Off the grid...

...well, kind of. I mean, as much as I'm willing to be with two toddlers and a dog.

Dave gets a week off every May between Spring and Summer semesters, which is all kinds of awesome. So, a few months back we booked a camping trip at a state park about 1.5 hours from us. We'd taken the twins camping once before, but we had a cabin then. This time we figured we were ready for a yurt.

Yes, we are slowly weaning ourselves back to tent camping.

We figured a yurt was safe -as it had a heater and electricity- that way if it rained a bunch we were still warm at night and dry. But it didn't have a bathroom or sink or anything, and was pretty small and with it's tent-like exterior, we were still Camping =)

Good thing too...because it rained the entire first afternoon we were there, ALL night, and until lunch time the next day.

(Luke is such a ham lately!)

(I wonder where he gets it...)

We had borrowed a camping stove from some friends, and I'm so glad we did. We boiled hot dogs on there the first night, under the rain protection of the covered porch...

And of course we had to make S'Mores!

We tried to kill time playing new games inside. I attempted "52 card pick up" with the twins...they got bored after picking up about half. 

We got bored...

The yurt had a futon that converted to a full sized bed, and a bunk with a twin on top/full on the bottom. The first night Abbey and I shared the full bottom bunk, and Daddy and Luke shared the futon bed (AKA "The Back Destroyer").  Snuggling with our babies overnight was one of Dave and I's favorite parts of the trip, hands down.
A severe down side to this yurt was the skylight. While beautiful, it also allowed the sun to stream in at 5:30am.
As sweet as it was cuddling with our babies, it was slightly less adorable when they were poking our faces and saying "it's morning now!" at the crack of dawn.

The rain had a break in it the first morning, so we made a mad dash for the beach, even though it was incredibly windy.

Luke didn't care one bit that it was cold and windy. He was thrilled to be exploring. I swear, that boy will endure nearly any element to get to be outside!

Dory was having a blast too. This was our first trip to the beach with her, and she was soooo in love. She kept running and sliding into the sand and rolling around. We were so glad we brought her!

We were only on the beach about 10 minutes before Abbey declared "I'm cold Momma. I want to go back to da yurt"

I was too, so back we went.

When the boys (and Dory) returned, we decided to load up in the van and head into town for lunch...mainly because we were all a little sick of the inside of the yurt at that point.

Over lunch Dave and I debated just packing up and heading home that day. We came thisclose to doing so. In fact, we decided that was the plan and headed back to camp. But on the way there, the sun came out!!!

The kids were thrilled to play with their new trucks (thank you, Target Dollar Spot) and sidewalk chalk.

...and just run around outside!

We were finally able to make a real campfire!

S'Mores the right way!

The twins were all about the bunk bed. They loved climbing the side up to the top bunk over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

The next day was beautiful and we were SO glad we had stayed!

We hit the beach...

It was such a beautiful area...

AbbeyGirl had an absolute blast digging...

And playing Fetch with Dory!

Dave and Luke jumped some waves...

...annnnd back to digging =)

Our little Family...

Daddy took the twins to take showers while I packed the van up and cleaned out the yurt...

All in all it was a trip for the Memory Books and we are so glad we went! We look forward to many more camping trips to come =)