It's been so long!

Man! I'm not as good at this blogging thing. I'm just so busy I don't have time to sit down, write a blog and load all the pictures. I do have 2 trips to update you on they happened 3 days apart so we've been really busy to say the least. The picture below is a hit as to where we went most recently. The other trip was just a weekend trip with Nick's family but it was a really good weekend!

More to come! Since I have a long weekend maybe I'll get it updated this weekend.

Lighthouses!

Currituck Beach Lighthouse - Built in 1875 making it the last brick lighthouse completed on the Outer Banks. It is still operational and can be seen for 19 miles. I was amazed by this lighthouse, it seemed like it was no where near the water (although when you're at the outer banks you're always near the ocean) all you could see was pine trees all around.

This is not a lighthouse but after we went to the Currituck Beach Lighthouse we decided to drive to the end of the road. And let me tell you the highway just ends! You're driving and then all of a sudden you're on the beach. Of course we did not drive on the beach I don't know how well the Camry would have handled that. It was quite a site though!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse - Present tower was built in 1870 although the original lighthouse was built in 1802. This is America's tallest lighthouse at 198 feet high (hence why we didn't climb th steps to the top) and the worlds tallest brick lighthouse. Still operational and visible for 20 miles. The summer of 1999 the lighthouse was moved 2,899.57 feet.

Bodie Island Lighthouse - Built in 1848. Stands 156 feet tall. Beacon is visible for 20 miles, it currently has one 1,000 watt lightbulb that is activated by photocell.

I really liked going to see the lighthouses. Hopefully soon we'll make it to the rest of the NC Lighthouses!

Outer Banks

May 14-17th we took an trip to the Outer Banks of NC. This is by far one of our favorite places in the world. It was just a wonderful place, it was like another world. It was really windy while we were there and it rained off and on so we didn't spend much time on the beach but there was still a ton of things to do and see.

The picture is of Nick and I on the beach. I think we spent a total of 15 minutes out there. The wind was blowing really had and it was making the sand blow around hit us which hurt! But it was beautiful! I love this picture of Nick! He looks so happy.
On Friday we adventured out to the Orville and Wilbur Wright memorial Of course we couldn't pass this by with Nick being a pilot and all. The most amazing part of this memorial wasn't he memorial its self but the view once we climbed up the hill. The memorial was on top of this huge hill and when we got to the top we could see everything. There was water all around on every side. It was such a great site. I think we must have spent 30 minutes up there just looking around and enjoying the view. If any of you know me you know I sunburn in a minute. I made the mistake of not putting sunscreen on because I thought we wouldn't be outside long. Man did I pay! But it was still worth it.
To the left is a picture of Nick. He couldn't get enough of the view from the Wright Memorial. I don't blame him but I really enjoyed watching him enjoy looking out at the world. Next post I'll show you pictures of the Lighthouses that we saw (they were my favorite!).

Washington, DC Trip...FINALLY

Nick and I took a weekend trip to Washington DC, we went March 20-22. We figured it'd be cool enough still for it to be nice but also warm enough we wouldn't freeze and we were right. So when we arrived in DC we decided to check out the Smithsonian first.  Of course you know that the Smithsonian consists of many museums and we didn't go to them all but we did check out the air and space museum and it was cool.

We also decided to check out the Capitol Building.

The next day we decided to try and hit up the other popular DC locations.  First on our list was the Washington Monument.  I love history and politics so this trip was right up my ally.  It's so cool to see all of the nation's landmarks that are always on TV. 

We decided that the next stop should be the Lincoln Memorial since of course we just had to walk the length of the reflecting pools.  Before we got to the Lincoln Memorial we found the World War II Memorial which is in between the reflecting pools and the Washington Monument.

Even though there were so many people there it was such a peaceful place and everyone was so respectful.  They had pillars for all the states as well as some of our allies.  Above we took a picture with the NC pillar.  

We then headed to the Lincoln Memorial to see President Lincoln himself.  If you've never been you should go at least once in your life.  It's so amazing, he's HUGE.  His ears....gigantic!

It's so cool to stand at either end of the reflecting pool and look down to the other end.  Below is a shot from the top of the stairs on the Lincoln Memorial down to the Washington Monument.

Of course, no trip to DC would be complete without going to the White House...so we did!  I said hello to the president for you all.  We were there the day after the First Lady started her organic garden.  Thanks to terrorism you can't get any close than looking through the fence unless you go with a group and you get tickets way in advance from your congressman but I managed to get a good shot anyway.

What a lovely trip!  We just like going on trips to relax and see new things and we might as well go see as much as we can while we're young because you never know what the future may hold.  We're planning a trip to the Outer Banks in the next few weeks hopefully it won't take me almost 2 months to post the pictures.  Things have just been crazy busy lately and I just have had the time (or patience) to blog.  I'll try and do better in the future!

Happy Easter!

Ok, so I'm going to get out of order since I haven't even talked about our DC trip but I feel that it is important to share our Easter experience as close to the day as possible.  Next blog I'll back up and share with you about DC.  So, we decided (pretty much last minute) to head to Wilmington  for Easter.  I wanted to attend a Sunrise Service on the beach.  Fortunately, Nick's dad and Mel were in Wilmington for the weekend so we were able to stay with them (yay for cheap lodging) we really enjoyed spending time with them as well and they were able to bring Walt and attend the Sunrise Service with us!  Below are some pictures!  It was glorious, absolutely beautiful.  I suggest, if you can go at least once to the beach and watch the sunrise on Easter.  It just reminds you how wonderful our Savior is!  We got to watch His glorious sun rise while we were hearing about His sacrifice for us!  Below are some pictures...enjoy!

The sky when we arrived at the beach!

First glimpse of the sun

The Sun

The Crowd

The sun and the crowd

The moon behind us as we're leaving