The OBX

We have been so blessed by the generosity of friends and family, and our trip to the Outer Banks was no exception. Thanks to a friend, we had a place to stay in Avon and we were able to spend some awesome time with some pretty great friends from our time living in Maryland.

The Outer Banks. The Ocean was wonderful and brought back some memories of our time in Tanzania. They were so excited to be back in the water!

My beautiful girl.

She just loved all the waves knocking her over.

The gulls were flying so low today. I enjoyed trying to catch pictures of them.

We got to take a trip the tallest lighthouse in the US, Cape Hatteras, in Buxton. It wasn't open for climbing, but we got to walk around and learn quite a bit about it from the museum.

Looming over the trees as we walked up the path. It is 257 steps, equivalent to 12 stories tall.

This is not it's original location, because of erosion due to the Labrador Current and Gulf Stream colliding in this area, the lighthouse had to be moved inland about 15 years ago. Pretty impressive story about how they moved it on rails to its current location.

The kids, on the steps leading up to the lighthouse.

Back to the beach...my Gwangi!

Running in the waves.

They loved all the little crabs they found.

My girl had crocheted a fishing line...she didn't catch anything on the string, but there was another family fishing and she and Jeff joined in. She did catch something with a proper pole and line.

Our sweet friend, Josh.

Joshua and Caleb, at the beach. Friends since they met when they were just 1 year old.

Yes, I did wake up at 3 am and took some pictures of the "Blood Moon." I didn't wake anyone else though.

We were able to go to the Wright Brothers Memorial on Wednesday. It was Wilbur's birthday and so it was free to enter and there were plenty of extra activities going on.

There had been an art competition and Sissi would like to enter for next year.

This was one of the winners.

I loved this one, so cool how she made it look like an aged stamp.

Here they were awarding the winner. The gentleman in the beret is from the First Flight Society and had some interesting stories to tell about his time in flight, in battle.

The memorial, on a hill.

It was a cold and windy day.

This was a mock-up of the huts that the Wright Brothers lived and worked in back in 1903.

They had a birthday cake for Wilbur.

We did walk up the hill to the memorial, and almost got blown away in the wind gusts!

Wilbur was the special brother of the day, I don't think we even took a picture by Orville at all!

The famous photo, turned into life size statues.

Sissi and Jase, doing the Rainbow Loom.

Josh and Krypto.

Laying on the couch, just lounging around.

My good friend, Kristy. She and I met at a Moms and Tots play group back in '04, when we moved to Maryland. We've been good friends ever since. We loved having you guys along on our trip!

A Special Birthday Outing

Krypto's 11th Birthday was on the 6th of April!

Because we were double booked to speak that day, out in Franklin, NC, we thought we would have a special day for him on the 5th. On the drive out west there just happens to be the Biltmore, America's Largest House, so we planned to do a family visit.

I made this sign and put out his presents on Friday night, so he would see it when he woke up on Saturday morning.

Grandma Stamp had sent us money to buy him the next book in the Dan Dare series. He loves these British Sci-Fi comic books from the 1950's.

Sissi made him a crochet gift.

It was a hat for his stuffed animal, "Dolphie."

Ahhh, love the hugs!

His family gift was the expansion pack to a game he got for Christmas, Space Empires - Close Encounter.

After a quick breakfast, a donut run, and getting some gas, we were on the road....arrival at the Biltmore was around 11AM.

You have to park a good distance away from the house and as you walk up, this is the view you take in.

On the balcony, looking out at the house.

Unfortunately, you can't take pictures inside of the house. There is much to see, our tour took about 2 hours. If you'd like to see the inside of Biltmore House, please go to the Biltmore House Gallery and enjoy. Or, for even more pictures, do a Google search of "Pictures of the inside of the Biltmore" and even more pictures will show up.

As we left the house and made our way to the gardens.

Our birthday boy, Krypto.

Looking up at the house.

The view from the Loggia.

Out in the gardens.

Krypto said, "You can learn a lot of things from the flowers." So, he was listening!

Cute Gwangi.

Get ready for all the flower pictures. I love gardens.

The hyacinths were in full bloom and the smell was intoxicating. I need to get some at the house.

I love purple, and there were so many different shades.

Sissi spent time smelling pretty much every flower she came across.

They sure like orchids in the Conservatory.

These were so amazing. The purple centers were showy.

These yellow flowers were very different, I should look up what kind they are. They have white sections sprouting from the tops of them, almost like wings.

Taking a break outside of the Conservatory before heading over to Antler Hills.

There was a wedding reception being set up and quite a few people were taking pictures of the table arrangements.

Another table arrangement shot.

Indy said there were no pictures of me, so Krypto got a quick lesson with the camera and took this picture of the two of us.

Playing on the tractor at Antler Hills.

Silly shot of the kids.

The Biltmore was always intended to be a self sustaining property, so they keep the animals and farms as he intended them to be. These goats were not hugging though, they kept pushing each other off the overturned tub and playing "King of the Hill."

The time piece that George Vanderbilt had installed. It sent electric currents to all the other clocks in the house so they all moved at the same time, every minute...no excuse to be late to one of his functions.

We got to see his 1913 Stevens-Duryea Touring Car. Though actually Edith drove it most of the time, since he died young (in 1914)...she also had a Harley Davidson we got to see, but couldn't take photos of. Super cool!

Taking a quick break outside of Cedric's Tavern...named for Cedric, the dog of Cornelia. The kids enjoyed playing on their statues that were based on an old photo.

I highly recommend a family outing to the Biltmore house. We arrived at 11AM and left at 7PM and could have seen more. We packed a lunch and then just ate fast food when we left for dinner, there are plenty of quick type restaurants right off of the Biltmore property. I just wish we had had more time to check out one of the NINE letterbox clues that I had printed and brought with me :)!

Have you had any fun family field trips lately?