Outer Banks 2013

 *This might be one of the longest posts ever.*

Last year, after a fantastic trip to Virginia beach with our friends, the Trulocks (Sam, Jenae, Mila, Emmitt), we decided that we needed to visit the beach together each year. We decided to go to the Outer Banks, NC this year, and it was amazing. We stayed in the town of Corolla. Our other friends, the Hadfields (Matt, Amber, Ana, Donny, Benjamin), were able to join us for the second half of the trip, too. We hadn't seen them for 2 years! We met both families when Derick was going to SVU, and have stayed good friends ever since. It was so nice to all hang out. We spent a whole week (June 1-8), and also rented a beach house, named Carpe Diem. It was awesome. At the end of the trip, we decided that we want to head back there next year. It was about the same distance for all of us (perfect!) and we felt like there were more things that we wanted to see. Plus, it was beautiful!

Highlights:

* Last year, we stayed in a hotel, so the adults didn't get to hang out after the kiddos went to sleep. Lesson learned. This year, we had tons of fun playing games, watching movies, and chatting with each other every night.
* The kids played so well together and entertained themselves for most of the day! Love that.
* Watching the guys teach themselves to skim board.
* The BEACH! It was beautiful. The waters were warm (for June, at the beach) and the sand was clean.
* TONS of sea shells.
* Crabs, of various sizes, crawling all over the beach.
* Yummy dinners: We each took a turn cooking a meal, which worked out nicely. We also got pizza a couple of times (Cosmo's pizza was amazing!).
* The french toast bagels from Lighthouse Bagels in Corolla. As Jenae said, they are "life-changing."
* Lots of ice cream! You can't deny that food is always a highlight of vacationing.
* Going up the the Corolla lighthouse and seeing the view. Also, knowing that we were climbing several flights of metal stairs to get to the top during a rain storm. Scary! :-)
* The kids really enjoyed the aquarium we went to on a rainy day.
* The general atmosphere! It was the cutest place. Like straight out of a movie.
* The dolphins we saw during high tide on our last evening there. There were tons. So cool.
* How happy the kids were the whole time. Lincoln LOVES the beach, and I think Bennett does now, too.
* Seeing the kids get so tired that they would fall asleep and take long naps in our beach tent.
* Us gals having a life guard swim out to us to tell us that we were in a rip tide. Huh. No wonder we were getting so far out. Ha ha. We had no idea.
* Watching Sam pace the shore when he could see how far out we were getting.
* Derick being buried in the sand and falling asleep.
* Sam and Jenae getting so burned on the first day that they had to be fully clothed for the rest of the trip. I can't say that this was a highlight, but it did happen.
* Watching the kids ride on our crocodile raft. They loved it.
* Riding on the croc. It was fun, I'm not gonna lie.
* Realizing, after we were 20 minutes away from the beach house on our way back home, that we left the crocodile at beach house, and turning around to go get it.
* Watching "The Impossible" and then knowing that there was a hurricane headed in our general direction. Sheesh.
* Watching Bennett get so excited when the tide would come in and touch his feet.
* Watching Bennett eat sand and not care. Also, watching Bennett face plant in the sand, have it all over his face, and still not care.
* Watching Lincoln run and jump constantly in the water.
* Watching Lincoln try to boogie board. He actually just liked dragging it around with him.
* playing horse shoes on the beach.
* Lincoln having to go pee, but not understanding exactly what we meant when we said "go in the ocean." He went to the edge of the water, dropped his pants, and went.
* Lugging basically everything but the kitchen sink to the beach with us. When you have kids, you have to bring a lot of stuff. We must have been quite a sight.
* Being on a piece of land so skinny that sometimes we could see the sound and sea at the same time.
* Seeing the kids be so excited about having their own room.
* Having good kids that were flexible with everything!
* The guys were excited to have cable so that they could watch ESPN/SportsCenter.
* Driving over a several-mile-long draw bridge to get to the island.  Ok, this was scary.
* Walking into an Ace Hardware, and seeing just as much beach gear as an actual beach shop.
* Stopping in the town of Duck to walk around for a bit, and having the owner of one of the shops tell us that he lives in Corolla and that it's the best area.
* Lincoln's Chinese face while biting into a ginormous donut.