Kyoto!

This woman we passed in the street just loved Luke. They pretty much all do. The Japanese women can't resist his blue eyes and blonde hair.

No, I don't know these women, but they just looked so great in their traditional kimono's and umbrellas that I had to get a pic.

The zen garden at Ryoanji Temple...I tried, but really did not "feel" a whole lot here...just a lot of rocks to me, excuse me, "raked rocks". I kept thinking, "my boys would be in heaven, they could fill up all their pockets and then I could find them all in the bottom of my washer!"

Luke and I under a tunnel of "prayers", people come and write a prayer on paper and add to it.

Walking down a street in Gion, these red lanterns lined the streets of Gion and were so beautiful all lit up at night. There were a lot of these Geisha posters pinned up as well, I really wanted to take one down and take it home for the girls room, but decided to be a "good ambassador" and didn't do it.

This is the Kiyomizu-dera temple, or water temple. The 3 different streams of water coming down represent peace, prosperity, and love. The cups are sterilized and you can drink from each one. Jen, on the left and Christi, on the right, are my two friends that I went with. Thanks girls for helping me w/the stroller and Luke all weekend!

This is the Nijo Castle. It is starting to look like spring! Still a couple more weeks on the cherry blossoms, but there were some others in bloom that were beautiful! This place will really be amazing in a few weeks when the cherry blossoms hit! I read that 2.5 million people live in Kyoto, and they have 38 million tourists each year.

What a nice get away! A special THANK YOU to Adam for taking the kids (minus Luke). It was so nice!! And the kids were all healthy and happy when I got back. And the house was even picked up. I think his trick was that he took the kids out a lot (to the beach, pool, park, etc), didn't let them stay home long enough to mess things up too bad. Luke was pretty good for me, he didn't sleep much and had a cold, so considering both of those factors, he really was a good baby.

Kyoto's history dates back to 544 AD. It is one of the only historical places in Japan that wasn't touched in World War II. So many of the streets we walked down looked like they should be a spot for a movie to be filmed, tranquil cobblestone streets lined with paper lanterns. That was probably my favorite part. I love that the Japanese take so much pride in their heritage and traditions, and continue to keep them alive today!!