Last week on Instagram, we announced something we had been holding on to for weeks, but we had been hoping for far longer. We let our community know we were moving an hour plus south to live on Hatteras Island, which is truly a dream for our family! We have been head over heels in love with Hatteras for a LONG time. Back to when Mike and I were just boyfriend and girlfriend, this became a really special place for us… and since then we’ve visited and taken vacations there  so many times and even had a little five year vow renewal there for fun when I was pregnant with Autumn!

We moved to the Outer Banks over six years ago… we wanted to live where we vacationed. 
When we moved here, we found ourselves always choosing to vacation in Hatteras.
So once again.. we decided to move where we vacation 🙂

But this Outer Banks move.. this is definitely different from the first. I’m coming from Glen Allen (Richmond-ish, lol) Virginia… to Norfolk & Virginia Beach… to Kitty Hawk/Kill Devil Hills to Hatteras. It’s like I have intentionally moved in the direction of less stuff and convenience and I am not even mad about it because we are chasing a simpler life. Below we’re sharing what life is going to look like being in Frisco (the town in Hatteras we’ll officially be in) and why we are SO EXCITED about it… even though it’s “less convenient” that what we’re used to!

We will have no mailbox – HA! We don’t have a mailbox at our new home and we can only receive USPS mail via our PO BOX. We have a PO BOX now for my business, but the fact that we quite literally do not have a mailbox to walk to is so crazy for us! We’re TOTALLY okay with it though!

Our PO BOX is in Hatteras Village because Frisco’s Post Office had no more boxes, LOL. Every time we need to check our mail… we have to drive to the very last town on the island before the Ocracoke Ferry. We are SO not mad about this. I can’t wait to YOUTUBE this drive… it’s UNREAL!

Our new home is almost 200 square feet smaller than the one we’re in now… and we are SO HAPPY about it! We have always been okay with smaller, especially when we left Hampton Roads to come here. But.. this is the SMALLEST house we’ve been in. The girls are sharing a room (I once had a bride tell me she would never trade sharing a room with her two sisters for the world and that it was SO magical for their friendship!!), I have a SUPER TINY OFFICE that’s smaller than most of my friends walk-in closets, LOL.. and Mike and I of course have a bedroom. There’s really not much else but the typical kitchen, living room, couple of bathrooms to the house. And.. we are weirdos and we LOVE THAT.

We have our own neighborhood beach access which means we will… DRUMROLL… ALWAYS HAVE BEACH PARKING! I can’t even tell you how effing magical this is for us because in the summer on our rare days off it’s so hard to get parking!! Also.. this means my clients will be able to park at our house for their sessions if they want to and THAT has always been a dream of mine as a family photographer!!!!!

There are no fast food drive thrus (that we know of) and that’s just kind of awesome. I need to calm down on those McDonald’s fries anyway LOLOL.

No Walgreens, Rite-Aid, CVS…not a lot of corporate options that I run to when I need something. Strangely, I am HAPPY about this. This helps me to be intentional and PLANNED with my purchasing.. and to make sure I am continuing to stay completely simplified, organized and aware of what items we actually need and which we don’t that I might have picked up if I were walking through the actual store. This means I’ll be refining my LifeFlow list to do checks on certain medicines and items and make sure only what we NEED is what we have in stock.

That Target I was so hyped up on..I knew when I posted that on Instagram that alas, I would STILL be an hour away from a Target hahahaha. It’s coming to Kill Devil Hills and that’s going to be an hour away just like the Chesapeake one is for us now, LOL! But… I AM OKAY WITH IT 🙂 It’s awesome that one will be just one hour away and not TWO now, lol… but this also helps with intentionality and not shopping just to shop like mentioned above.

Hurricanes… yes. I know. But honestly, all of the Outer Banks has a risk for being affected by a hurricane. The difference is (to my knowledge from friends who live in Hatteras) that the typical risk down there is being flooded and trapped on the island when the dunes & road give out during these storms. Recently, some of my friends and clients were actually stuck in Hatteras for 3-4 extra days when the road was closed but this is all to be expected. If something REALLY bad is heading our way, we’ll evacuate to our friends in Kill Devil Hills who have a big, sturdy house.

The light positioning is DIFFERENT in Hatteras…because of how the island curves, this photographer is going to be spending a lot of time watching the light move from the ocean to the dunes throughout the year and see how I’m going to work with this as I start to work with more families down there. The positioning is different than what I’m used to but I am SO EXCITED about it!!!! The beach is still the beach and will ALWAYS be my favorite place to shoot!!

I am going to have to limit my Corolla, Duck & Southern shores sessions during the summer because of how far away I am now! I shoot there a LOT during the summer and although I am STILL taking them, I have to cap it at two times a month because of the extensive travel. Anyone willing to meet me in Nags Head or come to us in Hatteras though – LET ME KNOW!

GUYS – we are SO THANKFUL FOR OUR COMMUNITY!!! I talk to people I have never met in my DMs like old friends. You have been on this journey with us and you cheer us on and we hope to continue to bring you laughs, joy, inspiration and HAPPINESS!!!!!!! We are SO GRATEFUL FOR YOU!! Thank you for being our pals! XOXO