Outer Banks 2014 (June 7-14)

As soon as we flew back to Richmond from AZ, we immediately drove to the Outer Banks for our beach trip. We were a day late (the 8th instead of the 7th) because of the funeral (but that's okay!) and were so anxious to get there! Thankfully, it was only 3 hours from the Richmond airport, because we were beyond exhausted from the red-eye flight. It was just our little family at the beach this year, but we had a blast and really enjoyed the time together. Great memories were made. I am posting TONS of pictures. Some of them are going to be super similar to one another. But I just couldn't decide of which of these cute pics of my boys to use!

Here's our beach condo, named "Almost Wasn't." Terrible name, great location.

 And here's the view from the house to the beach access. It was so nice to be so close!!

This is a view from the beach to our house.

After we got to the beach house and checked in, we headed straight over to the beach to check it out. Bennett shrieked with delight as soon as he saw the water. Lincoln loves the beach more than pretty much anything. They were two happy boys.

 

Lincoln found this fish pillow in the house and snuggled with it. Hmm...

 

Our first true beach day! So exciting!

 

Staring at a big crab.

 

There are tons of these crabs everywhere!

 

Derick kicking sand at it.

 

Getting some made-to-order donuts from Duck Donuts. You also get to watch the whole process. They were yummy!

 

Getting some yummy seafood at Steamers. I don't know why Lincoln was crying here, but it's a priceless picture. We left right after I took it. Ha.

 

Derick eating all of his ridiculous pile of shrimp.

 

Wednesday was probably our favorite day at the beach. The water had formed a bunch of little splash pools and the boys had an absolute blast playing in them.

 

I had gotten these little plastic sail boats for the boys and the little pools were perfect for playing with them!

 

A tiny crab.

 

Lincoln was pretty into collecting "cool" shells the whole trip. We came home with a ton.

 

I don't know if any picture has made Derick and I laugh more than this one. You just have to know Bennett.

 

Bennett never passes up an opportunity to wrestle with Lincoln. If he sees Lincoln on the ground, he climbs on top of him.

 

Lincoln decided that he wanted to make lunch for everyone one day. It was so cute. He made us each a PB&J and got us each a little bag of chips. Love that kid.

 

Estuarine Nature Walk. It's a really beautiful area. They built this wooden walkway and it leads you out to get a good look of the Sound. You are also able to see the wild horses at certain times (which you can also pay a fortune to get a tour to see), but we never did. Maybe next year!

 

Some evening beach time.

 

It rained every day of the week, but we were able to also get to the beach every day, no matter what!