The coldest camping trip ever

I have this special gift of scheduling camping trips on what turn out to be the coldest nights of the year. Autumn, winter, spring, doesn't matter; if I'm camping, it'll be cold. A few friends and I had this camping weekend planned for two months and as the week went on, the forecast worsened. I called Mallory to feel her out on canceling, but she was determined. We were going camping. 

So in the pouring rain, the four of us girls loaded up every blanket we owned, threw on about five layers of clothes and made the most of it. Granted, we were staying in a shelter instead of a tent, so we may have been cheating, but we were still roughing it. We stapled up plastic on the screened sides and warmed the room with a space heater. I woke up a few times in the night from the chill, but it wasn't awful.

The next morning, we cooked breakfast and went on a hike. Even though the weather wasn't great, I'm glad I got the chance to soak up the last few days of fall. In Texas, you blink your eyes and the autumn colors are gone.

These pictures were taken barely a week ago. Today, the leaves are gone and the hustle of Christmas has arrived. 

I took Murphy with us and he did not enjoy being on a leash all weekend. This picture doesn't accurately portray how cold it was. I forgot my coat for the trip, so I wore every layer of clothes I brought. And I took my gloves off for this picture because they looked like huge oven mitts. 

It's a hard life for the Murphy boy.

That night, we made smores and sat around the fire, sipping wine and listening to Christmas music. It was one of those rare, lazy nights where time slows and you tuck the world away for a while; and it was exactly what I needed. 

I'm so glad we braved the cold and bid adieu to Autumn.