{Outer Banks, North Carolina}

For Adam's final Spring Break, we decided to take advantage of the entire week off and we headed down to the Outer Banks.  We stayed at a beach house with two other families and we were about 50 yards from the water.  The little beach towns down in the area are packed with things to do and there are 4 lighthouses within the area that so charming to visit.

On one of the rainy days we headed to Jeanette's Pier that was recently rebuilt after Hurricane Irene.  We went to a craft class for the kids and being the offseason, we were the only ones there which was fantastic!

Olive was totally saying with those eyes, "Look mom, I am really trying to use my 'colors' so back off ok?  I am busy right now."  She is obsessed with purple and always says she has her 'colors'.  

The pier was really fun to explore with a couple of beautiful fish tanks to check out with bright tropical fish and also fish that are locally caught.  The girls loved watching people fish off of the pier and would have stayed all afternoon.

The Bodie Island lighthouse is one of my favorite that I have ever seen.

The beach was just amazing.  At night I kept thinking that I was hearing airplanes come in and land, but it was really just the waves crashing onto the sand.  It was a lot more soothing after I realized that :)

The Currituck Lighthouse was more impressive in person than on the picture that I saw.  It is the only unpainted lighthouse in the area and is surrounded by beautiful walkways that run along the water.  We spent a really long time here enjoying the warm day.

The girls loved hanging out with Orville Wright at the Wright Brothers Museum.  It was so fun to see where they took off from on their first glider and plane.  The spots are also marked where they landed the first few times.  I thought it was hilarious that the person that they got to take a picture of the first flight was a lifeguard that happened to be nearby.  

One of the darling families that we spent the week with was the Prince family.  They had a little girl and a little boy.  The Hamilton family also had two girls so the little ones had non stop entertainment!

Here are all the little loves enjoying the bonfire getting heated up.  I was so worried that they would all want to get super close to the fire, but they all just sat so mature like in their beach chairs and enjoyed the evening.  Adam is the cutest dad and bought glow stick wands that were a hit from the dollar store.  They were all in heaven.

I just don't think one can look more sugared up than this!

Brian and Adam went fishing on the pier one day and caught lots of Skate and also a Puffer fish.  The Skate are in the sting ray family and absolutely have the most disgusting mouths.  I will spare you a shot of it.

Caroline was completely shocked to see those skate come out of the water.  Her reaction was priceless!

Have you flown a kite lately? 

I think that the kite flying topped everything we did that week, even seeing the lighthouses which says a lot coming from me.

We bought a real nylon kite and they just soared up in the air and were so fun to control from down on the beach.  We were out there for hours just enjoying them flap around in the wind, it was so relaxing.

Digging in the sand was another favorite activity for Caroline and Olive.  They would just sit and dig and plow in the sand all day.  The beach is the best playmate for any kid.

The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse has the well known barber shop swirl for it's decor.  It's a toss up between this one being my fave or the Bodie Island one.  

Ocracoke Lighthouse is on an island that you take a car ferry to.  We almost got stuck on the island due to wind and a boat getting stuck.  While we waited to hear if we would be able to leave, we were able to do some shelling on the beach.  Adam was able to find a huge conch shell which is so cool.

Since we waited such a long time to get back onto the ferry, we were the beneficiaries of a beautiful sunset on the way home from the island.  Each side of the road was lined with beautiful bodies of water and the colors continued to become more vibrant.

The Bodie Island Lighthouse looked so picturesque in this light.  

I will go back to Nags Head anyday.