Cherry Blossoms

As we welcomed spring at the end of January, it was time for round two of the cherry blossom festival up north. We opted to give Mt. Yaedake another shot, thinking the warmer temperatures this year would mean we'd catch the flowers in full bloom. Turns out we were a few days late as lots of the trees already had leaves on them. Oh well, maybe next year we'll be able to time it just right. Luckily we were still able to find a few trees that were still in full bloom.

Can you spot the little green bird?

I've been working on taking pictures using the "manual" setting on my camera, and out of the one million pictures I took, these were by far the best two:

The rest turned out more like this, requiring lots of editing to make the lighting look better:

We spent a little while over in the fair area, where the kids played on the playground and went on a few carnival rides.

Jack and Sydney in the bear bounce house.

While the kids stood in line for the rocket ship ride, Spencer told me to take pictures of these Japanese women currently on the ride. What adult would pay money to ride something like this for their own pleasure? Ha ha, these Japanese folks crack us up.  

Lots of adults riding solo.

Cutie blondies.

Syd sure loves playing with Jack!

On our way to the car, I wanted Spencer to stand in front of the one fully blossomed tree for a picture of him and the kids. They were being so silly and refused to even look at me. Shawn pretty much copies whatever Sydney does.

Spencer and our stubborn children.

By the time we got to the top of the mountain, it was covered in a dense fog. No sweet view of Ie Island this year- we could hardly see the road leading down the mountain.

Foggy, foggy.

Heading back down to make our way home, we stopped at one more area for some pictures. As I was snapping away, Spencer popped out of the top of our van, Big style. Except in our turtle shaped van instead of a limo.

That's right, our sweet ride has a sunroof.

I couldn't help taking a few photos of the water from the 58.

Syd crashed in the car. Her reflection in the window made me smile.