NC Outer Banks Day Trip

I can't believe it is already the middle to end of August.  In so many ways I am excited for summer to be over, anticipating fall and all the great weather, football, and fun holidays.  At the same time, for so many years (31 prior in fact) my favorite season of the year has been summer.  This year, I just have not been a summer girl.  

It may be due to mosquito-zika season, or the incredibly hot summer it has felt like in VA, or my general displeasure with VA area beaches, but fall in calling my name loud and clear!

We didn't want summer to escape us without some sort of day trip to the Outer Banks. It's been nearly 15 years since I was there and Rich had never been. 

 We woke up one Sunday morning and map quested how close the main attractions we were interested in were from our house.  Surprisingly we could get there in less than two hours.  We packed up the car (left the dogs at home) and hit the road:

 I was really pleased with how pretty the outer banks beaches were.  On this day, the water was almost tropical blue (though its hard to tell in this photo).  There were shells EVERYWHERE!  It was a hot day so we didn't walk too far and we didn't take our bathing suits because this was more of an exploratory trip.

 You can't be married to an Air Force man without visiting the birthplace of aviation!  I had been to the Wright Brothers Museum and memorial in 7th grade, but coming back this time so many years later I had a greater appreciation of what those two brothers went through to give us the gift of flight!

 From atop the monument you can see where they flew their test glider.  I cannot believe they were able to carry it up this hill on hot days.  I could barely walk up just myself-and I had to take a break!

After Kitty Hawk we ventured down to Rodanthe where we stumbled upon the house from Nights in Rodanthe.  It is now an INN and you can spend a week here!  They've mostly restored it to how the movie depicts it and it is under new ownership.  It was moved off the beach within the last few years to protect it.  It really stood out amongst the other places there and was so easy to find. 

Wrightsville Weekend with Friends

At the end of July our bestest friends invited us down to the beach for a weekend of celebrating Kristen's 30th birthday!  Kristen always provides a great time and this weekend was no different!  We had so much fun and I even managed to stay up past 10 pm for nights in a row (of course I paid for it on night three...) but it was so worth it!

I'll never take for granted that we have close friends within a 4 hours drive!  There really is not many other feelings I enjoy more than spending time with my college friends. 

 To celebrate the big birthday we had dinner at the Pilot House and sang Karaoke at our favorite lil hole in the wall in Wilmington, the same place we sang for my bachelorette.  I loved the view from the Pilot House and the food was awesome too! Highly recommend for anyone headed to the Wilmington area. 

 This photo is proof that I was awake past sunset, a rare event for this lady.

The last day we were able to take our friend's family's new boat out for a spin and a boat day.  It was a perfect day!  Rich even got the drive the boat back to the marina since he just got his boating license.   We had such an awesome time with these fabulous friends for the weekend, so glad they all live so close to us that we can make weekend trips like this even possible!

Family News!

 Family News!  I've been a little MIA around here as we've been so happily revealing in our family news!  We will become a family of five in January (dogs are family too, folks!).  We are so excited and enjoying this time as a family of four for the time being.

 Ellie sums up my experience in the first trimseter.....lots of napping, fatigue...and general exhaustion.

Second trimester has brought a lot more of this: getting ready!