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We went camping in October. I was SO nervous to take the kids with me in the cold. We were all trying to imagine all the outcomes and cold situations we could be in so we could be prepared for the worst!

There wasn’t supposed to be any rain, thankfully. It was just supposed to get down in the low 30s at night. That’s really cold to be outside, especially with kids! (At least for me and my kids!)

I watched the Outdoor Boys youtube video on cold camping gear! That was super helpful. I’m so grateful that he even put that on youtube so beginners at cold camping like me would have the right ideas of what to do. So we watched our video and loaded up everything we thought we’d need!

The Right Tent

Here’s our tent all set up! We brought a pop up tent. It’s my absolute favorite. It takes no time at all to set up and I think the inside is about 6’ tall! It’s been so great we actually bought a second one for the boys so they could have their own and the parents could have one!

The reason we love this one is because it’s a popup tent. The poles stay attached and once you open it up and extend the poles you are done! There is no figuring out which tent pole goes where, and you can set up your tent in about 5 minutes. The rain fly goes on in about 1 minute.

Guaranteed: you’re camping’s going to be “in-tents” lol.

Jamison didn’t come with us this time so it was just me and the boys. We all fit just fine on the floor together!

Sleeping Bags

I could probably write a whole post on different types of sleeping bags that we use at our house!

We had a whole set up for staying warm.

We have two kinds of sleeping bags for the boys. We have a fun one that glows in the dark! They light up as little stars at night. This sleeping bag was shoved inside of an ozark sleeping bag from Walmart. The two sleeping bags were rated for 30 degrees. The glow in the dark one is rated for 30 degrees fahrenheit/1 degree celcius too.

Together they made quite the insulation for the boys! They worked great!

I had this sleeping bag that you see Andrew with, with a fleece blanket inside it! My favorite part was the velcro that kept it all zipped when I turned from side to side while I slept. I was a little restless! It also can connect to another sleeping bag to become a two person sleeping bag.

We brought THREE sleeping bags per person! It was hilarious to see but it worked wonders. We were cozy and warm. We slept great both nights!

Hand Warmers

Aiden’s favorite thing was the hand warmers. I bought a whole bunch before we left so that we could use them at night. He put them all up and down his sleeping bag, put them in his shoes, stuffed them in his hat, in his pajamas. Pretty much anywhere he could think of. He would slowly pull them out because he got too warm. So they work really well!

I laughed so hard when we were cleaning up at the pile of hand warmers that came out of his sleeping bag. There were at least 8 in there!

I may look a little crazy but that blow up mat only took about 2 minutes to blow up. If I didn’t get light headed it would have been faster too! My insulation was in so many layers. I had a yoga mat, then the hihiker air mattress pad, then a sleeping bag, then my sleeping bag! Layers are key!

We got everything set up, got the fire started, and made dinner. One of my essentials is the KingCamp Lawnchair. We call it the couch! It’s my favorite chair! We bring one chair to all the soccer games and when the boys need a breather from soccer, friends, or want to snuggle their mama, they can do that anytime.

Dinner was walking tacos cooked completely with their mess kits! We have a fancy mess kit and a normal one.

The kids wanted to make our dinner in our mess kits this time! It was great! We had to split the meat between three pans because they were tiny but overall it was awesome. These mess kits were the dishes we used throughout the whole trip. They were great sizes and I’m going to grab one more for when the whole family goes!

But I will cook all the meat in the dutch oven and not divide it up again!

For breakfast we would have banana muffins and warm them up in the mess kits with hot chocolate in the Dutch Oven.

Being able to stick a pot directly in the fire is so convenient when you are waiting to cook. We threw the dutch oven on the fire and warmed up some water to have hot chocolate. It was the perfect way to start your day! It feels so special to start the day with a fire and a cup of warm deliciousness!

I’ve never been the one camping that has to do the fire, the food, the set up, and take down all by myself. I was SO grateful Jamison asked me before we left if I had leather gloves for the dutch oven. We used them for all the cooking we did!

During the summer I made fire starters with the girls from Girls Camp from church. We took a few matches, wrapped them in twine with a loop on the end so we could hold it and then dipped them into wax to waterproof them. When you light 4-6 matches at once they light like a torch!

Andrew wasn’t sure what to expect when he lit his. He saw the huge flame and chucked it across the campsite! We had to run over and put it in the firepit. He’s still working on his fire making skills. Turns out you have to stop the oldest from doing stuff so the youngest actually learns how to do stuff for themselves!

He spent a lot more time playing with fire during this camping trip. There are great skills that come away from playing with fire. Grass Roots Muddy Boots has a great post about the positive skills that come from kids learning fire skills. Wildlings Forest School has one about using flint and steel to strike the fire too.

We had s’mores at night and then the boys took me to the bathroom. It was SO far away. While we were walking we had our Head Lamps on. I loved the head lamp though because it made my hands free! I feel like they are way more user friendly than flashlights. When in doubt, always go with the head lamp.

Unfortunately with our head lamps on we could see a whole pack of raccoons’ eyes that were glowing back at us. They were waiting for people to be gone to start going through the campsite. We ruined their plans! Instead of running away they just froze. They didn’t move at all! I would have really appreciated them running back into the woods.

After seeing all their little reflective eyes I had such a hard time falling asleep. Why do raccoons have to have thumbs!? That means their little hands could undo our tent zipper. I would lose my freaking mind if a raccoon got into our tent. I would have such a hard time going camping ever again.

Needless to say, I really did have a hard time going to bed. I was quite tired on Thursday from not sleeping the night before.

Friday morning we used the fire color changing packets. They are super easy to use. You just throw them in, wrapping and all. They last about an hour! The boys could have stared at it as long as it would have lasted. I don’t know of anything else that keeps their attention quite as much as a fire.

Thursday night I decided to change my MO and took an anxiety pill to fall asleep. I was already tired, had a much lower heart rate, and fell asleep so quickly. Because the temperature was so cool and we were cozy in our sleeping bags, I actually had to wake the boys up each morning! I was so surprised that I was the first one up both days! We were playing so hard.

Aiden made a bow for an arrow he found in the forest during the day. It was awesome. Then he had to find different sticks and see which one would help it shoot the best. We left with so many bows in the car and one less football than we came with.

All in all, it was an awesome trip. We liked it better than going when it’s warm because our allergies weren’t as bad, there weren’t as many bugs. Being cold meant we could go by the fire or snuggle up in our sleeping bags. We went through crazy amount of firewood while we were there. I bought two bundles at a store before we left. Jamison showed me a big 2×3 bin we had full of wood AND my father in law brought another one of wood up for us. We went through EVERY SINGLE STICK. Every one. That was a huge surprise to me. So now I know that it takes half a car full of wood to make it through a cold camping trip.