We are in COLORADO

Yea!! We are very happy to be in Colorado and have already had a great weekend visiting friends and family in the Denver area. Our first week went well, the day we drove in it was snowing. Denver had just finished getting 10 inches and there were places in the mountains getting 40 inches!! Yikes, for our drive though it was mostly a cold rain and the roads were cleared by the time we got here. We waited until the next day to unpack because it was sunny and in the 50's the next day. It was just beautiful. It has taken us a bit to get used to the altitude especially coming straight from sea level, but we finally seem to be rested up and have energy again. We are in an awesome location and are excited to get out and do some hiking and biking. These pictures are from our apartment living room and our deck, how awesome is that view? Last night we were driving home from Colorado Springs in a snow storm! Crazy.
Amy's new job is going good so far, this week will be the test though as this is my first week off orientation. Last monday was stressful, my first day consisted of competency testing that was pass/fail and if you failed, your contract was just cancelled no questions or retakes. So I spent some time researching this test and studying and ended up doing quite well. It was stressful though and the test is not a fun one!! With that behind us we both relaxed just a bit and enjoyed a four day weekend. I start this Tuesday night on my own, this contract will be challenging as I will be working all the Tele and Med Surg units in the hospital and really don't even know where all of them are at the moment. The hospital is very old and the layout is one of the most confusing I have seen. But I am sure I will manage and after a couple of weeks will get the hang of it, like ususal. Fortunately everyone I meet at the hosptial is very helpful and very nice.
So that is what is going on for us. Hope everyone else is enjoying spring!!

Cherry Blossom Festival!!

The past two weeks has been the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington D.C.

I had never heard about the Cherry Blossom's in D.C., but they have a wonderful story.

In 1912 Japan gave these most treasured trees as a gift to the United States, the trees have been planted all throughout D.C. especially around the monuments. Now there is an entire festival with a parade, Japanese Street festival and many other activities to celebrate the blossoms.

We decided to check out the Freer art gallery the Monday we went down. This is the smithsonian collection of Asian art.

Above is a Chimera, I really like these creatures, at least in the artform, if you look them up on wikipedia they sound quite scary in the mythology section.

The picture below is the Peacock room, it is quite exquisite!

We had some fun with this giant mirror in one of the rooms at the art gallery.
The mirror was wavy, so in some parts you looked short and squat...

Below is where I decided to reveal to Matt the much gaurded secret I have been keeping from him... I am a cylon. It was a dramatic moment. (must see Battlestar Gallactica)


Others parts of the mirror were just psychedelic...

and other parts you looked giant... We had too much fun with just a simple mirror!

We stumbled out of the mirror room into the courtyard for the smithsonian castle and WOW!! The magnolias were just amazing here, I really couldn't get over the beauty!

Absolute Heaven!

History of the Trees and Festival

The National Cherry Blossom Festival® annually commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo to the city of Washington, honoring the lasting friendship between the United States and Japan and celebrating the continued close relationship between our two cultures.
In a simple ceremony on March 27, 1912, First Lady Helen Herron Taft and Viscountess Chinda, wife of the Japanese ambassador, planted the first two trees from Japan on the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park. In 1915, the United States Government reciprocated with a gift of flowering dogwood trees to the people of Japan. A group of American school children reenacted the initial planting in 1927 and the first "festival” was held in 1935, sponsored by civic groups in the Nation’s Capital.
First Lady Lady Bird Johnson accepted 3,800 more trees in 1965. In 1981, the cycle of giving came full circle. Japanese horticulturists were given cuttings from our trees to replace some cherry trees in Japan which had been destroyed in a flood.
The Festival was expanded to two weeks in 1994 to accommodate a diverse activity schedule during the trees’ blooming. Today, more than a million people visit Washington, DC each year to admire the blossoming cherry trees and attend events that herald the beginning of spring in the Nation’s Capital.