The Cherry Blossom on Top

We were SO EXCITED to find cherry blossoms on our last day in Japan! They were blooming a little late this year, so we were so happy to barely catch them. We kept saying that it was the ‘cherry blossom’ on top of a great trip. Hahah Suchhhh a dad joke.

At the beginning of this trip, I wasn’t sure if it would end up being so great. We had a pretty rocky start! The morning after we went to Tokyo Disneyland (our second day) was pretty rough. I that think our exhaustion from our international flight and Disneyland the day before caught up with us. We woke up to Lucy’s asthma, and her struggling to breathe. We kept treating her with her nebulizer, but it didn’t seem to help. She was dry heaving and coughing everywhere. We planned to have a fun day in Tokyo, and then meet up with our friend Kiyomi at 9pm to go stay at her place that night. What we didn’t think about, what that we wouldn’t have a place if we needed it that day. We would have to stay out until 9pm, and transfer all of our luggage in the metro and clear across town (3 hours) that night. But that was our only plan, so we stuck to it! We gathered our things, and checked out of our Airbnb at the last possible minute. We went outside and got hit with bitter cold wind, that we were not prepared or dressed for! Luckily I had blankets to put on the girls, but it was just awful. I felt like the worst Mom ever, especially because my breast milk was jet lagged (I didn’t even think of that!?) and wouldn’t come out! Greta was having a really hard time, and I was so regretting that I didn’t bring a bottle. We got down to the metro, and it felt like we didn’t have enough hands for everything! We had two backpacks, three suitcases, a giant stroller, and two crying kids. We frantically jumped off the metro on a random stop because Lucy said, “I’m going to throw up!” and the front wheels of my stroller fell between the subway car and the platform, which caused random people to gasp and help us! I started crying, and desperately threw money at a vendor, for a bottle of water for Lucy. In hopes for it to help her to stop dry heaving! All the while Greta was still crying because my dang milk wouldn’t come in. I felt like we were complete vagabonds! Poor Brad just stood there as we all just sobbed. There was nowhere to just BE. And we were so cold! All of the restaurants were too small to haul all of our stuff into, and the main stations that lock your luggage in, were too far away. We were so over it, and just needed a place, right then. There was no way that we were going to last until 9pm especially with Lucy being so sick. I was really worried about her. We searched on our phones for hotels nearby and literally couldn’t find anything. So what did we do!? We remembered a ritzy hotel that we had stayed at on a previous work trip and just went there! We didn’t even care about the money at that point. We got to the lobby, and we were so happy to be inside somewhere. However, they told us that they didn’t have any rooms available. I about died. Lucy’s cough was so awful that the woman working at the front desk ran to grab a bucket for her! We were seriously causing a scene everywhere we went, and poor Lucy seemed to be getting worse and worse. They finally found a room with two twin beds, so we took it! I was thinking “This will be the fanciest twin bed I’ll ever sleep in…” :p — We got up to our room, and my milk finally came in! BLESSINGS! We gave Lucy a warm bath, and both girls fell asleep at 5pm. Brad and I ate take-out in the bathroom, and then crawled into our twin bed together at 7pm. At 10pm Lucy woke us up that she had wet the bed! We were in such a fluster earlier, that we had forgotten to put a pull-up on her! We didn’t want to call room service to make the bed, and wake Greta up — and we were pretty out of it, to be quite honest. So we all three of us somehow slept in that one twin bed! Looking back, I don’t even know how? But we managed to sleep through the rest of the night!

The next morning we almost threw in the towel, but I’m SO GLAD that we decided to move forward and continue our family adventure. Life has a way of dealing pretty unfortunate cards sometimes — When things don’t go as planned, or seem to make sense. I was reminded that it’s all about how we react to the unfortunate situations, and look for the good, even when it seems impossible. Like changing how I felt about the mass of people gasping about our stroller wheels dropping into the ‘gap’. Instead of feeling embarrassment and frustration, I’m choosing to feel GRATEFUL that so many people were willing to jump in and help. And looking for the good in the little things, like catching Lucy secretly giving Greta morning kisses, when she thought no one was watching. It really changed the mood of our whole adventure moving forward. We stopped calling this trip a ‘vacation’, and started calling it an ‘adventure’ 😉 — and I have to say, that is was the best, most wild, and sweet adventure our little family has ever been on.

Jacket: Zara
Earrings: Madewell

1 Comment

  1. April 13, 2017 / 9:24 pm

    Seriously so pretty! <3

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