Long Overdue

The last weekend in August, yes, a wee bit back, Kevin and I went away alone together for the first time in twelve years.  Our lovely parents, Dick and Rosemary, stepped up to the task of tending to the little men (ahem, sort of little....Ethan is taller than me now).

My Mom's younger brother, Donald has always been a father to us.  The Varner cousins love spending time together.  So when a wedding invitation arrived for my cousin Martha's daughter, we really wanted to go. The timing wasn't the best...first weekend after school started, but somehow the planets lined up and we did it!

Kevin and I left right after school and drove until we got there around 2:00 am.  We sneaked into the beach house my sister and cousin had rented for the week and crawled into our futon mattress bunk beds.  Beggars cannot be choosers.

The wedding took place on the outer banks of North Carolina.  We had  checked into flying, but calculated that it would have taken the same amount of travel time to get there because the closest airport was almost 2 hours away.

Adult car trips are fun!  We listened to whatever we wanted, stopped when we wanted, chatted when we wanted, napped when we wanted.  Pretty fun stuff.   We were sad to miss the rehearsal dinner at the NC aquarium, but were lucky to be invited to breakfast the next morning.  Shrimp and grits in Manteo.  Super cool.

I have decided those southerners have it all figured out.  Seriously!  Life along the shore seems so lovely.

We then spent the day sitting on the beach, chatting with cousins galore and once even draggin ourselves away from our beach chairs to hike to the pier.

The wedding and reception were out of this world.  So beautiful and in such an incredible setting.

Uncle Donald and Kathryn riding their rickshaw to the reception

We chose to walk to Roanoke Island.

View of the bay from the reception

Under the big top

Meredith, Grant and Uncle Donald 

A sprinkling of Varner cousins

Uncle Donald and me

Some other random wedding guests :)

AND to top it off it was the night of the supermoon.  I mean, could they have planned it better?  

We arose at 5:30 am and started the trip home.  I worked on lesson plans while Kevin drove most of the way.  We were fortunate enough to find a little town in West Virginia having a farmer's market right around lunch time, so we stopped for a veggie wrap and quinoa salad.  Delish.

Goof balls, giddy on the town

 Second shout out to Dick and Rosie.  

I KNOW there will be an extra couple of jewels on your crowns in heaven.