Flamingo Cake.

Ben had a going-away party for a lady he works with today. She loves flamingos, so last night Ben and I made her a cake. Here's how it went, step-by-step.






Ben was so proud of his finished piece of art. Looks pretty sweet, huh?

Corn Maze!

Saturday we went to a corn maze with some friends from Ben's squadron.


JP, me & Ben, the Botinellis, the Jacksons, the Springs, and Lillie. That's right... we brought the dog. And she LOVED it!

Katie Spring and me on the lookout bridge.

Thanks again to Sarah Jackson for coming up with such a great fall activity! It was so much fun!

The Outer Banks.

I have been DYING to see the outer banks since before we moved to North Carolina. I even planned out the perfect weekend trip a few months ago, in hopes we would make it happen. So we decided to take the trip last weekend.

After Ben got off work, we hit the road for the 4 hour road trip. These were my passengers for most of the trip:


We got to Rodanthe and set up camp around 11pm. I'd been seeing lightning on the drive out and the rain was just starting, so we hurried and set up camp to beat the storm. We woke up at 2am to the weirdest sensation... our tent was FLOATING in about 6 inches of water. I poked my head out of the tent and realized our campsite was bowl-shaped and completely flooded. I nudged Ben and said something like 'we've gotta get our stuff out of here before the water starts coming into the tent!' He, of course, thought it was a cool water bed and tried to go back to sleep.

Once I convinced him to wake up, we moved the bedding into the back of our car and slept there. It was actually more comfortable than I expected. There were a few casualties of the great flood: all our clothes for the weekend were drenched (pretty much everything was soaked) and even after I tried to dry it out, my phone was ruined.

But we couldn't let that dampen (get it?!?) our vacation. We headed out first thing to start exploring. We found some fun pirate stores, since Blackbeard hung out in that area.



Saturday morning we headed south through the Cape Hatteras Seashore, took a ferry, and spent a few hours at Ocrakoke. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed, so we couldn't climb it.

The Ocrakoke Lighthouse.

That afternoon, we headed back north to climb the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, the tallest lighthouse in the United States and the tallest brick lighthouse in the world. It is 208 feet tall and requires a climb of 268 steps to reach the top. Beautiful views.



After the rough night before and climbing the tallest lighthouse in the country, we were beat for the day. So after some tasty foil dinners, we slept like rocks.

Sunday morning, we headed out for more fun!

Love the giant chairs we found!

We stopped by the Bodie (pronounced body) Island Lighthouse, which was closed for climbing...


...then Fort Raleigh, site of the first English Colony in America in the late 1500s, on Roanoke Island...

...then the Wright Brothers Memorial in Kill Devil Hills. Lillie especially liked this stop.

Last stop was at the Currituck Beach Lighthouse in Corolla. This was my favorite lighthouse to climb. The inside was beautiful and mostly original, with exposed brick walls and amazing floors.

You know it's a great weekend when your legs are sore for days afterward. :)