A little behind! More Cherry Blossoms!

So apparently there are over 100 different kinds of cherry trees. Who knew? They can vary in size of blossom and color and different varieties can bloom at slightly different times too! Mari invited us over a about a month ago to see some of the other blooming trees by her canal.

Stop foolin' around Lilia! We have more cherry blossoms to see!
Kristin and Madelyn enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery

Squinty-eyed Lilia
Snacks
Mari and Heather
A Japanese lady taking a picture of her dog...her dog that was definitely posing for her. Too funny!
Close up!

Goegeous!
Our friend Heather
Lilia and I under the cherry tree.

Sometimes I wish I lived where Mari lives! So pretty!

Busy Bees

Friday afternoon after Cliff left I took Lilia over to Mari's house for a Cherry Blossom Tea Party! She lives very close to a canal that is bordered by cherry trees and makes for a delightful blossom viewing location. The cherry blossoms were at their peak last week, but I was surprised by how lovely the blossoms remained this weekend. A grand time was had by all and Mari really did a fabulous job throwing this little soiree together for all of us!
Kristin and Madelyn above
The spread
The hostess with the mostess

Lilia makes friends by taking their toys. Fortunately Lilia's friends seem to be more passive than she is and take it all in stride.
Yoink! What mom? You don't approve?

The remnants of the cherry blossom season

Enjoying some juice and/or sakura tea!

Lilia getting into things



The change of command dinner for Cliff's squadron was last night. Cliff isn't here right now, but I still went! It was so nice to get a babysitter and have a night out. I THOROUGHLY enjoyed myself. It was like a date night minus the date. I would have preferred to have Cliff there, of course, but there is no point in both of us sitting around by ourselves being lonely and miserable. Kristin and I drove together because her husband is gone too.

Meatball Mari!
Kelly, Kristin, and Mari at our table a.k.a. "Det Lonely." We worked it.

Robyn's husband was the man of the hour. They will be leaving Japan soon and turning over command. I will miss her a lot.
Some of the guys

"Come hither Mari"

Chrissy and me

This morning (Saturday,) we got an early start. Got up at 5:30 with Lilia and just stayed up. I had "flight suit photos" today with the OSC at 8:00am. Lilia came along and was mostly good.
More pictures to come.
We went home for a little bit after the pictures to bake some cherry blossom cookies for the festival today and get some packing done for our trip tomorrow.

A picture with Hello Kitty/ Clay Shane...
Some flight line pictures