Sakura (Cherry Blossoms) !!!

Last year (February 2007) at the Nago Cherry Blossom Festival in Okinawa. Look how bare the trees were behind us... I was really bummed. :-(

Close up of the trees outside our house today.
( View from my kitchen window. I can see it whenever I wash dishes, which is about 4-5 times a day!)

Ok, this is along story but, pretty cool. Last year, around this time, we were getting ready to leave Okinawa. We were there for almost 5 years and I had no idea what cherry blossoms were. (I know, I can be very ignorant at times...) I knew that every year there were Cherry Blossom Festivals held throughout the island, but I really didn't know what it was all, about so I never cared. Until...one day around the time cherry blossoms were in season, I read an article about it. Lo and behold! I was enlighted with the wonder that is: Cherry Blossoms. I immediately made plans to go and see them and attend one of the festivals. That time was very bad for us, Brent was working all the time, and we barely saw him. We were also getting ready to PCS so it was a hectic time. But I was determined and we made a huge effort to see the cherry blossoms, and attend the festival. Well, to my big disappointment, the trees were not quite blossomed yet. The amount of blossoms were so little, you can literally count them. I was really bummed. I was told that if we went back a month later, then the trees will be filled with blossoms. We couldn't do that, however, because we were leaving to move back here in the states. Anyway, I left Japan, really sad that I wasted 5 years of seeing these awesome trees and I thought that I will never see them again. There are a lot of things I regret not doing while we were in Okinawa and this one topped them all.

Ok, so a few weeks later, as soon as we moved into our house, guess what I saw! Cherry Blossoms! There were cherry blossom trees planted all over around our house! I noticed that all of the other houses had one or two cherry blossom trees outside, but somehow our house was surrounded by only cherry blossoms! I guess the HOA made a mistake, but it worked in my favor! Anyway I thought how great it was that after being so sad about missing out on seeing these super pretty trees in bloom, I came home to a house surrounded by them. That was last year, when we first got here, and I didn't have time to take pictures of them.

Now it's cherry blossom season again, and last week I looked out the window as I was washing the dishes and I saw a couple blossoms on the tree. I was ecstatic! Then today, I looked at them again, and there were hundreds of flowers that bloomed. I can't wait until all of the cherry blossom tress are blooming. They are so pretty, but they don't last very long. That's what make them special anyway, you wait for them for so long, and when they are here, they are appreciated. Anyway, here are pictures of two of the trees outside our house.

Oh yeah, and not only are they here at our residential area, it's all over Summerlin. So I am blessed by these beauties while I drive around our neighborhood. Later on this week I plan to take more pictures of them.