Define success...

True to our word, we did rent a canoe yesterday. We put Maddie in her doggy life vest, had her jump in the canoe and pushed off. She absolutely refused to sit down for me, so Rob did what any good father would do - threatened to pull over the canoe. Maddie spent the rest of the paddle sitting in the back with Rob. She was ok. She didn't love it and she really didn't understand why she couldn't stand up, walk around or get a drink from the lake while we were moving, but she didn't hate it either. She loved the part where we pulled up on an island and she got to go swimming. Canoe camping is probably not going to happen any time soon, there's just too much of a risk of her dumping us out. We'll keep trying though and eventually we'll get there.


Other parts of our trip did go well - camping and cooking were both good, including the walleye and carrots cooked in foil on the campfire (yay!). It was very nice to eat real food and not rely on pb & j all weekend! We also had several very nice long walks and spotted some interesting wildlife including a doe and her fawn this morning. Deer aren't unusual where we live, but we don't often catch a glimpse of a fawn. It was a great weekend and will be very do-able with Nora (all except the canoeing). In fact, I saw a couple of families tent camping with toddlers so it can't be all that crazy of an idea.

Even though canoeing with Miss Madness didn't go as well as I'd hoped, I'm still rating the weekend a success.

Here's a moment of camping zen: