The Outer Banks again....

After almost a week at Steve's parents, we all headed down to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to spend a week on the beach over the 4th of July. Two summers ago we did this same trip and loved it. The Outer Banks is cute and charming and not too crowded and has great beaches so we decided to squeeze in one last family beach trip before heading overseas. Steve's sister joined us and for a short time, her boyfriend, Gene, and also Steve's Uncle Tony and Aunt Dreama. The kids loved splashing in the surf and near the end of the trip, Brian got into the water beyond where he could touch and floated around with everyone, kicking and swimming. He was still wearing a floaty but considering how absolutely terrified he is of water, it was a big step forward. Emily was less apprehensive and was out in the water past the waves on a boogie board as often as she could find a willing adult. Steve and his Dad got up super early every morning to fish from the pier and did pretty good some days. They finally figured out that the key to fishing the Outer Banks is the wind direction as well as tides and didn't waste time on unfavorable winds/tides.

 

 We went to see the giant sand dunes and maybe when the kids are older, we'll go back to climb them.

 We watched fireworks from the deck of our rental house and we enjoyed one of the many local ice cream shoppes.

 Before we left town on the last day, we headed over to Kitty Hawk where the first flight took place. We walked around the little museum and sat through a talk about the first flight. Then as we were stepping outside to see where it took place, an Army Apache Helicopter set down in the field and opened it's doors to many excited aviation enthusiasts, our kids included. Steve has actually been in one of these before on a short flight in Korea but it was my first time seeing one up close, they are much bigger than they look.

After this, we made our way up to Norfolk, Virginia where we shipped our van to Italy and took the kids to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg with Aunt Amanda.