throwing broken sticks in the lake amidst the 12 billion that were already floating.

 So windy we couldn't keep Tyson's hood down for the photo

 There were many people there but I didn't feel as if it were too crowded. I saw a picture from Saturday/Sunday and was SO GLAD we went during the weekday - late in the day. The setting sun made for  great pictures.

 

 "Two ducks, mommy!"

Taryn was determined to see Jefferson, and climbed up the steps twice, once with Tys and once with me. She was all about her echo inside and trying to touch the top of the tall pillars.

This weekend was a breakthrough in weather for us. We spent the weekend at home watching General Conference for our church, taking lots of walks outside as a family, and playing at the parks in 75 degrees. We are saying goodbye to our winter jackets, clothes & stuffy closed toed shoes and hello to rainbow sandals (YES!), sun hats, sun screen, shorts, and skirts! I have been dreaming about the ocean for over a week. Maybe we will go visit one of the East coast oceans this summer?

I so enjoyed walking hand in hand with Tyson as Taryn skipped ahead finding rocks and sticks, chasing squirrels and birds, and occasionally squeezing in between us to hold our hands.

Our backyard is in full bloom so we've been spending all of our time back there. Today Taryn helped me load up our picnic basket and we ate our lunches on our picnic blanket with the surrounding flowers. I could have possibly gotten some good vitamin D too :)

P.S. I am super bummed about our cameras dying. And these next few months are going to be big ones (Graduation for Tyson!, summer! etc...) I don't know how but I got the last living breathes out of my Canon camera for the cherry blossoms- I really don't know how I got it to work but I am so glad I brought it just in case. So I am trying to be super creative to figure out picture taking so bare with me if my post are non existent or picture less for a bit.