Big Basin Redwoods with my FPC Berkeley friends

It seems that I'm proving the truth of that saying, "The faster I go, the behinder I get"!!  ;)  I love my job -- lots and lots -- but sometimes I schedule my life as if days were 48 hours long.  ;)  I hate to sound like a broken record (some of you are too young to know what that is anyway) but I'm working hard catching up on stuff.  And trying not to kill myself in the process.  And aforesaid stuff is getting done, slowly but surely (uh, with emphasis on the "slowly"!).  :P

So.  Speaking of trying not to kill oneself.  In the midst of such busy-ness and over-zealous scheduling, I think we have to be even more careful than ever to feed our souls with beauty, rest, and time with Jesus.  So, I went to the Big Basin Redwoods State Park recently for a couple days of camping with some friends from First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.  It was a blast!  My camera (i.e. my right hand) came along, and had some fun right there with me...and I leave you to judge the results.  :)

Moonlight and stars above the meadow

We ate well.  Like, the kind of food a lot of people don't even normally get at home, and here we were, camping!  Brett, you're an amazing camp chef!

Saturday's breakfast: crepes.

Fresh orange juice

Brett coaching Rachel on crepe-flipping.  She took to it like a natural.  (After some rather interesting landings, of course...hehe...)

Two at once?  No problem.

 

Rachel, you did a great job!

Koob on the beach.  I've never played Koob before.  Neither had most of us, I think.  Never knew it was so much fun to try and knock down little 3x3" blocks of wood! 

Our opposition, planning their next move... (Buuuut...guess who won...??)

Jessica, an expert marksman

WE won.  Somehow I neglected to get a team photo, but here's our MVP!

Lisa, roasting bacon over the fire...it turned out great, btw...

Evans and his guitar

Ahi!  Yummm!

I love huge campfires that big groups can gather around like this.  Good times, friends!

Had to do a quick star-trail shot, of course.  I think it came out pretty well...just in time, because the moon was about to appear over the horizon.

Some slightly goofy light-painting followed.  ;)  Here's Rachel:

And some of us girls trying to put on our band faces (epic fail, but we had fun trying)

Tim's very cool YMCA

Sunday breakfast was omelettes.  Here Rachel and Jess are preparing to attack an omelette of Biblical proportions.

Friends :)

Brett and Erica, I really enjoyed getting to know you!

Evans led some wonderfully thought-provoking discussion on desire.  (Hey Evans, I still want those notes!)  The last Bible passage he left us to ponder was from Psalm 37.

I've always loved Psalm 37, and the following verses have been very meaningful lately too.  Here are verses 4-6:

Delight yourself in the Lord,

and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord;

trust in him, and he will act.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,

and your justice as the noonday.

May you delight yourself in him today...and may he give you the desires of your heart.

- Kelsey Schweickert

Discovering beauty...

Visit my website  |  Email me  |  Follow me on Twitter  |  Like my photography on Facebook