North Carolina Vacation!

Ryan and I had our first vacation sans baby j this past weekend! Our very good friends Andy and Ashley got married in the Outer Banks of North Carolina on Saturday, June 20th. Ryan and I, of course, documented the whole wonderful 4 day/ 3 night trip with tons and tons of pictures!!

This is Ry and I at the airport on Thursday, 18th.


We were ever-so-fortunate to have a Kia Rio as our rental car!! haha... I was the driver. We flew into Norfolk, Virginia and it's about a 2 hour drive into the Outer Banks. The Outer Banks consists of several small beach towns like Kill Devil Hills, Duck, Nags Head and across the bridge further is Manteo - which is the area where they had the reception, so we decided we'd make that our hotel spot...


Ryan in our room at The Tranquil House Inn in Manteo.



Our good friends Chris and Rachael Meachum were there for the wedding too and stayed at the same hotel as us. We had dinner on Thursday night at Barefood Bernies - and it was yummy! After dinner, I snuck this peak of the sunset over one of the MANY stunningly beautiful homes in the Outer Banks.

Andy's best bud from high school, Daniel and Dan and Ryan at Ashley's parents' house - where we spent a lot of "hanging out" time...



Our friend Josh Tomlinson and his gorgeous family! I fell in love with beautiful little Alice (10mos old) while we were there... she made me miss Jackson even more!

At the rehearsal, Ryan was a mack daddy groomsmen hauling 2 ladies around!

But everyone knows I CLAIMED my man! :)

Wilder sported a lovely green mohawk for the wedding... I told him I was very thankful that he did NOT sport this at Ry/my wedding. :)

Chris, Wilder, Dan, Ry and Josh

The rehearsal dinner was at Penguin something... but it had an awesome view of the sea!




Wilder, Chris, Josh, Ryan, Daniel, Dan and (can't remember his name) and our cutie-pie groom Andy!

Me and Wilder at Ashley's parents after rehearsal dinner.

The next morning, Ry and I got up and after breakfast we decided to make use of the free bicycles and cruise around Manteo! I hadn't rode a bicycle since our honeymoon 7 years ago, so it took me awhile to get steady... but it was fun!

This is the view from our hotel balcony!

On the morning of the wedding, Chris, Rachael, Ry and I went parasailing.. Ryan and Chris's first time to parasail!







The captain was a lot of fun and he liked to dip us in the water! Ry and I loved it!!!

Because of our weight differences, Ry kept having to lean over so we came in straight! haha...



When we were coming back after parasailing, we found a swarm of dolphins!! The captain let me and Rachael jump in the water, but the dolphins didn't come up by us... darn!



After parasailing, we went back to the hotel and Ry and I each had a pint of Corona and we just sat on the deck and relaxed for awhile before it was time to get ready for the wedding... It was really the perfect trip!

Ryan being silly at the hotel...

Keisha Hang Gliding

While we were on vacation, Ryan and I said the ONE THING we both wanted to do, no matter what, was go hang gliding! The Outer Banks is the hang gliding capital of the world, so what better time!? The actually designer of the hand glider is 95 years old and still lives in the Outer Banks!

The hang gliding class was the first hour and then for the next 2 hours, we took turns gliding. This was before the class...


When we finally got to the top of the dunes before we suited up...


Our team leader was Doug Johnson and he was very patient showing us!



My first hang gliding experience did not go so well... I basically face planted into the sand! There is actually a lot of thought that has to go into this and your hands have to be gently on the bar and that bar actually determines where your wings go... well, on this one, I accidentally pushed the bar way down and that pushed the nose of the glider down into the ground too.... Oops. :)

This picture is me trying to get the guts to try again!


This was my best flight.... (4th flight)

My final flight... I never actually figured out how to land on my feet, but I did get better each time. This was the only time I got caught by the wind and flew off to the left...


Ryan, waiting on his turn...

Ryan Hand Gliding!

Ryan's First Flight!


This was Ryan's best flight and I almost missed it! (4th Flight also).

Ryan's Final Flight! He did so great! He always landed on his feet!

Andy/Ashley's Wedding

Here are the photos from the wedding...












Leigh-Anne videotaped the wedding for them... We found out after talking for awhile that we totally know each other!! Her maiden name is Fowler - and we actually grew up going to the same church (Boxley Baptist Church) and our parents totally know each other and we even went to school together for a year! She's a year younger, but what a SMALL world!!




Leigh-Anne is due w/ their first boy in early September! I think we'll be friends forever now! :)

We got to park our cars back at our hotel and walk over to the reception... so we took some pics (of course) before the reception...


Rach and I with our "sassy" poses.

Back to the Real World...

Ryan and I are back from our amazing trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina... Trying to get my feet on the ground now... We took a trillion pictures, so once I can get settled in, I'll post them.. probably tomorrow, but maybe today! There's lots to update!! :) Tune in soon!