North Carolina!

We are back from our family vacation to North Carolina's Outer Banks. We flew out first to Raleigh/Durham/Cary area with just the three of us for a day and a half before meeting the rest of Ryan's family out at the beach for a week (note that our little drive to the Outer Banks was supposed to take us 3 hours, but ended up taking us about 8 by the time we negotiated traffic and the beach. You think that was bad? Well, how about doing that again on the way back, except for that leg of the trip we were without air conditioning in our rental car. Fun times!)

We stayed in a great big yellow house on the beach, which we could only get to by driving 9+ miles on the beach in a 4 wheel drive car.

Needless to say, we didn't venture off the beach much while we were there, being that it took us nearly an hour to drive down the beach!

Besides lots of fun times on the beach, good books to read, and a meaty thunderstorm, here are a few other highlights:
-Ryan's parents shared their 25th wedding anniversary with us!
-Ryan's aunt and uncle came to join us (as a surprise) for the last couple days from Chicago!
-We saw the wild mustang horses, which were apparently brought to the outer banks in the 1600s. One even came up to me under the house one afternoon when Dylan and I went down to rinse off our feet before heading into the pool from our afternoon on the beach. What a treat!

Now for some pictures...



Here's us at Duke University





Here's us at Lake Crabtree Park.



Because every little boy has to learn how to throw sticks into a lake.



Dylan and his "Mimi"



Dylan with Grandma