Outer Banks Vacation Recap

Does anyone have $1,000,000 I can borrow....I would like to buy a house on the shores of the Outer Banks that I can retreat to anytime I want.  I still have to keep my house in Massachusetts because lets face it nothing beats a New England Fall Season, but I need to have a house on the Outer Banks for the rest of the year.  I promise, I will pay it back eventually!!!

For those of you who don't know, we just returned from a week-long vacation in Corolla, NC and it was pretty much the most amazing vacation we have ever been on.  Usually when we go away we are ready to get home and back into the swing of things by the end of the trip...however, in this case we never wanted the week to end.  We rented a couple of houses on the beach and were accompanied by Alex's parents, his Pop Pop, his Aunt Lenore, Uncle Ed, and Cousins Ben and Zoe; as well as my dad, my sister Brandy and her husband Jason, my sister Allie, and my cousins Justin and Rachel and there 3 boys, Liam, Jake, and Zach. Both houses were full, but nobody felt smothered because there was so much room to move around. We had the beach, a pool, and a hot tub all at our finger tips.  We couldn't have asked for a better location!!  On top of which, because we were right on the beach, we always had the sea-breeze which brought 90 degree temperatures down to about 70's, which is ideal for me!!

The week was full of volley ball tournaments, boccie ball and ladder ball games, football diving contests (I think this game is our own creation, but it was quite fun to play), riding bikes and taking walks, eating lots of fattening yet delicious meals, flying kites, playing games, body surfing and boogie boarding, the traditional cousins flip-cup game, watching sunrises and sunsets, a couple of excursions, a birthday celebration for Hunter, lots of laughs, and a boat load of fun.  It was a week free of stresses, worries, anxieties. We were all able to decompress and just enjoy the moments. 

Here is a pictorial documentary of our trip, however as in most cases, the pictures do not do it justice, you will all just have to go down there to see how incredible it really is..... I had about 800 pictures to choose from, so the below is just a small selection and of course most are Hunter-based, if I could do it all over again I would have been more assertive about getting group shots.

As you can imagine, creating a home away from home requires a lot of packing, luckily Bubbers didn't seem to mind being blended in with it all

Hunter did pretty well for a 1 year old during a collectively 14 hour in 2 days car ride, I was glad he was able to get comfortable enough for a few long naps

Our house was located on 819 Lighthouse Drive...talk about meant to be!!

The hurricane at sea made kite-flying a breeze  (pun intended)

The beach was the ultimate playground for Hunter, he never wanted to leave it

Our private walkway from the house to the beach

We were so glad Pop Pop was able to make the trip

The view from the top of the beach stairs to the back of our house

The first of many volley ball matches

Hunter and Zee were not too happy they weren't included in the volley ball games

This pirate kite flew all week long

Hunter gets to meet his Aunty Brandy for the first time

Sand Star Fish Master Piece created by Glenni, Lenore, and the kids

Thursday was "Celebrate Hunter's 1st Birthday Day" Glenni had a bunch of photos of him and of characters from his favorite Sandra Boynton books to help decorate the place

I had made this 4 line banner months ago for this occasion....little did I know that finding a place to put it would require moving around a lot of furniture and taking down paintings and other house decor

Alex made a big #1 pancake for Hunter to kick off the celebration day

After Breakfast we had a cup cake decorating bar set up so everyone could participate in the birthday celebration dessert

"Happy Birthday Dear Hunter.....Happy Birthday to you"

Birthday Jam Session...which included Alex playing/singing Flightless Bird (Hunter's lullaby song) while Hunter drifted off to sleep...it was the sweetest thing ever!!

On Friday morning I got my sleepy butt out of bed bright at 6 am to see what the fuss of catching the sunrise was all about....in the end it was worth it....

Long story host....tried to do a convoy down a beach to try to see some wild horses....both cars ended up getting stuck....$170 towing bill....I was deserted and almost had to hitch for a ride home....no ponies were seen

Evans boys at the base of a lighthouse

Evans boys at the boys of a light house

The baby whisperer at work

And did I mention that Hunter got his very first pets....2 African Frogs (one in the bottom left corner and one in the top right behind the leaves)....Their names are Zoodle and Noodle