Our Getaway To The Outer Banks

with our ten year anniversary on the horizon this year, we cuddled on the couch and planned a trip.  our initial plan to go to london for our 10 year was quickly put back onto our growing travel wishlist for when the girls are a little older and we got excited about a trip to the outer banks.  having a two year old and a 4 month old meant that we were ready for a little rest and relaxation…as much as possible with two small ones.  what better than packing up the car and heading to the beach!?  the outer banks has been on our wish list for awhile now and we initially considered it for our babymoon getaway in 2015 before our first was born, but we went to new york city instead because we instantly knew that the beach would be a wonderful trip to take as a whole family.  i am so glad we waited for kids to take this trip because our getaway to the outer banks was a perfect family vacation.

my husband had the great idea to rent us a minivan for our trip, since traveling with two babies means bringing a lot of things!  he also had an ulterior motive of making me fall in love with a minivan during this trip…which actually worked, darn it!  i will admit that the van is crazy functional for a growing family, so he is winning this argument.  i gotta let him win one every once in awhile, as long as it comes with sunroof and deluxe media package.  🙂  and i tested that it could spin some donuts in the target parking lot, so it has a wonderful turning radius!

being only 4 hours away from home, the outer banks was a perfect first vacation for our 4 month old.  we’ve done a 8 hour road trip, several plane rides, and traveled out of the country  with our two year old before too, so we already knew she traveled well.  but above all, being an avid nicholas sparks reader (i even met him in person a few years ago!) i knew visiting this area was a bucket list item for me.

need help photographing your everyday moments with your family?  be sure to check out my ebook the everyday photograph!

Our Getaway To The Outer Banks

having two really little ones, we kept a general idea of things we wanted to do but we didn’t make firm plans.  instead, we made the plan to go with the flow and do as much or as little as we wanted each day.  we stayed in a beautiful 4 seasons condo in kitty hawk, north carolina and spent most of our time around there and the town of duck.  one of our favorite outings was to visit body’s island light house.  it was a rather short trip, as our girls weren’t tall enough to be allowed to go up to the top of the light house, but we had fun talking to the park ranger and walking the boardwalk.

whenever you travel you are bound to forget to pack something.  and for us, it was the girls’ beach hats.  (i am still kicking myself in the pants for forgetting them because i had found the perfect matching pair of eyelit hats for the girls!)  and goodness was it warm during our stay!  usually the temperatures were in the 90’s, which was rather warm for my liking with two young babies.  nevertheless, we couldn’t go all that way to the ocean and not see it.  so we started our hunt for baby hats, traveling around to many local beach shops to try and find cute, and preferably matching, hats for the girls that didn’t make us cringe!  we finally found some cute hats for the girls and plopped them on top of their cute heads and, with our beach buckets in hand, we walked to the beach.

the beach was an even shorter trip than the lighthouse.  totaling maybe 5 minutes.

our little toddler wasn’t a fan of the sand.  (which really i should have remembered from our beach trip in cabo san lucas, mexico but didn’t).

but we were there long enough to watch the waves and listen to the sound of the ocean before trudging back up the sand dunes to the glorified minivan.  but hey, all of us technically got sand on our toes so we called it a win and went to dinner!  sooooooo glad we stressed so much about the missing beach hats.  🙂

our resort had a wonderful indoor waterpark with water slides and lazy river, so our swim school loving toddler was in heaven there!  and her daddy had way too much fun on the water slide.  🙂

before heading home, we spent an afternoon at the aquarium…which turned out to be a hit for our toddler!  she loved saying “turtle!”, “fish!”, “shark!” and loved peering into all of the tanks to see what was swimming inside.  before leaving, she loved touching each and every stuffed animal in the gift shop and we miraculously made it out of that gift shop without a hefty bill!

all and all, our getaway to the outer banks was a huge win for our family.  i left my camera at home (cell phone only) and was able to relax.  our girls were impeccably behaved in every restaurant we visited and our toddler completely wowed everyone with her “hello’s and bye bye’s” when someone would walk by our table.  this vacation truly reminded us how important taking time for our family is.  we love providing experiences for our girls and are already planning another vacation.

but we were ready to come home too.  i think this last photo says it all.  vacation is wonderful, but we were pooped.  when it comes to traveling, it is so worth it.  yes, it is hard to pack up everything and head somewhere new.  yes, it is hard to take your daily routine with little ones and shake it up a bit.  but the memories that it creates for our family definitely outweighs all the stress brought upon by travel prep.  and we are bound and determined to create a childhood full of experiences and memories for these two little babies.  because someday we will all look back on these times together and hear them say, “remember when we went to…”  and then we will relive all those moments again.

we love you, outer banks!  until next time…