for the love of cherry blossoms.

The first time I fell in love with cherry blossoms was when we experienced visiting Washington D.C. for the first time seven years ago. We were living in North Carolina at the time, and as we were leaving the temple we asked a member outside how to get to the bookstore (this was before GPS.) He gave us directions, and couldn't help to notice we had Utah plates. He then asked us if we lived here, or if we were visiting, and we mentioned to him that we had just moved to North Carolina. 
He then told us a little bit about D.C., and asked if we've seen the cherry blossoms yet. Cherry blossoms? What are those I asked.  I love flowers, but am no aficionado on flowers. He explained to us how they bloom every spring, and how it is a big deal around D.C. We decided to check it out, and sure enough...he was right. 

Every year D.C. has a Cherry blossom festival, and we were caught right in the middle of it. The blossoms were in full bloom. As we were driving towards the National Mall there they were. Cherry blossom trees aligned all around the nations capitol, and I agreed. It was breathtaking, and like nothing I've ever seen! I marveled at these blossoms and it truly is a national treasure.

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I was trying to decide which park I should take Noah too, and I opted to take him to one of my favorite parks in Haddon Heights. Instead of going to the park where there are slides, swings, and seesaws we decided to go for a walk on the biking/walking trail near the park. I think it used to be a golf course because I saw a lot of wooden signs that said tee 14 Par 3, tee 15 par etc. 

He brought his monster truck with him, and since it's not controlled by a remote he drove that truck manually with his little hands like there was no tomorrow.

We did this back and forth for about an hour and a half! 

And what do you know...along the trail we stumbled upon a few cherry blossom trees! Since we didn't get a chance to go to D.C. during the festival while they were in full bloom I was happy to have stumbled upon these. Some of the flowers were already falling off, but oh they were still lively, and so beautiful! Noah could tell I loved them so much that he was trying to pick some off the tree. He succeeded and then crunched them in his little hand. I was like, "Hey Noah, those are such pretty flowers why are you squashing them?" He said "sorry mom", and proceeded to grab another cherry blossom and handed it to me. It was so cute.

Luckily I have found cherry blossom trees scattered around Jersey, and it makes me very happy. Besides the temple my first memory of my first visit to D.C. will always be those beautiful cherry blossom trees, and now I can expect to see them every spring in Jersey! 

Besides play dates at the park with my boy, cherry blossoms will always be my favorite part of spring!