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Blog, Family, kids, obx vacation, vacation

#robertstakeontheeastcoast day 3


It is hard keeping up with these blog posts while we are still on vacation. We’ve had super full days and I’ve been ready to go to bed at 8 (7pm central.) But, if I don’t write it all as it’s happening, I’ll fall very behind and feel overwhelmed. And I’ll probably forget everything.

Anyway, day 3 of vacation–which also happened to be our first full day at the Outer Banks. That day was super windy, which also made it chilly. We decided that would be a great day to do the other things on our list and avoid the beach. We started out at the Aquarium. The alligators and otters weren’t out that day and the majority of the place was mainly fresh water fish. So that was disappointing. Salt water fish are always much prettier! But they did make up for it with a room where you can touch sting rays, starfish, hermit crabs, etc. And also, a shark tank. That was fun!
kids looking at aquarium
Evangeline was ready for a bottle at this point
dad and baby
Liam looks so impressed
boys and shark
liam and kingston
And of course, we always have to stop at a penny machine for Maggi! This is the only one we’ve seen so far 🙁
boy using penny machine
We walked out to the dock
mom and 2 boys
Since 5 year olds aren’t good with cameras, we’ve had to just hold our arms out and take pictures of us together
married couple
dad and toddler
dad and toddler boy
boy smiling for picture
One of the things that ranked high on my to-do list was a visit to the Bodie Island Lighthouse. Lighthouses fascinate me and I love black and white stripes! It was so pretty and picturesque. Unfortunately, the wind prevented us from staying very long. The lighthouse is open for people to climb up top but we didn’t bother.
husband and wife at black and white lighthouse
I included this lovely picture of us to show just how bad the wind was. I picked a bad day to wear my hair down
bodie lighthouse
But the pictures turned out so pretty, right?
lighthouse in north carolina

That last picture makes it look like we were the only ones there. There were quite a few people but I captured the picture at the perfect moment.

And of course, it is not possible for me to pass thrift stores and ignore them! So we stopped at a couple. I found a super cute skirt for Evangeline at this one
thrift store
We went to Jeannette’s Pier that afternoon. It’s a long, long dock that goes pretty far out into the water. We were able to watch some surfers. The waves were huge from all the wind. (Did I mention it was windy?) Well, the wind was especially strong as we walked out on the Pier. There were fish plaques on the boardwalk. Liam ran all the way down them. He claimed that this was one of his favorite parts of vacation.
dad and boy
pier at nags head
boy walking on pier
jennettes pier
After searching and searching, we found a coffee shop for Don.
morning view coffee company
At this point, it was time to head back and eat. The boys played with Legos and then crashed!
2 boys sleeping in sleeping bags
toddler asleep in pack and play
So with all those things checked off our list, we were prepared for the next day at the beach.
But not before we got some much needed sleep!
Blog, Family, kids, obx vacation, vacation

#robertstakeontheeastcoast day 2


My plan was to wake up and leave the hotel really early. But with 4 young children, things don’t always go according to plan. By the time we finished breakfast and loaded up, it was 9.

As we were driving, Kingston was coughing nonstop. I had just mentioned to Don that I thought we should pull over to give him some cough medicine. About that time, he threw up. Fun! So we pulled off the highway to find a place to clean up. We found a gas station called Sheetz. I thought I had remembered the Lees mentioning their love for Sheetz so we stopped there. It was pretty impressive, but Don has a bit of company pride and kept saying the QT Gen 3 stores are so much better.
However, I think the boys were impressed.
3 boys
After driving a while longer, we needed to fuel the van and our bodies. So we stopped at another Sheetz and ordered some hot dogs and a pretzel to share.
hot dog from sheetz
As you drive to The Outer Banks, you have to drive over a few loooong bridges that connect the islands. They were pretty neat but hard to capture the neatness in a picture.
cool bridge
Finally, we made it to the beach house at 4:30! We quickly made ourselves at home.
beach house

We unloaded everything as fast as we could so we could drive to the beach and watch the sun set over the ocean.

The beach is only about a mile from the house!
mom and boy on beach
Liam went straight for the water, Kai was very excited to play in the sand, and then there was Kingston….
toddler scared of ocean

He was terrified to even lift his head from the towel for the first 15 minutes. It sure did keep him out of trouble!

I think Don and Liam could stand there letting the waves hit their legs all day if they were able to
dad and boy standing on beach
waves on feet
Kingston was slowly warming up to the idea
toddler boy playing in sand
You see that dark cloud in the background? We chose to ignore it, just figuring that’s what the sky looked like at sunset. And the sun? Oh yeah, it doesn’t set on this side of the banks 🙁 But the lighting was gorgeous!!
beach at nags head north carolina
I found this log and obsessively started taking pictures of the boys with it
little boy sitting on log
toddler sitting on log
Those clouds are normal, right?
three boys sitting on log
married couple
boy sitting on log
young boy standing on log
Kingston is now totally converted to a full on beach lover! He was pouring sand on his head
toddler boy covered in sand
kingston 6
dad tossing toddler boy in the air
just before storm on beach
A few minutes after this last picture was taken, Don came over to me to suggest leaving. Then he said “oh no!” At that point, I felt about two drops of rain. A few seconds later, the sky opened up and poured out every last drop, all at once. We grabbed all our belonging and kids and tried running back to the van as quickly as possible. However, with short legs and pouring rain, we didn’t get back to the van very quickly. Kai and Evangeline were screaming and crying. By the time we made it to the van, we were soaked.
We just couldn’t stop laughing. I’m not sure why we chose to ignore the storm cloud rolling in, but we did. It wasn’t ideal but it was a memory!!
We drove back to the house for everyone to bathe. Kai was scared because the bathtub was too big. Liam and Kingston splashed around and played for a while.
It was such a fun evening! We love the beach!! And we were excited for a few more days of Outer Banks fun!