Cherry Blossom Festival

We made our annual excursion to the Washington DC's Cherry Blossom Festival on Tuesday.  We had been following the peak bloom forecasts intently and made the trip on the exact day of peak bloom. As expected, it was gorgeous!  Walking around the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial provides plenty of opportunities for pictures and we were eager to photograph our little princess. Unfortunately, she thought the crowds were beyond exciting and just wanted to run around.  Every time we picked her up to pose, she would begin her broken record of "Down... down...down...down," at first saying it sweetly, but slowly her cute voice would turn into a full-on tantrum of "down's."  The result of all this being that we decided any picture where she wasn't frowning or crying was a success. Here is a typical example of Karina's favorite pose in the many pictures we took (if you look at her mouth, she is saying 'down').   

We did manage to get some cute pictures while strolling around, and here are a few of them:

Since Karina refused to pose, she wasn't in every picture (almost a first). Our apologies to our readership that believes every picture needs to include her.

Family shots:

Last year, we got some awesome shots of Karina by lifting her into the air and capturing her giggle, and we tried to do the same this time around.  These aren't as good as last year's picture of Karina from the cherry blossoms that we have blown up and hanging in our foyer, but these are the only pictures we have of her actually smiling from this trip..  It is interesting to compare this year's pictures to last year's and see how big she has gotten, how long her hair is, how many teeth have come in, etc.  

After taking these photos with Nate lifting her in the air, a photographer stopped us and said she happened to be shooting with her camera when she noticed us in the shot.  She had photographed us photographing Karina.  Anyway, she offered to email us the pictures she took and she said she is planning on entering one of them into a local cherry blossom photo contest.  It is kind of funny to see what we look like trying to capture Karina on camera. 

(Photo Credit: Antoinette Charles Photography)

Later, we also went to the blooming magnolias to admire those trees as well.

My adorable baby Snoopy who is getting a little gray:

Snoopy was a very good sport the entire trip.  While we took pictures, we just had his leash tied to the stroller, and he was happy to relax in the grass while waiting.  He enjoyed tagging along for the day. 

I haven't taken any maternity pictures this pregnancy, but I got Nate to take a few that day.  Below is my favorite one.  I'm 31 weeks pregnant (7 months) - and it won't be long before little Lydia is here. 

Just a nice picture (with baby bump hidden):

I like how Karina is tilting her head in these:

We had also brought a nice picnic with us, but the time escaped us and we were in a huge rush to get back to the car before our parking meter expired.  We finally arrived at the car 15 minutes after the meter expired, only to find someone in the lot issuing parking tickets.  Luckily, he hadn't gotten to our car yet, and we were saved an expensive fine.

It's hard to believe Karina will be 2 years old in just over a week!  She is getting big!