Cherry Blossom Trees

If you live in the Washington, DC area you are very familiar with the Cherry Blossom Trees. These are the trees lining the tidal basin, downtown which bloom a beautiful pink color for a short period of time in early spring. Living so close to DC, we often "forget" about the very cool opportunities we have the chance to experience. Or maybe, we choose NOT to experience them because of the hassles associated...LOTS of people=LOTS of traffic and LOTS of congestion (not very stroller friendly) and no parking=LONG walk.

BUT...this year, we decided we were going to brave the hassles, and visit the Cherry Blossom Trees. It just so happened that they were at peak bloom for Lucas' first birthday. We thought this would be an awesome place to take some cool First Birthday pics. Well...it's the thought that counts, right? My budding photography skills are still a work in progress. And, trying to take pictures of a nearly 3 year old and a 1 year old in a very uncontained space was MUCH harder than I expected. Yeah, I know...what WAS I thinking?

I wanted to spend more time touching these up, but I've been way too busy recently, and I want to get them posted, so here they are. Anyway, some of the pictures turned out okay...but the staging/posing wasn't the best, so a lot of the good pictures are not really that good because of the terrible shadows falling across our faces. :( Oh well, maybe we'll try again next year. For now, here are my "favorites" from this year.

Maybe my favorite shot of the day!

This is what Tyler spend most of the day doing...running!!

I love these next three photos. The entire day, Lucas put ANYTHING he could get a hold of in his mouth.

Tyler saw that we were constantly removing these items and wanted to be a good big brother. So, he took the stick from Lucas...

Lucas was not amused!!

But it's okay...because they're Best Buds!!

There's that stick again...

uh-oh, it got him!

"Mmmm...a daffodil, I haven't tried these yet."

Daddy indulged in a treat for Tyler...a Firecracker Popsicle. Yeah...not too thrilled with the idea of a popsicle in the car, but he LOVED it, and they're only this little once, right?

Oh, and here's one of the actual trees!!