I'm awfully late on this and because of it I'm sure I'll be missing some really good details due to memory failure.

Abby, Ben and myself were the first ones to arrive at Lake Piru (the first time we've held the annual event at this location) so I grabbed the keys to the group campsite gate and headed off to see what lay in front of us. It was a great location with the only downside being that the water was terribly low this year; We had to trek down a non-trail to get to the water for a steep but short 50 yards or so.

Pat showed up next with his kids and the two of us sorta hung out and chatted for a bit, trying to find a cool spot to construct our tents without taking the BEST sites since it seemed only fair that Matt and Darin get best picks for putting everything together (and supplying the boat!). We meandered along with our tent and camp setup, half waiting for others to arrive. It was actually quite a while before I realized that we had ZERO cell signal in the canyon so I was worried that some may have gotten lost or due to lack of communication, might have turned around. Thankfully there was an old-fashioned "pay phone" (pay phone!) which I used to hook up with a few people and assure that things were still a "go".

Once everyone was dialed in with their camp site crap (tents, sleeping bags, air mattresses for us older guys and all of the kid stuff), it was time to relax and play. We hiked around and went down to the water and cruised around the camp for a bit before settling down for a fire and some cooking. A group of kids ran into several deer while cruising but I didn't see any the very first night.

My Dad, brother Pat and myself tossed the football around for a bit with others coming in and out of play along the way. Boy, that sure reminded me of 30 years ago... it was great!

The kids ate minimal "real" food in anticipation of s'mores and boy did they love 'em. Ben kept putting marshmallows on his skewer, sticking it next to the fire for 20 seconds and then eating them. He'd supplement with chocolate once in a while but that was about it. Abigail preferred to cook but was not in to eating the things. I forget the deets of the other kids (because I've waited to long to post!) but I do recall being a little nervous with some of the younger campers running around with skewers or getting a bit too close to the fire. That's why they call me Nellie.

It was a fairly early night on Friday and I must admit, I had the best tent accommodations of the entire group. My daughter hopped into brother Joe's tent so it was just Ben and I in a tent designed to sleep 5 or more. Ahhhh... sweet, wonderful space.

I should mention that Dave's youngest son is a Boy Scout so he not only handled tent duty (for the most part) for Dave, he also took care of scary story telling for the other kids around the campfire. I forget if the stories happened on Friday or Saturday night. My daughter was terrified (thanks Dave!) and Ben was in awe.

Saturday didn't start too early as compared to previous years (at least for me). Darin and Matt launched the boat and anchored right off our campsite. The boat was running for most of the day because there were quite a few kids to "service". Thankfully we had enough drivers so that no single person had to spend the day behind the wheel. I think I pulled kids on two outings and took the younger ones out for a "softer" cruise. Still, Matt and Darin got roped in for most of the pilot duty. But I'm jumping ahead!...

One of the kids spied a gorgeous gopher snake cruising just below our campsite (she had to be 4.5 feet long and with beautiful colors) and while we tracked her a bit, she eventually darted into a hole to escape the snake version of "paparazzi" (that would be all of us bipeds). Then later, as the kids were down at the lake and a few were hanging out in the boat another one (presumably) swam right by brother Pat and eventually found the ladder to climb up INTO THE BOAT! Abby was in there, along with Caroline (Joe's oldest) and some other kids. I forget who jumped in and grabbed the snake but a few minutes later Matt's middle son (Ross) was handling it like a bloody snake charmer. Matt's whole family is well-trained in the art of "respect for wildlife" so he was gentle.

Those are really my only two snake stories but after two in just a small period of time, we made sure we looked where we stepped. And in fact, we went on a couple of snake expeditions, hoping to find even bigger and diverse species... no such luck this time.

That's kinda it for Saturday: We spent our time down at the lake and on the boat and yanking kids on this crazy flotation device which I hope to add pictures for later. Oh, we all saw plenty of deer on Saturday, something that absolutely blew me away given our proximity to civilization (we were pretty close). Well, my battery died in my camera on Saturday so I don't have too many pix but am hoping to get some from the other dads to make a more complete representation of things.

Chalking one up for the McDonald family (all four of us boys and our kids and our Dad attended), we had a little astronomy question come into play about what was "that bright thing in the Western sky?". Pat thought it was Venus but another chap figured it was Jupiter. Pat was pretty sure but being older and wiser than me, he left it open to the notion that he could be wrong. Of course, once he got home he checked things out and he was indeed correct. Venus was it and while Jupiter was also visible, it came up later from the East. I hope no one is noticing how I'm riding Pat's coattails on this one...

So after a long day in the sun, we all went down fairly early on Saturday and got up at a reasonable time on Sunday. Most of the time I start packing straight away when I have to leave on that day but I was determined to stay for as long as I could because the kids were having so much fun.

I packed at a leisurely rate, taking breaks to head down to the water and that sort of thing. Joe helped me roll up my tent (Thanks Joe!) which was the last one standing and I packed up most of the stuff in the truck, except for the ice chest, basic food supplies and clothing for my family.

We had some nice boating time and more time in the lake and then it was time to help get the boat trailered up. I went with Matt, along with my kids and we sputtered around for a bit while waiting for our turn at the small launch ramp. Ben got to drive for a few minutes which was nice. We loaded up with a small glitch here and there and then most everyone was off to home. I made my way back to the site with Matt and packed up the rest of our stuff and then hung out at the lake for at least another 90 minutes. Like I said, the kids were having a ball. The Ranger came down to check on us (since we were to be outta there by 2pm and it was now 4pm) but since no one else had reserved the site, he let us hang a bit longer. And so we did.

This was the best year (in my view) for several reasons: Both of my kids are at a manageable age (3 and 5), it was close to home (45 minutes), it was a small group of dads and kids and it was plain mellow. Sure, we were all exhausted by the time we got home but it was a good kind of tired. After 6 years of this group going, we're getting close to perfecting the family-friendly group camping experience.

Thanks again to Darin, Matt and Kent (all master campers) and to everyone else who attended -- Y'all helped make a very good time for me and my family.