On Wednesday we went to Shimoda Park. We visited a couple of weekends ago, but it was pretty cold and I didn’t have a camera.

Last time we went, Rhino wasn’t quite sure about the playground and would mostly just stand around and watch other kids play. This time he had a blast on the rocking motorcycle, going in and out of the little house, and climbing up on the wrapped gifts and mushrooms (he wanted to sit on the mushrooms forever and when we’d take him down, he’d try to climb back up!)

This park is one of my favorite spots close to us! We haven’t fully explored it yet, but I’m sure you’ll see plenty of photos during the next couple of months of our trips to Shimoda! There are paths that go through the woods, around to tennis courts or the baseball field, and up to a tall, windy tower. We took one of the paths that go through a swampy, lush area with wooden paths leading all throughout and a pretty little gazebo.

There were still some cherry blossoms in bloom around the park (a lot of the ones on base have fallen off the trees), which are always so much more gorgeous in person than in my photos!

I’m having a great time figuring out the new camera (which arrived on the first of the month!) and am taking lots of pictures!! I’m used to having the camera do everything for me and am now enjoying shooting in manual mode. It makes some of my photos a little more creative and appealing, but still most of them come out WAY wrong and I still have a lot to learn! I’m loving it, though! I think Matt’s slightly annoyed that we’ll all go out for a short walk through the park and I’ll spend ten minutes in front of one flower or taking 50 pictures of him! Maybe I’ll need to take a day where he can spend time with Rhino and I’ll go out on my own somewhere and take all the time I need!