July 15-23, 2016
Our final trip for the summer was to the Outer Banks. We were going to stay with a bunch of Jordan's closest friends from High School. Jordan is always so excited when we get to Virginia. (And so am I).
It wouldn't be a good trip if we didn't stop by Pierce's Pitt BBQ in Williamsburg. Maria was sooooo happy to be out of the car and to see other people!
As we got closer to Poquoson (where we were staying with the Andrews for the night), we saw a rainbow. It was so fitting as we felt that there were some good times and great people waiting for us at the end of that rainbow.
The next day was long. We hit a lot of traffic trying to get in to the Outer Banks, but it was so worth it! The first night we watched some videos Jordan and his friends had made in High School. They were so awful, funny, disgusting, and cute all at the same time.
We felt very relaxed on vacation and got some great sleep!
We were staying at a beach house that was across the street from the beach so we went just about every day. Maria LOVED the beach. She walked around like she owned the whole thing!
Some of the boys built huge sand castles everyday and Maria played in it like it was made for her. lol
That night we had a very nice dinner and then we watched the sunset from some sand dunes. It was gorgeous. It was the first East Coast sunset at the beach for me!
Sorry some of these are a little dark and hard to see. Pictures never fully capture beautiful moments like these.
Maria is still new to walking, and so the sand and the waves were new obstacles for her. She did a great job most of the time...
but every once in a while she would fall... hard. What I love about this picture is that this face-plant didn't even phase her. She got right back up and started running again.
We had so much fun in the sun and playing in the water! I honestly think that Maria would have stayed there all day and would be the happiest girl in the world.
One of Jordan's best friends, MJ, is getting married next year. His fiancé happens to be a fantastic photographer and took some amazing pictures for us!
I could stare at these pictures forever because I think they are just so perfect!
It wouldn't be a complete trip with Jordan's friends if it didn't involve doing ridiculous things. So we put pantyhose on our heads with a tennis ball inside and knocked down water bottles.
I think we looked pretty awesome... lol
More fun times at the beach:
Ok seriously, how did we get so lucky to have this cutie?!?!?!
Since it worked so well other days, we dug Maria her own hole to play in. She loved sitting in the warm water.
For some reason, Jordan really wanted to be buried in the sand. All his buddies immediately joined in and made this happen:
Maria then went and sat on his face while he couldn't move. haha We all had a good laugh. and here is Jordan after emerging from the sand:
Every night a group of us were in charge of dinner. We got to make dinner with Jared and so since he's an amazing cook, and since Jordan and I are living in Philly now, we decided to make Philly cheesesteaks! They were sooooo good! We made them just like they do in Philly. We had people order wit or wit-out onions (the slang people actually use in Philly to order their steaks) and then they chose their cheese. Cheese Wiz is obviously the best, but people are always hesitant to try it!
Speaking of which, MJ and Corrin had lots of fun with Maria. And vice versa. :)
I also decided to help build the sand castle while Maria was taking a nap.
One of our last days in the Outer Banks we took a tour of a historic house nearby. They have lots of stories about people who have encountered ghosts or ghost-like activity there. It was a little creepy.
The craziest part of the whole tour was when we found out that the home was owned by Edwards Collings-Knight who also happened to found the town we currently live in New Jersey. What?!?! This was their summer home and their other home in New Jersey is just down the street from our apartment! Creepy! haha Creepiness aside, it was also very beautiful there.
We didn't take pictures of this every night, but we played this game just about every night after dinner. I think it's called Around the World? I don't know. You just try to keep the 8 ball rolling by only using the white ball... It was so much fun! We played until 1 or 2 in the morning sometimes so half the time we would just laugh and act dumb.
This was our last time in the pool and Maria got some quality time with Mama and Papa Andrews (MJ's parents who made this whole trip possible!).
It wouldn't be a complete date if we didn't do our pose, right? lol
I forgot to mention that aside from the other games we played, we played card games and board games every day and night as well. Our last night we played spoons and Jordan and MJ ended up like this:
The Outer Banks was an amazing trip! Honestly I just loved watching old videos and hearing old stories from Jordan's friends. It made me excited and nervous to see what our children will be like. haha! Just kidding... I'm sure they will all be great! Especially if they are all like Jordan. :)
What a great summer!
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