Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...

Well, Nate's spring break is here- FINALLY- so we decided we needed to get out of the city and go climb a mountain of some sort.  We looked at maps and discovered that one of the closest parks in Texas (with a mountain) was six hours away. Boo.  So we decided to head north to OKLAHOMA!!  I don't think either of us have ever been there, so it was a great opportunity to go and cross it off our list.  We left Friday morning...

Here we are all excited!  Madelyn is already sleeping in the back.  It's for the best, we still got stuck in traffic! Boo!

We drove through Wichita Falls on the way up to Oklahoma.  I actually lived here for a small part of my life, and so it was fun to visit this place again.  Of course I didn't remember anything because I was 5 or 6 when we lived here... Anyways!...

Taking a break before we leave the state of Texas.  We found bibs to be quite handy as Madelyn is a saliva-spitting machine.  She is staring quite intently at the dashboard.  If she's anything like me, she's going to be a button-pusher someday...

We finally made it to WICHITA MOUNTAINS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE! Hooray!  We are immediately greeted with this sign.  I was quite willing to heed the warning, but still very eager to encounter both the longhorn and the buffalo!

We stopped at the visitor center and discovered lots of fun facts.  But most importantly, that at this stage in her life, Madelyn could ride on a Bald Eagle or a California Condor, if she got the chance (Or she could still be attacked and eaten by either- not comforting!).  Good stuff to know.

After four hours of being in the car, Madelyn earned some Tummy time!  I supervised Madelyn while Nate did everything else...

Like set up the tent... Start the fire... Unload the car...

I made sure Madelyn didn't roll off the picnic table...

And that Madelyn didn't eat the apples (haha! You can see Madelyn's bald spot where she rubs her hair off!  How sad, cute, and funny all at the same time!)...  After all our hard work

We decided to go exploring and after strapping Madelyn on to me (despite her protests), we walked around this lake, called Quanah Parker Lake.  On the other side of the lake is our campsite!

Our first real buffalo sighting!  Right at the lake!  There were kayakers on the other side taking pictures of them as well.

And this is the dam at the lake.  A beautiful day for strolling along the lake.

This is on the trail to the top of a little hill called Little Baldy.  Madelyn fell asleep!

I was trying not to jostle Madelyn around too much while climbing, so I kept going "Nate! Help me up!"  He thought it was funny.

Here's Nate holding a buffalo.  We actually had a close encounter with one buffalo.  He started walking across the road, and Nathan blocked his way from getting to the other side.  I was nervous that the buffalo was going to ram the car, but instead he walked around the car, much to my relief!

And here's a longhorn, up on a hill!

How they survive on dried grass is amazing to me!

Sunset up on Mount Scott.  It was quite crowded up there, so we decided to keep driving around...

...and came across these little guys!  This one ran across the road, and Nate hit the brakes, yelling, "Look out! What is that?!"  I was all excited, shouting, "Prairie dogs! Prairie dogs! Prairie dogs!"  I was trying to get a picture of one standing up, but they're quick little critters!  I was happy just to get a semi-blurry picture of one!

Then there was this place in the park called Holy City.  The longest reenactment of the Easter Story.  More about it here.

At this point, we were looking for Elk, because we had seen buffalo and longhorn, so we were driving down all these roads, and saw this beautiful sunset at a deserted lake.  Looks like this was a picture opportunity just for us!

Here's our fire!

And here, we are trying to get Madelyn to enjoy camping.  She's bundled in two sleepers!  Both  father and daughter seem quite happy to be gazing into the flames...

Here, I'm trying to block the smoke from Madelyn.

Here's part of our dinner- mac and cheese by lantern light! How romantic, haha!

And here's the sunrise to greet us the next morning!  It was nice sleeping outside in the cold. I think even Madelyn enjoyed it... but somehow during the middle of the night...

She found her way into our bed!  How could this have happened? Mysterious things during the night...!

Here's our map of the park.  We were trying to figure out where we should go hike for the day!

More buffalo sighting!  And Nate's beard hair in the corner!

This time, Nate carried Madelyn on the hike!

We were hiking the small trail in the bottom right corner.  It's called the Kite Trail and followed along a creek.

Nate and Madelyn looking down the canyon at the creek!

When we reached the end of the trail. Nate looked at his GPS and said, it's faster to blaze a trail back to our car than just walking along the road.  So that's what we did!  Watch out for snakes!

And Cactus/Cacti!

And so we made it back to the car.  We drove to another hiking spot and were just starting when Madelyn started crying.  We went off the trail a ways, thinking if I fed her, she'd be better, but as soon as Nate would strap her back on, she'd cry again.  After a few more minutes of this, we said, "We're done for the day!" and high-tailed it out of there.  We found a shady spot to stop and let Madelyn kick around.  She seemed much happier after that.  I'm sure she was done being on Nate's back, and being in her car seat.  I didn't blame her!  Unfortunately, she was going to have to go back in her car seat for the long drive home.

One of our stops along the way back home.  She was happy as soon as we got her out of her car seat!  Look how chubby she is!

All in all, I think it was a fun trip.  The weather was perfect, lots to see, and it was fun just to be in the wilderness together.  We would recommend Wichita Mountains Refuge to anybody who wants to see some wildlife and hike some quick, fun trails.  I think next time, we'll try and go when it's not so crowded, and we'll try and find more opportunities for Madelyn to kick around and not be strapped in for so long.  She'll enjoy camping and hiking a lot more as she gets older, too.  

Next post to expect will be about this fun little gadget I got for Christmas: my yogurt maker!  I really enjoy making my own yogurt, and I hope after I show you how easy it is to make it, you'll want to try it too!

-Erin