Kimmswick and back again

Hoo. Long weekend.
We were in Kimmswick, Mo., at the Cuivre River State Park, for a contra dance weekend, where I learned a few things, mostly about traveling with Jamie, which I'm still pretty new at.
Rachel and Jamie and I went in the first car, which left during the day, avoided the bad weather and stopped at Nancy's Knitworks in Springfield after lunch.
The Fool and Edward went in the second car, which left after work, drove through the rain and the road construction and arrived at camp at 2 a.m.
Rachel and I think we got the best of it, even though by the time we got to camp, Jamie was taking pains to explain to us that he was done with riding in the car. Instead, he had a fun night at the contra dance.
He hung out with me while I called two dances, he nursed, he ate some Cheerios and fruit and when he got tired, he fell asleep and I was able to shift him to the table, where I took this picture that people will be telling him about until he has children of his own.

The only thing I didn't think through very carefully was the shoe problem. Jamie has a thing for shoes. He likes to pick them up, pull on the laces, and eventually, chew on them. Which I have a problem with, because, eew. Contra dance weekends are defined by a room full of shoes, either dance shoes people are changing into, or street shoes they're changing out of. So I spent most of Jamie's time on the floor discouraging him from messing with shoes, of which there were something like 600 lying around, or so it seemed.

When the Fool and I went to our cozy two-bunk cabin to sleep, we discovered another thing. I - and there are blog readers who will confirm this - used to be pretty outdoorsy. At least outdoorsy enough to think that cabin camping with mattresses was downright cushy.
Yeah.
Uh, not so much. Especially when I arrive unprepared, which I did. The Fool and I put the mattresses on the floor, I nursed Jamie, he went to sleep between us, and we tried to sleep too. That's when I found out my mattress was squishier and lower than the Fool's mattress, which resulted in me spending a cozy and cramped night with Jamie, who rolled onto my mattress and stayed there until morning.
The next night, I told the Fool he was trading mattresses with me so we could both enjoy an uncomfortable night. It was colder, though, and so not only did Jamie roll onto his mattress, I did too, as we hadn't brought enough covers for the two of us.
(I was telling a friend about this, and she said, 'So it was like dormitory sex except with a baby?' and I said, 'yes!' I told the Fool, and he said, 'There wasn't any sex!' I said, "That's the 'with a baby' part.")
But cramped nighttime accomodations aside, we got to visit with lots of friends, eat rhubarb-apple crisp at the potluck, play tunes, hear some great old-time music by some outstanding practitioners of the art, go for a hike by the river and dance a bit (although not as much as I would have liked). The Cosmic Otters had a really good gig Sunday morning. I was very pleased with how we played. Turns out band practice really pays off!

And now we are home and refreshed, and, hooray.
I've been knitting lace this week. I have an unfinished Icarus shawl and a wedding in June and a fantasy about finishing the shawl to wear to the wedding.
The Fool is knitting too, but thinks a Dale of Norway sweater isn't interesting enough to show the blog. Hmmf.