A Year Ago.

All of the following pictures were taken this weekend at the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C. I want to pause for a moment, though, and talk about where I was this time last year before I move on to Cherry Blossom festivities.

Last year on the 23rd of March I was boarding a plane at NAF Atsugi to leave Japan. I had two suitcases, a stroller, a back pack, a baby, and another baby on the way. I didn't even know the gender of the baby in my tummy.
The two weeks that followed the earthquake and tsunami in Japan were followed by uncertainty, sheltering-in-place, and "the rumor mill" on our little base. CNN made it sound like the world was ending in Japan and all of my family back home wanted me to leave immediately. I didn't want to leave. My home was in Japan. My husband was there. I didn't know what to do. Rumors were flying about radiation and "the next big quake." No one wanted to be alone, but we were asked by the base commander to "shelter-in-place" with our doors and windows and vents closed. We weren't supposed to go outside unless it was an emergency. Many cities were conducting rolling black outs and we were without power for 8 hrs at a time many days. Sometimes these black outs took place at night while we slept, but often they were in the middle of the day or in the evening while I tried to get Lilia ready for bed by candle light. When we could leave our houses, no one went far. Gas was too precious when no one could foresee the future. I waited and waited for calls and e-mails from Cliff. We watched the devastation live on television. The spouses and I got together for dinners to calm each others' fears and discuss the future and the rumors. Every day we held our breath and waited for the other shoe to drop. I kept my suitcase packed - just in case we were called to leave. Voluntary evacuations were announced... and then postponed. Then they were announced again... and postponed again. When we finally did leave it was very surreal. Most families left with the knowledge that they would most likely be returning to Japan at some point. It might be a month or two, but they WOULD be going back to finish out their tours. Cliff and I discussed our situation at length and finally decided that if I left with the evacuation I would not return to Japan. I was already over 20 weeks pregnant and this pregnancy had been difficult for me. I was still miserably sick and traveling with a toddler internationally is no easy task even when you aren't throwing up. If I left, I would be leaving for good. I think I was in shock or denial. When I locked up our garden apartment for the last time and left for the theater where they briefed the dependents on our departures, I didn't cry. When I watched NAF Atsugi and then Yamato shrink outside the window of our plane I let one single tear slide down my face. This was it, but I couldn't think about that then. I haven't really thought about it much until now.
I never truly grieved for Japan. I never got closure. There are so many people I never got to say goodbye to. So many things we didn't get to see or do. Friendships that are missed. Food, shopping, mundane activities that are SORELY missed. Guilt about leaving.
I had the opportunity to teach English in Japan and I never got to say goodbye to my students in person. Some of them I have been able to keep in touch with and others I have not. I still wonder, do they resent me for leaving? How easy it was for us Americans to just hop on a plane and literally "jet" out of there, but for the Japanese? They weren't going anywhere. Come hell or high water, that is there HOME. A large part of me wishes I could have stayed and helped.

All of these pent up feeling were a large motivation for us visiting D.C. this weekend. I wanted a little closure. I wanted to dress the girls in their matching jinbei and eat delicacies out of bento boxes and reminisce about our wonderful years in Japan. I LOVE the United States, but I MISS Japan and hope to go back some day.

In a lot of ways the day was a perfect analogy of the my abrupt departure, my feelings of loss and guilt, and the irony of trying to plan for anything in life.

Saturday was wet and windy, cloudy and dismal. We were under dressed for the change in temperature. It had been in the 80's all last week and this weekend it was in the low 60's and rainy. The wind and rain had blown most of the blossoms away. I was trying not to let myself be disappointed as we drove down Connecticut Avenue toward the Tidal Basin, but I was a little miffed. We got there and it was windy and muddy and we were all hungry. We found parking and bee-lined for the food tents hoping for the bento boxes that had been advertised. We were too late! They closed at 2pm and it was 2:30! ARGH! I wanted to cry. Then a gust of wind blew some more blossoms toward us and I started to cry. Then I looked at Cliff who shrugged and I had to laugh. I wasn't alone! The Japanese tourists had come out in full force on this blustery raining day and NOT ONE OF THEM was frowning or complaining. They laughed as the petals rained down and then reached up to the branches to shake a another shower of petals to the ground! They petals were like pink snow on the ground. Pink snow mixed with rain and muck. This was what it was all about. Life is constantly changing and disappointing and raining. It's still beautiful and funny.
Here is Lilia all bundled up in the stroller.

We may have missed peak bloom with the unseasonably warm temperatures of the last week, but the blossoms were still beautiful.
We saw a few monuments...
Took a few pictures...
And still saw PLENTY of cherry trees.




I love this picture of the Washington Monument in the background.



This one too
And you know what? Every now and then, throughout the day I caught a glimpse of "Japan." If I closed my eyes for moment I was there again. Then I opened them and remembered that WHERE I AM is pretty great too.

Highland County Maple Festival

Beautiful Highland County Virginia, located near the western border of Virginia and West Virginia, hosts an annual maple festival! We live about an 1 1/2 hours away from the festival, but decided that MAPLE ANYTHING was worth the drive. Turns out - it was! It was a GORGEOUS spring day and the drive was breathtaking. It took us through mountains and the Shenandoah valley and over rivers and through woods.
We arrived in the early afternoon ready and willing to learn about MAPLE SYRUP!
The little town of McDowell was our first stop. There we met a fun Old Time-y Blue Grass band and took a tour of the "Sugar House" country store.

Back behind the Sugar House general store they made MAPLE SYRUP!!! We learned that the same tree can be tapped for more than 40 years! Sugar Maples can put out different quantities and qualities of sugar water every single day during the winter months. Freezing weather is helpful in pushing the sap on through the tap. This past winter was extremely mild and therefore the output of the Sugar Maples was not as great as it usually is. There was still plenty for us to taste and buy, though! We learned that there are two different "grades" of syrup, Grade A and Grade B. Grade A has three sub-grades: light, medium, and dark. These three are all created from the sugar water of the tree. Grade B actually has the sap in it as well. Grade A dark has a strong maple flavor, but the Grade B actually has the strongest flavor of all because of the sap in it. Some people prefer the Grade A because the sap gives the syrup too strong a flavor and too pungent a smell. I actually preferred the Grade B. If you are going to enjoy maple syrup, you might as well go all the way, right??? We bought ourselves a quart.
We also learned about the process of making maple sugar and and candy. Yum!
This is where the sugar water is boiled down. Nothing is added to make the syrup. No preservatives. Just reduced and reduced and reduced by evaporation.
We got to try some of the syrup from these vats.
After the Sugar House tour it was time to dance! Lilia LOVED this little band that was playing outside.
She wanted to be as close as possible.

Here she is dancing with her daddy :)

After our tour in McDowell we headed on to Monterrey for more MAPLE and some arts and crafts vendors.
Monterrey was a quaint country town with lots of old buildings and friendly people.
The views were spectacular.


I feel like we haven't even brushed the surface of things to do in lovely Virginia. This festival is one of literally hundreds of other fun things to do in our area. We only have a little over two years left on this tour and I am feeling the panic already that I had as our tour in Japan came to a close. There is just never enough time to see everything! I am making it our family goal to get out of the house and GO SOMEWHERE at least once a month if not twice. I am SO glad we got to enjoy this particular festival and hopefully there will be many more like it in the near future.
We left Highland County with a jug of syrup, maple doughnuts - still hot!, maple (OH MY HEAVENS GOOD!) fudge, and maple ice cream. I think we satisfied our maple cravings at least temporarily. Yum!!

Ivy Pushes up on a Chair

This video was taken a day or so after Ivy hit 7 months. Just wanted to show my mother what this crazy girl is up to. Lilia is pretty funny too. She is singing "I am a Child of God" and putting her toys to bed.

Baby IVY

I have the two cutest girls in the world, but this post is devoted to Ivy. "Baby Ivy" as we all still call her and probably forever will. I'm sure she will love that at 16! Anyhoo... I don't write enough about Ivy. I think it is because I am afraid it might sound like I am bragging all the time so instead I just don't say anything at all. That's not right. The fact is, Ivy is truly an amazing kiddo and she deserves some love. You know that she has been crawling for months now. That's old hat. What is really crazy is that she is now trying to stand. She is pulling herself up onto furniture and cruising is just around the corner. CRAZY! She is so so strong. She pulled herself up on Cliff's tool box the other day and just hung out for a while half standing/ half squatting and THEN she let go! And DIDN'T FALL! Ahhh!!! I know you all heard me say how excited I was for her to crawl and to sit up on her own, and truly I was! STANDING, though??? I'm not ready for that. She is soooo little! Little babies can't do that can they??? Well, yes, apparently they can. I know that Cliff walked early. I think Ivy might walk early too. Keepin' up with Big Sis I guess. Speaking of which, Ivy still thinks Lilia is the best thing since sliced bread. We were at the playground the other day and I had Ivy in the carrier. I was blowing bubbles for Lilia who was running around like a mad hatter trying to pop every bubble she could and Ivy was hysterically laughing. I have never heard her laugh so much. It was just so... joyful! I love to see her watch her sister with such adoration and joy. If Lilia is laying on the floor playing with toys or watching a movie and I put Ivy down on the floor too, the first thing she does in beeline for Lilia. She LOVES to touch Lilia and Lilia in turn loves to kiss and cuddle her. I just love watching the girls interact. I don't think there is anything better as a mother than watching your children play together. I hope this last for a few years.
Because Ivy is so mobile she is also quite the explorer. I thought we had our house pretty "baby proofed" from Lilia's baby years. Turns out that Lilia was a super sedate kidddo. She was content to just sit most of the time and didn't really start getting into things until she was well over a year old. "Sedate" is the last word I would use to describe baby Ivy. She is rather daring and adventurous. I'm sure she will be a real climber. I mean, she already is! She likes to drum on toys, climb on toys, chew on toys, chew on fingers, chew on toys, chew on me...
She has huge smiley eyes. Cliff and I always comment on how happy her eyes are. Sometimes you only see her eyes peeking around the corner of a chair or over the top of a stuffed animal, but you can still tell that she is smiling.
In other news, she is now sleeping in her own room! She has taken too it swimmingly. Much better than Lilia did at first. Or, maybe not, but we've been through it before and are old pros now. Cliff puts her to bed now around 6:30pm and she goes right to sleep. She wakes up once or twice a night. I only feed her once, though. Usually if she wakes up, we hear her and she has fallen back to sleep before we even get to her. Cliff brings her in to me in bed in the morning when he leaves for work and we usually go back to sleep for another hour or two or until Lilia gets up. It's pretty great considering what the first few months were like. I'm all for co-sleeping when it works, but after coming back from Oregon we just never again achieved the harmony we had before the trip. I think all of us are enjoying our own beds. Especially mom and dad.
Ivy is really smiley, but it is usually a closed mouth pursed lip smile, (as pictured above.) Pretty cute.

So Ivy is also quite a mama's girl. She is content to play by herself while I cook or clean until she sees me... and then she isn't. In the evening if she is fussy there is only me to console her... usually with the boob. Pacifiers don't do it. Daddy doesn't do it. My milk is like crack. It was with Lilia too. Kid can't get enough! It's actually a little frightening the way she attacks me with her voracious appetite. I'm a little wary of those teeth that are on their way in. We shall cross that bridge when we have to...

Ivy is also still plowing through the solid foods. I will admit that I am a little lazy and don't feed her solids all the time because she still nurses frequently, but when I do she is all about it. Veggies, fruits, yogurt melts, rice crackers, it really doesn't matter. She loves it all and is devastated when the food it gone. I mean full on nuclear meltdown devastated. We will have to work on that. She is growing like a champ, though, and hanging out in the 70th percentile for weight. The May girls don't starve, that's for sure.


I just love my little girls. The days are getting warmer here in beautiful Crozet, Virginia and I am so excited to get out and do things with my two little sweeties. Add Cliff to the mix and life is truly grand :)

5 year Anniversary!

Our fifth wedding anniversary was this past Friday (the 17th.) Can you believe that Cliff and I have been married for 5 years? Me neither! Well sometimes I can. We have been through a lot together! Moves, international moves, deployments, pregnancy, children, life threatening illness, family crisis, earthquakes, evacuations, buying our first home, etc... I think what I am most proud of, though, is all of the changes we have weathered in each other. We have grown individually these past years, but we have also GROWN TOGETHER. We have been through ups and downs, good times and bad times, and through it all we have learned more about each other and I for one have grown to love Cliff even more. I feel like every trial we overcome, every obstacle we triumph over, every victory we have is all the sweeter because we win together. Marriage is tough. You HAVE to be able to say you are sorry and even more importantly, you have to forgive. I thought I could never love Cliff more than the day that I married him, but that is so wrong. That was just the beginning and things have gotten so much more exciting! since that wonderful day.
That day I began a journey with my partner. My teammate. My best friend. We have laughed and learned together. We have cried and prayed together. We have come to DEPEND on each other.

Cliff got me tulips to change things up this year. Very seasonally appropriate and beautiful! I have always loved getting flowers from him. We got snow two days after our anniversary and it was nice to have the tulips to remind me that spring is just around the corner...
We also went out to eat Friday night! A date! What a novelty! Now that Ivy is sleeping in her own room it should be easier for us to get out more. It was so hard to find sitters when Ivy was in the throes of her colic. No one could handle her except my mother - and she lives in Atlanta. We left the girls with a whole FAMILY back in November thinking surely four people could handle her and she screamed the entire time. Oh well. We know that dates are on the horizon. Time and a season and all that jazz. Anyway, we went to an exquisite restaurant right here in Crozet, (actually Ivy,) and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
I meant to take more pictures of the food and of ourselves, but what can I say? I was just caught up in the evening and the fact that we were OUT!! We went to "Duners," a place we had been trying to visit for months. There is always a wait and we could never steal away. We finally remedied that by my dear friend's generous offer to babysit with her daughter. We arrived at the restaurant just after 5 and while the place was busy we were still able to get a table before the mad rush! Cliff and I split a couple of appetizers, (fried oysters with red pepper aoli, and cremini, goat cheese and roasted tomato flat bread with arugula pesto and balsamic reduction,) and then we split the local trout for dinner. YUM! The foodies in both of us we well satisfied. We will be returning to Duners again!
Afterwards we drove to Charlottesville to try and catch a movie, but we were too late to see what we wanted to see. We opted to go shopping sans kids instead and just chatted and shopped and held hands and enjoyed each others' company. It's the simple things :)

Here is to another wonderful year with my sweetie and eternity to follow!!