Outer Banks: Lazy Sunday

We had great weather the whole week. It only rained once and that was while we were at church Sunday morning. We spent the rest of the day napping, relaxing on the deck, collecting shells on the beach, playing games, having a sing-along, celebrating my dad's birthday, crafting, and eating.

And attempting a post-church photo shoot. I never got my lighting quite right and the cousins were lacking in happy unity. But the results are fun.










(Elsa and James became great friends during the week. And great troublemakers.)




(Elsa consumed a LOT of nutella during the week.)

Outer Banks: Arriving

We headed to the Outer Banks (a long string of narrow islands off the coast of North Carolina) Saturday morning. We stayed in Corolla which has the Currituck Sound on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other. We arrived Saturday evening and before the car came to a stop the kids were in the pool.

A HUGE thank you to my parents for the amazing beach house. Our location was perfect. The house felt secluded and the beach wasn't ever very crowded.








It took Elsa a few days to warm up to the pool but by the end she was jumping in and making me nervous.

East coast gathering!

After months of anticipation, our East Coast family reunion finally arrived. We were so excited to have all of my siblings and my parents come out here for a week-long beach trip at the Outer Banks in North Carolina. We really appreciate the sacrifices everyone made to come all the way out here (from Utah, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Vermont). Everyone in my family is now in a different state. It was an amazing week that went by way too fast.

Some flew into D.C. and drove down with us. We had a few hours Friday night to explore the area. We stopped in Old Town for some burgers at BGR.


Cousins!








(It was actually our 8-year anniversary so we shared a shake to celebrate.)





We headed into D.C. and went to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. The kids were mostly excited about the fireflies.

Memorial Day

We got an early start Monday morning and headed to Prince William Forest Park to cook up some breakfast. They have a fantastic new playground there that had a fun camping/woods theme. Unfortunately, right before we sat down to enjoy our pancake feast Amelia was walking along the playground border and fell. She landed in a twisted heap and hurt her arm. Amelia has kind of an "end of the world" reaction for any injury so it was hard to tell how badly she was hurt (turns out it was broken...oops). We pressed forward with our plans for a hike down to the river to cool off. Ben distracted Amelia with questions about fairies.






















The water was so refreshing on a HOT day. It was a great place to cool off without any other people around.



We only had to remove one tick when we got home!

Amelia perked up after she had some Tylenol and had fun swimming in the backyard.






(Elsa LOVES worms.)

The pain returned Monday evening and Amelia's elbow was pretty swollen and she still couldn't straighten it. I took her to Urgent Care Tuesday morning and after taking x-rays they referred us to an orthopedic doctor. They couldn't fit us in until today. Diagnosis: broken elbow. Luckily the fracture wasn't very bad but she still had to get a cast. And of course her dance pictures were today. Good thing it blends right in...





And it's waterproof! Which means she can still have fun at the beach next week. Phew.