When I first moved here 7 1/2 years ago, I kept noticing "OBX" stickers on the backs of everyone's cars. I had no idea what it meant. Well, come to find out, it stands for "Outer Banks", as in the Outer Banks off the shore of North Carolina. The Outer Banks is basically a string of islands with great little beach towns, sand dunes, and gorgeous beaches. It also happens to have lots of huge houses for rent. In other words, it's the perfect place for a family reunion! I threw the idea out to a couple people in the extended family and luckily, I wasn't the only one who loved the idea. From July 21-28, there were 35 members of the Cardall Family (my mom's side of the family - decedents of her parents John and Eleanor Cardall) who rented two big houses on the beach right next to each other. It was AWESOME! Our first outing (wearing all matching family T-shirts) was to Cape Hatteras Light House, the tallest light house in the country.
Here is the whole group. This is our 4th Cardall Family Reunion and we have a tradition of making shirts with a theme for each of them. This year, we chose orange in honor of my Uncle Dan, who passed away 5 years ago. Orange was his favorite color. On the front of it, we had a big foot print that said "Barefoot Days". That was a song that my grandparents used to always sing. And we felt it was fitting given the location we chose for the reunion.
The Strom Family
You are permitted to climb to the very top of the light house if you are tall enough (42 inches) and they use a light house as the measuring stick. Lacey made it!
And so did Tanner! (barely)
They were thrilled they were tall enough, but I was very worried as to whether they would actually be able to do it, knowing it would be way too hard to carry them. But luckily, we paced ourselves and they made it!
The four of us at the top! The climb was definitely worth the view!
After Cape Hatteras, we continued on to Ocracoke Island. You drive your car on to a ferry (which the kids loved) and took a 30-40 minute ferry ride out to Ocracoke Island. Once there, we drove to the Ocracoke Light house.
Tanner was very disappointed that you couldn't climb to the top of this one. In fact, in his prayers that night, he prayed that someone would unlock the door "to the big white light house" so that he could climb to the top.
After a full day of excursions on Monday, we decided to spend Tuesday at the beach. Dave and my Cousin Seth went kayaking in the ocean.
My beach baby
Tanner loving the sand and water.
Not only did we love playing at the beach, but we also spent a ton of time at the pool in the backyard of the house we rented.
And we all loved the hot tub as well. Here is Tanner with his cousin Parker.
One of the best features of this house was the 4th floor. There was a HUGE kitchen and we enjoyed having yummy family meals there every night. In fact, during the entire week we were there, we only ate out once and that was for lunch one day when we were out and about.
My little T at 4:00 in the afternoon after a full day of beach/pool. He didn't wake up until the following morning.
Wednesday (July 26th), we all headed out to Kitty Hawk to visit the Wright Museum and Memorial and to see the exact place of the very first flight.
Tanner at the Wright Memorial
The three Strom kids overlooking the place of the first flight in 1903.
Here I am at the marker of where the very first plane successfully took off.
Tanner giving a smooch to Aunt Maret!
We stayed in Salvo, which is right next to Rodanthe. So, of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity to find the exact house used in the "Nights in Rodanthe" movie with Richard Gere and Diane Lane.
On our final day in the OBX, several of us with young kids drove to Manteo for a Pirate boat ride. After checking in, the kids got to get face/arm painting and then they taught them pirate language, like "Ahoy" and such. Very cute.
Our pirate ship
Ready to go!
In looking through my pictures, I realized I had very few of me and Dave because one of us was always behind the camera. So, here is at least one of us on the pirate boat.
Shooting the "bad pirate" with water cannons - a definite highlight!
And I have to document the elevator! Our house was 4 stories and had an elevator inside. This came in handy for the adults upon arrival and leaving with luggage. This came in handy for the kids ALL day EVERY day for EVERYTHING!! They all absolutely loved it!
The Strom Family
On the night we went out to take pictures by the ocean, unfortunately it was extremely windy, so we're all a little windblown in all of these pictures!
The Mitchell Family (minus Ryan - his wife is due any day with Baby #3)
The extended Mitchell Family (minus Ryan and family)
Third generation Cardall kids. In attendance was 3 (of 4) Cardall "kids", 7 (of 16) Cardall grand-kids and 17 (of 45) great-grandkids.
The Mitchell Sisters
And quite possibly my favorite picture of the entire week!
This was one of the funnest family vacations we've ever had. We all had a complete blast. We had so much fun exploring the Outer Banks, playing at the beach, pool, in-house movie theatre etc. But hands down, the most fun of the whole week was just spending quality time with family.
