Our weekend trip to the Outer Banks!

Adding Kellan to our family has changed our lives in more ways than one!  There are so many times during the day and night that Michael and I look at him and just say outloud "Oh! I love this little boy!"


I haven't had a full night's sleep since the day he was born and I don't think I have been able to complete even the smallest task without having to stop and change a diaper, feed him, rescue him from being hung up in his activity mat, hand him a toy that's out of reach, put him down for a nap, get ready for bathtime or just simply to get down on the floor with him and play because he's just SO CUTE!  Definitely the time it takes to leave the house has doubled (maybe even tripled)!  Michael already tells me I'm the slowest person he's ever met when it comes to getting ready (and most other things too) so you can only imagine the amount of time it takes us to pack up and leave the house! 


Aside from all of that we stay BUSY!  Since I'm staying home with Kellan full time (which I am more thankful for than anything I have ever been in my life) Michael has been working longer hours during the week and working most weekends.  When you add that to his volunteer time at the Jarratt Volunteer Fire Department, community events, holidays, and trips to visit my family out of town...well there just isn't much time left for just the three of us!


So when Michael came home early on Friday and said "Where do you want to go this weekend?" I packed Kellan and I up as fast I could (which wasn't very fast, but hey I tried...packing everything a baby needs for a weekend is time consuming and thought provoking)!  At first we had thought about going to Baltimore, Maryland but I thought maybe we should go somewhere a little more relaxing since this was our first mini-vacation with Kellan.  We decided to head to Nags Head, North Carolina so we could spend some time on the beach, visit some of the lighthouses, and most importantly eat lots of seafood (if you keep up with this blog for long you'll notice that Michael and I LOVE to eat)!

Kellan usually is a good traveler and doesn't mind his car seat once you get him in it and settled.  We had made it all the way to Currituck when he started to get a little fussy so we stopped at a fast food restaurant so I could feed him.

Have you ever seen a happier baby (after eating of course)?!

Daddy decided to let him drive for a little ways.  When I sent Mimi this picture she said to make sure to tell him to keep his eyes on the road!

Every good driver knows you have to give the horn a little toot so people know to get out of the way!

As soon as we arrived to Nags Head we checked into our hotel and headed to the beach to take some pictures of Kellan!  It was his 6 month birthday so I wanted to get some pictures to document his monthly growth.

It was kind of breezy!

Then the photoshoot began!

Every good baby eats sand immediately!

This is so fun!

Can't keep his eyes off the sand...

Sandy baby feet!

Family picture take 3! Not the best but at least he turned around!

After the beach we headed back to the hotel to decide where we wanted to go to eat dinner!  We decided on Captain George's Seafood Restaurant because it had buffet and we could get a little of everything we wanted.  Well Michael got a lot of what he wanted because he had a tummy ache for the rest of the night!  I'm thinking it was too many crab legs!!  Kellan fell asleep in the car on the way back to the hotel so we drove up to Duck and back down the beach road to see what had changed since the last time we had been.  There were quite a few people at the Outer Banks for it to be an off season weekend.  It was also motorcycle week so there were motorcyclists here and there too.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the hotel and then took Kellan back to the beach! I wasn't think it was going to be warm enough on the ocean for bathing suits so I didn't bring mine or Kellan's...I was wrong!

Kellan and Daddy playing in the hotel room.

He loves the ocean!

If he could walk, I think he would've taken off!

This sand is just fascinating!

He attempted to roll in the sand...

By now we are getting hungry again so we headed to Awful Arthur's Oyster Bar for lunch.  At lunch we decided to go back to the beach for another hour or two and enjoy the beautiful weather and let Kellan play.  We went to K-Mart so I could get a cheap bathing suit to wear for the day...there will be NO pictures of that atrocious thing...but at least I was able to get a little sun on my white body!

After the beach we headed out to drive south and go see Bodie Island lighthouse and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse.  We passed Bodie Island and kept going towards Hatteras first.  On our way we came through Rodanthe.  I wanted to see if I could find the house from the movie Nights in Rodanthe.  I didn't see it on our way in so we kept driving to Hatteras.

Next we fed Kellan again and got ready to make the drive back.  On our way I spotted the Nights in Rodanthe house right away.  Those blue shutters stand out!

By the time we made it back to the Bodie Island lighthouse it was dusk and we didn't plan on stopping...BUT!  Someone was having a meltdown in the backseat so we had to pull over anyway.  We were only able to get out and snap one picture before...the BODIE BUGS ATTACKED!  Michael had gotten out to pass Kellan over to me and he was getting bitten by so many mosquitoes at once he  had to jump back in the car!  I had to climb over the seats to sit in the back and feed Kellan!  There were hundreds of mosquitoes plastering themselves against the windows of the car. Michael was smooshing a few that had gotten into the car on the windwhield!  So now of course little Kellan has inherited the nickname "Bodie Bug."  Warning:  Do not visit Bodie Lighthouse at dusk those things are crazy!

We stopped at Miller's Waterfront Restaurant for dinner.  It was recommended to us by a co-worker of Michael's Aunt Kim and boy was it awesome.  I highly recommend it if you are in the area and love seafood although they have other choices too.  It was a little chilly outside and dark so we couldn't enjoy the fact that the restaurant is on the water but I know in the summer it is beautiful.  The food was delicious!

The next morning it was pouring rain!  Instead of heading back early we made the most of our trip.  First stop breakfast at The Dunes Restaurant.  They had a really good breakfast buffet and best of all its located right across the street from the Tanger Outlets!  After breakfast we loaded Kellan in the stroller and went shopping!  Here's daddy and Kellan being silly and wearing hats like Papa Grizzard bought in the Bahamas.

Daddy being silly in JCrew.

Daddy dressing Kellan up like Papa Grizzard in the Gymboree Outlet.

After a couple of hours of shopping we loaded back in the car and made a stop at Wings for a picture frame.  Every trip we go on we buy one of those tacky picture frames with the city name and all of the little objects around the side that describes the area.  This will be our first frame with 3 of us in the picture!  Last but not least we had to stop at Sweet Frogs for yogurt! 

We headed back towards home and decided to stop in Virginia Beach for a trip to the grocery store (those adventures could be a whole other post!).  We went to Fresh Market, Heritage Health Food Store, and (my favorite!) Harris Teeter.  After that exhausting journey we headed home and stopped in Suffolk to eat dinner at George's Steakhouse.  This was our second time eating there and both visits have been excellent.  I highly recommend this restaurant if you're in Suffolk, VA!

It was a great weekend with just the three of us relaxing, doing some sightseeing...and EATING! :D  I hope Kellan will enjoy traveling as much as his mom and dad!