Camping in freezing temps

Jenny  left  for the weekend. So the kids and I decided to hit the woods at a near by state park.  They were hard core and I grew a whole new appreciation and respect for how tuff they can really be.  It was nice no electronics just us and nature. The highlight for me was driving home and them trying to plan the next one.

The days were nice but the nights dipped into the high 20's.  It was frigid.  We got out to the site friday with only about a hour till dark.  They helped set up camp and gather wood as quickly as we could cause the temps were dropping fast.  Kai was a pack mule and really made a hand.  Kennedy thought her own pillow was to heavy so we managed to help her pack in.  That night we had awesome camp fire buffalo burger patties the trip was total paleo and gluten free it was refreshing.

They decided to go to bed around 730 the first night but we woke at 500.  the temps were brutal and seemed like we could not get close enough to the fire to really knock the chill.  We made camp fire eggs and buffalo sausage for breakfast they helped and loved it.  I finally got a cast iron pan and was excited to use it for the second time.  We hiked around following animal tracks through the woods and letting their imaginations run wild with what kids of strange creatures were out and about. Listening to there imaginations and theories on the wilderness was priceless.  Around 10 we went to a class on bald eagles and toured the local nature center at the park.  The class was 2 hours and horribly boring i'm surprised they sat through it.  after we hiked to some look out points to look through the binos and check them out. one of the points was only a couple hundred yards from camp.  I told Kai if he read a book we got I would take them horse back riding (which seems to always be very unpredictable)

I thaught surely Kennedy will want to ride with me.  But she decided she needed her own horse and demanded a black one.  The cowboys accommodated her not wanting the sharp tongue lashing she could deliver.  not far into the trail the group behind us got to close and the mans horse behind Kais bit his horses butt.  His horse freaked out and started bucking throwing Kai a good 6 ft it was scary and me not being the cowboy type was really confused on how to handle it. (the trip was unguided)  So I jumped off my horse and grabbed all three tied em up and tried to help Kai.  He fought back the tears and decided he wanted to keep going.  Getting him back on the horse with out the step was tuff. Little did i realize me getting back on would be much harder. It was quite comical   Later the idiot that let his horse get up on Kais threw him so it partially made up and we all got a laugh from that.

Saturday night we were tired from the days adventures and we had some killer amies chili from the can (by far the best can chili I have ever tasted) and Buffalo hot dogs the kids roasted there own.  We brought gracie as kind of a guard dog later that night we found her to be quite worthless in that regard.  About 9 ish we herd something demolishing our campsite the I opened the tent and without glasses swore it was a small black bear. I got my glasses and light and saw a huge black dog looking animal. Kennedy was right in the mix of it all.  Kai was scared and grabbed the machete and told me he was going to chop its head off if it came close to the tent. The animal ran off and returned several times. Kai finally looked at it.  We googled images and I swear it was a large black wolf.  My friends say there is no wolfs in OK but I know what we saw.  Needless to say it was hard getting them to sleep.  That night dipped into the mid 20's. We woke up early again they were about 30 min behind me. Good thing too so i had time to start a big fire. We ended the trip with another great campfire skillet breakfast scrambled eggs and turkey sausage.  When i went to pack up about 10 there was still ice on the tent and poles were all froze together with sheet ice making it challenging. But we managed.  We had to leave Sunday and return to baseball practice and school.  But for the weekend we felt free of obligation and normal hassles of life.  The kids do a lot better behaving in the woods than back at home. No fighting or name calling and always willing to help and pull there fair share. If only I could translate that back to the everyday routine. But then I guess I would not appreciate there behavior in the woods as much.