Salty Mama OBX

02/10/2026

This morning feels like a dream. 😌 honestly still processing it! It was a huge gift for the Bird but also for all of us. We have been at NAS Oceana with 10’s of thousands of other people but to be there this morning was so peaceful and amazing. We don’t have the words to express the immense gratitude we feel for the people God has placed in this hopeful future Aviator’s life, but especially for Chad who has blessed us so much with continued opportunities that fan the flame. He and I have been coordinating this for months and we successfully kept the big secret a surprise right up until the moment we pulled up to the ATC. The COOLEST part we were unfortunately not permitted to photograph was going into The Radar Room which is where we saw a little spark for Coop. He’s our techy. What was amazing was for him was to hear from someone that worked there, that there is a place for him in the military world in his element. He looked around that room and Jeff, who was our guide for that area of the ATC told him every single one of the soldiers and civilians in that room are gamers too. He has opportunities at his high school to take programming classes that open up the doors to Aviation Programs his junior and senior year to learn how to write code for drones and aircraft!! We are so lucky to have these programs available to our kids!

Parents live through their children’s experiences all the time and I can unequivocally say that we couldn’t be more excited to live vicariously through them with these dreams they have.

02/05/2026

One of my FAVORITE parts of the snow days was having fun with boys but ESPECIALLY my teenager. If you have or have had teen boys you know how elusive they become. He came up to me and gave me a hug in front of people and we got a few runs in together. Cherished moments for this mama. Love this kid so big! And no he was not flipping off Emmett’s friend on the last video. 🤣

09/22/2025

A little Airshow hungover but SO filled from an AMAZING day at NAS Oceana Air Show. Emmett got us the VIP treatment, got a challenge coin from the CEO and Retired Rear Admiral of Navy Exchange, and lived his best life. Emmett made it a point to touch each Blue Angel Pilot after the show, shake their hands, salute them and just revel in the moment of meeting his idols and true legends. They are seriously just bad ass pilots, humans and inspiring to all they meet. The CEO made it a point to tell us the most rewarding thing to them is to create the spark that inspires the next generation. Well they lit that spark last year, now it’s just fuel on a burning fire of a hopeful future fighter pilot!

A day filled with of inspiration, core memories and Navy/Airforce/Aviation love. I’ll never get tired of being along side my boys watching them live out their dreams. Even coming off a cold and not feeling great, emmett was definitely a little concerned Saturday that i wouldnt feel better to enjoy it, but i told him I’d be there for him even on my death bed! Probably going to take me a week to go through photos from two cameras 🤣😰💙💛🇺🇸✈️⚓️ Had my 3rd son in tow. It’s our special thing to do with Beau every year. Finished with our post airshow traditional meal at Waffle House. Love all my boys!!

07/20/2025

This picture is 10 years old but I can feel the moment it was taken like it was yesterday. The breeze on that walkway that evening. The sound of my little Coop’s giggles as he played in the surf and eventually just ended up in his under-roos for the end of this session. 10 years ago we thought we had at least another month to meet our Birdie (Emmett’s nickname since he was born), little did we know we would be holding him on the eve of a Super Moon just over 2 weeks later. Born just under 4 years after his big brother at exactly the same time, 4:41pm. From the moment his gender reveal test exploded in my sister’s house when I was just over 3 months pregnant with him, this little man has been storming our world! If you know Emmett, that is about as fitting as it gets. We have our own personal firework. This pregnancy like my first was wonderful and he was a perfect basketball belly baby. I felt amazing and I MISS being pregnant with both my boys. It feels like a minute ago and some days it feels like it was a lifetime. Either way, I miss it. Time needs to slow down, but really I wish I could turn it back. I wouldn’t change a single thing. They don’t tell you when you become parents about the heartache of watching your babies turn into independent little humans. The heartache of them not needing you in the same ways they did when they were little. Yes it is great and fun to see who they are becoming but I find my myself longing more for the time when they were tiny. When they just wanted to play with little cars and watch Mickey Mouse and Bubble Guppies. My babies aren’t babies anymore and if I’m being completely honest, it hurts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fun in a lot of ways but I just miss my little people.

thank you for documenting our family life so beautifully for all these years!! Love you, Bean! We are LONG overdue for a sesh!!!

03/09/2025

Today Emmett received two of the most special gifts I dare say he might ever be given and I received them as well. Lola Hilton is off Facebook for Lent but she will see this after. These Naval Flight jackets belonged to her beloved Dave Hilton, who was equally beloved to our church and to myself. It was so fitting to receive these today after preached about being welcome, Dave and Lola are the truest embodiment of that. I can never describe how welcome and loved I felt by Dave. He continues to be one of the most special people in my heart and i misd him very my h. I was blessed to have him lead a Bible study, during which we fast tracked Bible. He would always call me Sister and he would always tell me how much God loved me and how he knew that God had a special plan for me. I am still on that path of discovery to what that might be but with my the love this man gave me, the love his beautiful wife still shows to me and the love he still gives us all from Heaven, I hope to walk closer to that realization each day. Today would have been his birthday and i tell you though not as good as the real thing, holding this jacket close to me on the way put of church this morning, was as close to that hug as you can get and I felt Dave with us. Happy Heavenly Birthday Dave!! We miss you every day and you are FOREVER loved. May these treasured pieces of you and your Naval Service continue to nudge our future hopeful Naval Aviator to realize his dreams and always know that he has the greatest guardian angel in Heaven. Thank you for parting with these to bless abd grace us, Lola! We love you so very, very much! 🥹❤️ the first picture of Dave and I with Kristin Dyer and Kevin was wheh Dave gave us our pins for that Bible Study. The one with Dave and myself was our last Palm Sunday with him before he went home to God the following winter. I really needed this today. God always finds you. 🥰🙏🏻❤️

02/02/2025

Got Papa to take out the Porsche for a sunset spin. Their neighborhood is so beautiful 😍🌅 it’s been a good few days. Went to fast 😔

10/09/2024

The politics aside, the grassroots and non profit organizations on the ground are heroes!! They aren’t waiting for anything to save lives and provide relief and we are SO thankful for them!! They are going to be the ones there for the long haul. 🙏🏻❤️🇺🇸 once a service member to your country, always a service member to your country. I’m not posting this for ANY OTHER REASON other than to provide recognition to people that will not ask for it but very much deserve it! Thank you!

“This disaster has definitively proven without a shadow of a doubt FEMA’s incompetence and incapability,” ex-Green Beret Adam Smith said.

10/02/2024

If you have empty totes, please bring them to Flying Fish Ink at 306 W Lake in KDH today. We are packing supplies for a truck headed west this afternoon. Thank you!! 🙏🏻❤️🙏🏻

08/26/2024

I will not bid farewell to summer. It isn’t over. Yes school starts tomorrow and I am going to miss kids sleeping in, no rigid schedules and being with my boys, but there is still lots of summer left! There will be plenty of after school surf sessions and beach day weekends. Officially here until September 21st and if Mother Nature cooperates, beyond that. It’s locals summer, baby!!

These kids do need some routine and my house and my pantry for sure needs a break. No more fanom tax here!Gonna be a skibbidi year. These kids have so much Rizz. No Ohio vibes. Did I say that all right or was it totally cringe?😂 whatever it is no farewell to summer, here. 😎🌞 sunset tonight with my first born heading into his last year of middle school. 😭 It’s fine. I’m ok 😫

08/20/2024

National Aviation Day was so cool, especially for my little aviation enthusiast. Manteo Airport, Ice Cream then onto to the where we got to meet Admiral (Retired) Joey Tynch and learn about the amazing program that he instructs and is available to First Flight High School Juniors & Seniors. Living in the birthplace of flight and in the footprints of historical giants is certainly the perfect place to nurture a passion in aviation and seeing what is available to our children really to save a path in this amazing field, is really awesome!

08/14/2024

Can we talk about that sunset last night? 🤩❤️🔥🤯obsessed with my new lens.

07/23/2024

Little mid day chill, scraped clean and fresh wax hoping for an afternoon sesh if this hot sky moves out. 🌩️⚡️