We survived....

I have to start this with a little story about the first time that Jim and I went tent camping. It was at a place that was very appropriately named "Cape Foul Weather." It rained the entire time we were there except for about 5 minutes in the middle, and then for the amount of time it took us to pack up and leave. We later found out that it was the location where the Coast Guard does their high seas training....

So flashforward to this weekend and the first time we went tent camping with the kids.
The tents and cots were provided because we were at a boy scout camp. This was the fall campout for the cub scouts. It had been running to about 80 degrees during the day and only dipping into the upper 40s at night. However, there was a cold snap in the Southeast and the low point happened to coincide with this weekend...

I was worried about the temperture and I did go get the coldest weather sleeping bags I could find for the kids.....

It wasn't too bad in the evening, but with all of the activities the council planned by the time we got back to the tents we had loopy tired cub scouts. The tents were on platforms and had raised cots. I am sure that they are delightful in the summer, but in the winter that is a lot of cold air coming up from the bottom.
We could only have up to three cots in a tent so for our family we had Daddy's tent and Mommy's tent.
Josie and Doug decided to be in Daddy's tent. Doug snuggled down in his bag and only had a little bit of chilliness in the middle of the night. Jim threw a couple of towels over him and he was then fine. Josie got chilly but Jim pulled out every trick he knew and she made it through the night. He had his big coat on top of her. He gave her a heat strip in her bag. He put something under her to help.

In mommy's tent for all but about 2 hours I had Andy in my sleeping bag with me. We unzipped his bag and threw it over the top of us with our heads underneath. I didn't sleep much, but I was very glad when I saw that it was light out and time to get up.

After the morning activities and check out we headed home for warm showers and a nap.

Fortunately someone found that during the night in a nearby town there was recorded a temperature of 32 degrees so that means that every boy who slept outside (no going into the cars) during the campout gets their Polar Bear badge. It is small consolation for such a chilly night and I now REALLY appreciate my warm house and especially my electric blanket.