Ritterbusch Family Reunion - Outer Banks

This post feels daunting to write.  So much happened over this week that we were on vacation.  But, I'm going to do my best because someday I'll want these memories written down forever. 

Our big family vacation for this year was a trip to the Outer Banks for a Ritterbusch family reunion.  A few years ago we traveled to Ohio (and included a trip to Niagara Falls) for a Ritterbusch family reunion.  Since that event the different families have been trying to plan events across the country every year to two so we can get together and be together more.  This year, the Uncle Chuck girls (my cousins Kristin, Susie and Corrie) offered to host in the Outer Banks.  We were SO PUMPED!  Our first big beach vacation as a family of 4...and we got to go with my parents and Joey/Andy as well.

My parents offered to rent a huge 5 bedroom house just a few short steps from the beach for our three families to share - it had enough room for us all to sleep, three bars, a pool and it was just perfect!  We were a few houses down from the Ritterbusch girls and less than a mile for Aunt Karen and some other family members staying with her.

We decided to dive and left at midnight on a Thursday to try and get a few hours under our belts while the kids slept.  The total drive was over 17 hours (not including stops) so our goal was to get the first 12-13 down in the first day and then have a more manageable amount for day 2.  It worked...that is except for the part where Hazel didn't sleep the entire first day.  We left at midnight and got to Greensboro NC around 3:30pm EST.  That's a LONG time in the car with a three year old who only slept 5 hours the night before.  But!  We stopped for breakfast at Waffle House (my first time) and were able to have dinner in NC with some friends for Ryan's from college....oh and we ate at a great brewery there too so a win on so many levels!

Once we made it to the Outer Banks and finally got ourselves settled in the house we spent the first evening just sitting around pool side.  Saw some of the cousins, had a few too many drinks...oh and Ryan's friend John McCarthy joined us that evening too!  He's stationed out of Norfolk for 9 months or so and it's only a few hour drive.  It was fun to see so many friends along the trip.  John spent Saturday night with us and it was great to catch up with him on all the things going on with him and his family.

After those first few days, the days started to blur together as any good vacation should.  A haze of fun...activity, seeing, doing and just enjoying without a calendar or a schedule to keep reminding of you of the date and passing time.  One morning we decided to trek to Cape Hatteras lighthouse.  I'd been there when I was younger with my parents and the Wares, but this was Ryan's first time and of course a first for the girls. 

The big kids were tall enough to climb all the way to the top of the lighthouse.  It was two hundred steps or so...about 10 stories.  We hoped to be able to carry Lincoln and Hazel to the top with us, but they didn't allow that so Dad and Andy stayed down with the little ones and the rest of us went up, up, up to see what it was all about.

Aren't these sweet cousins so cute!  I can't believe they climbed all the way to the top by themselves.  My mom even bought them "I climbed a lighthouse" shirts, which Abby loves of course!

Crazy hair, but we don't have a ton of pictures just the two of us...so I'll embrace it!  It was such a fun day exploring the island with all 10 of us together.  Oh, and we had Uncle Rusty with us too...so 11 of us!  That's maybe one of my favorite parts of the family reunion/week long trip.  There were lots of opportunities to do things as a larger group or to break out into smaller groups and spend some time with just a few people.  My only wish is that we'd have had more time.

The day after going to Hatteras a big group of people went hang gliding on the dunes.  I have a ton of pictures from that day so I'm going to do a separate post on that part in a bit.

After the day of hang gliding and the dunes however we ended up cutting the trip short and heading home.  Everyone knows now that we left in hopes of seeing Ellyn before she passed.  Unfortunately, we didn't quite make it.  There is no easy way to tell this story, other than to just say it.  It sucks.  It wasn't how any of us imagined any of it.  Not how we imagined vacation, not how we imagined saying goodbye, not how we imagined any of it going down.  But, it's the story of our lives and that isn't always pretty and it's definitely not always easy.  So, there it is.

I'll leave you with these two innocent, happy, unknowing faces.  On this last evening, on our way home somewhere in Ohio we stayed up too late, ate too much pizza and let the kids get some energy out.  It was what we all needed at that moment.  Someone was looking out for us.  The days after this picture were hard.  They were sad.  But, there's good on the other side.