Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Baby Charlotte Ruth Heltz born October 4,2012
Weight: 6lbs 12oz

Length 20.5"

Our first weekend of traveling

We spent our weekend in eastern Virginia and the outer banks of North Carolina. We stayed on Fort Story, which is right on the Chesapeake Bay.

This is the Old Cape Henry lighthouse which was built in 1792.


We took the kids to Virginia beach. It was quite unfair for them though since it was their first time at the beach and it was 38* outside. It was still gorgeous and they liked seeing it.

It was not too cold to play on the playground....of course ;)

Great statue of Neptune right on the beach

We left the beach and traveled down the Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks. This was a great drive with beautiful ocean scenery. Our first stop was the Wright Brothers museum. The girls loved it because they could run around outside and pretend to fly.

Wes and the girls ran down the path with the markers representing the length of the first 4 flights. Beginning with 12 seconds and ending with 59 seconds.

At the top of the monument it was very windy and all the kids like pretending they were flying.

A great statue representing first flight was too much fun to climb on!

Caroline wanted see what the photographer was taking a picture of.

We then visited the largest sand dunes on the East Coast, reaching heights of over 90 feet. It was like the greatest sandbox ever :). Other than battling the crazy winds we all had a good time.

Alyssa Kate drew a snail in the sand....I thought it was very cute

Sunday we went t0 Norfolk Navy base to shop at the NEX and see the ships on the pier. This is the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush.

While we were walking along the pier, we were talking about how cool it would be to go aboard a ship. Wes walked up to the gate in front of the USS New York and asked if we could. Shockingly they told us to walk down to the open door and ask the guards if we could come aboard and if they could show us around. Well, the sailors not only let us on but took us on a tour that lasted over 1 hour. It was incredible. This banner was hanging near the opening, it lists all the names of those who lost their lives on 9/11.

This is the crest of the ship, notice the twin towers.

Petty Officer Ban showing us the Marine birthing on the ship

Some of the doors had this patriotic paint on them and I thought is was great

We went all over the ship and thought the touches of New York City were very fun

Caroline liked trying on some of the battle gear.

Sitting in the skippers chair....too cool!

We went up and down so many ladders I was completely turned around

We even checked out the mess hall, which happened to be Caroline's favorite part, the girl likes to eat :)

This is a plaque made of metal from the WTC with an engraving of all those who lost their lives on 9/11

Our wonderful guide Petty Officer Ban

The greatest part of the ship is that they took 24 tons of WTC metal and refined it down to 7.5 tons using it in the front of the ship. It is the portion with the ripples on the bottom.

USS New York

This view is from the back and shows the "twin towers" on top