"Oliver, you want to play with fire?"

We went camping over Memorial Day weekend at Portola Redwoods State Park. We went with a group from First Mennonite Church. We had a fabulous time. Samuel declared the fire the best part, although he thought the tent came in a close second.

We left Saturday morning with little fanfare. The car was about as packed as we could get it. We had three bikes strapped on our two bike rack, the top carrier was full and the kids feet were resting on our suitcases. The kids were so excited they got in their seats before we started packing. About an hour later they were still sitting and waiting!

We met about 20 people from FMCSF for the weekend. The families were varied with kids ranging in age from 2 years to 16 years. The teenages were amazing. They played and entertained the young kids all weekend. They would go for bike rides, play football, throw the frisbee and hang out in the tent together. It was such fun to see all the ages interact and enjoy each other so much.

Portola Redwoods State Park was beautiful. As the name suggests, it was in the redwood forest. The kids loved finding banana slugs and other forest creatures.

There was ample flat lands for Samuel to practice riding his bike. We had been making such progress on the bike riding but something spooked him and lately he has freaked out when trying to ride. Luckily the older kids were riding bikes and it inspired him to give it another try.

 Despite the fact is was Memorial Day--the unofficial start of summer--it rained and was rather chilly one day. The rain proved to be a challenge for cooking dinner but was quite pleasant when we laid in our tent to sleep. The drips on the outside of the tent lulled us to sleep. Luckily we stayed dry and warm all night long.

 In traditional camping fashion, we roasted A LOT of marshmellows, spent much time chatting by the fire warming our hands, improvised during washing and drying of dishes and overall having a great time.