A visit to the Outer Banks

We just returned from a great trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina with Rob's family. We had originally scheduled this trip for Gulf Shores, Alabama, where we'd vacationed 5 years ago, but with the uncertainty surrounding the Gulf oil spill, we felt we should switch gears about 3 weeks before the trip. I'd always been intrigued by this area, though I had to google to even figure out where exactly this area even was. We went online, found tons of beautiful and very well priced houses to choose from as it wasn't prime season yet, and we were off. Here's the house we rented:

The house was great, well furnished, and slept all 14 of us. It had 4 master suites with bathrooms, and lots of decks around the house.

The weather was wonderful, above average for the time of year, and not a drop of rain. We spent most days at the beach and then would come back to the house and use the pool, drink pina coladas, and just relax.

Poor Amber got fried the first day so she did lots of this

He was SO proud of himself! Steve fried them up at the end of the week.

Lots of these were made during the week

Some kite flying but it was pretty windy

We tried to do this as much as possible

We did a little bit of sightseeing but not as much as we'd thought we would. Once you get yourself on that beach it's hard to get back off...

Cape Hatteras lighthouse, the tallest in the U.S.

Luke was OBSESSED with these two. I mean OBSESSED. If he wasn't holding one of their hands or laying his head next to one of them he just wasn't happy. I was chopped liver all week.

and THESE two were ATTACHED at the hip like no other.

We had a really great time and it was so nice to be able to spend lots more time with Rob's family than you can fit in during a quick weekend trip.

And now, back to the reality of laundry, bills/mail, mile high grass and a van needing an oil change after driving almost 3000 miles in the last 10 days. But it's all so worth it for a good week of vacation, isn't it?