Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts

Friday, November 1, 2013

Summer Vacation

This summer my parents invited us to go to Sanibel Island, Florida.  We were there June 22nd through the 29th. It was such a cute little town!  I loved that it wasn’t too touristy or commercialized.  The town seemed to be filled with retirees, seasoned Sanibel vacationers and some first-timers.  It was such a quaint little island!  And of course the white sand beaches and blue water were fabulous too!  It was my parents, my sister Abby (flew in from Atlanta), my sister Bekah, her husband Bradley and Emma.  We flew into Fort Myers International Airport then had a rent car to get to Sanibel Island. 

 

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We stayed at the Sundial Beach Resort & Spa.  Our friends recommended Sanibel Island as well as this resort – it was great!  We were in a 3 bedroom condo right on the beach, which was perfect when you have two babies on vacation with you! 

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There were beautiful palm trees and luscious landscaping everywhere.  But of course with that meant rain almost daily, but that made for a perfect nap time.

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After checking into our condo we left the kiddos with the guys and headed to Wal-mart for some groceries.  Our condo had a full kitchen so we made most of our meals.  As you can see we had plenty to eat…

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Wal-mart was not on the island but they did have a local grocery store called Jerry’s located on Sanibel Island.  In front of Jerry’s they had several beautiful parrots that loved to talk! 

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These babies didn’t know what was coming but they sure were cute in their matching swimsuits that DeeDee got them and they were ready for the beach!

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Sanibel Island is one of the best shelling beaches in the world.  There were layers and layers of shells!  It was fun to search for different shells.  One of the nights we were there the tide was low enough for us to walk out to the sand bar and we got to discover some sea life.  We found sea snails, sand dollars, starfish and several other sea creatures.

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The evening sky and sunset were so pretty!  One of favorite things about the trip was being on the beach as the sunset.  My boys, love them…

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There were a lot of fun things to do at the resort.  They had turtles and other sea life to look at, as well as pictures of all the different sea life that is typical for the area.  Mathis liked playing with the coconut!

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Emma playing a little Corn Hole!

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We rented bikes several times.  It was fun to ride around the island.

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These sweet cousins got to tag along for the bike rides.  I love this picture of them holding hands!

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We took turns making dinner every night.  Charlie and I made Cheesy Enchiladas!  Yum!

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Since Abby was in Thailand for her birthday, we celebrated in Florida!

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We had a lot of fun times at the pool!  We would usually start our mornings off on the beach then once everyone had enough of the sand and salt water we headed to the pool until lunch time.  Mathis and Emma loved going down the slide!

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One day during nap time, Abby, Bekah, Bradley, Charlie and I all rented Vespa's!  We got to ride around the island and explore.

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Our first stop was to the east end of the island.  We got to see the Sanibel Island Lighthouse and the water seemed to be even more beautiful on this end of the island. 

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After exploring the east end of the island, we headed the opposite direction.  We drove by several cute beach houses, made a stop at Dairy Queen for some ice cream and then stopped at the Sanibel Fire Station for a tour. 

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One evening we headed to Captiva Island to have dinner at the Bubble Room.  Captiva is another adorable little town and I loved looking at the awesome houses and mansions along our drive.  The Bubble Room is a very unique and quirky restaurant!  It’s a little bit of sensory overload when you walk in but of course Mathis and Emma were captivated by it all.  There favorite part was the train that circled around the restaurant.

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The last day before leaving we did a little shopping at the outlet mall and got a pedicure!  It was such a fun and relaxing family vacation filled with great memories!!