A Memorial Day to remember!!

My goodness! It's been 8 days since I posted. I better get on the ball...

God has blessed our family in countless ways. Whether it's been directly providing material things that we need, or protection, timely rest, etc, He's always been there for us! Just in the past year, He's given us 1) a newer car to replace one with almost 200K miles (free from a family member), 2) A pellet stove (very inexpensive from a church family member) when filling the tank with oil again would have broken the bank, and 3) a pop-up camper and a truck to pull it with (next to nothing, also from a family member). The first 2 were things that we knew we needed, but there was no way we could have afforded any of them at full price at the times we needed them. The camper was something we always wanted to get to use for inexpensive family vacations, but figured it would be years before we could afford one. Talk about provision!

So this weekend, we took our camper (1995 Coleman Utah) for the inaugural Colarusso Family Camping Extravaganza!! Our church does an annual Memorial Day camping trip to a local campground, and it was high time that we hit the camp trail! In short, we had a phenomenal weekend! It was so much fun. I have always been into camping since I was a kid, but this was my first experience in a camper rather than a tent. What a difference! Of all the stuff we did, the highlight for me, by far, was the incredible quality time I got to spend with my 2 older sons, Ryan and Kevin. It was really good weekend for the boys. Despite some arguments between them, they had a terrific time together. Most importantly, we got to have our first experience with the ultimate boy time, FISHING!!! They've been asking me to go fishing this year, so I bought them each their own "Cars" fishing poles, and a starter tackle box for them to share. I showed them how to cast, and off they went! They did an awesome job! Here's me showing them how to cast...



And here are 2 short video clips of them casting into the pond. Sorry I don't have sound recording on my camera. You'll just have to imagine me saying, "OK, give it a good flick.", and Kevin saying "Wow! That was far!", and Ryan (the first-born...) saying, "Mine went farther!". :)




Then we went hiking. There was a trail that went around the fishing pond. Nice easy trail that took about 20 minutes (at a 4 year old's pace) to hike. It was a great time of looking at God's Creation, and talking with the boys about The Creator. After spending time in the woods, it's a wonder to me how anyone with 2 eyes and a brain could make the claim that it all came from random chance, and that all the birds, frogs, snakes, and bears (yes, bears) that we saw came from a single cell that crawled out of the ooze. Crazy. Here are some pictures from our hike...

When we left to come back home, the boys were asking when we could go camping again! Awesome! We're going at the end of July to Word of Life Bible camp. Can't wait! There's so much more I need to write about the trip, but it would take too long for one night. Besides, I have to leave some stuff for my wife to post about on our family page.

Then, to finish up the weekend, while my family went to Pastor Brinkerhoff's house to watch the local Memorial Day parade, I took a day trip to south Jersey to pick up another blessing from God; a gently used, really high quality leather sofa (from a family member) to replace our cheap, old, falling apart, stained sofa. Again, what a great provider God is!!!

I'll leave you with a picture of "camper, sweet camper". Oh, and there's my beautiful wife who once again amazed me, this time with her mad skills at camping!