Camping with the Clines

We returned yesterday from our first camping excursion of the year. We felt brave enough Tuesday to take Madeleine (and Maggie) up Rock Creek for a night in the great outdoors. We found a great campsite with lots of signs of moose and far enough from the "creek" (more like a raging torrent currently) to be safe.

Overall, it was a great time. We took two tents: one for Justin and Maggie and one for Madeleine and me. While next time I think we'll put Madeleine in a tent by herself, it was a fairly successful experiment. She went to bed really easily and only woke up in the middle of the night when I was trying to zipper her sleeping bag up. Then she realized how cool I am and wanted to play. She quickly changed her mind about my coolness when she banged herself in the head with the flashlight. Justin wasn't too far away but didn't hear the slight distress in our tent. Madeleine and I did spend about an hour and a half awake together with me trying to help her relax enough to fall back asleep. But every time my hand stopped stroking her head or rubbing her back, her head would pop up off the mat and we'd start the process all over with me barely staying awake.

I was really glad to see sun on the tent in the morning because that meant we had both fallen back asleep for at least half of the night. It got quite chilly during the night, hence my anxiety about keeping her warm and the subsequent "play time" we had and I ended up using an extra fleece blanket to keep me warm enough. We had hoped to go for a hike before leaving but Madeleine was extra sleepy after the interrupted night and we decided it would be best not to test the situation. She slept on the way home and later took a 3 hour nap. We learned a few lessons about what to do differently and look forward to implementing those maybe next week!

(This is the fairyslipper flower I found by the creek...a wonderful find!)