Cooper and I were invited to Captiva... just being sarcastic after our parents left us to vacation in Mexico and threatened us daily about NOT taking us. We all made it to our favorite spot, Captiva Island. It is Mommy's 26th year on Captiva, a place she adores and loves to share with our family now. We had awesome weather- so hot in fact they broke records... no complaints!
The beach is our favorite spot on Captiva. We stay on South Seas Island Resort which has many pools as well. We spent a lot of time at the ocean where we relaxed, went shelling, took long walks, made sand castles and played in the salty water.
About 20 family members were there including aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents. We love this time to connect and enjoy together.
My parents love how much easier it gets each year. There were no strollers, pack and plays and our cousins kept us very busy. Our parents actually had time to sit down and relax (they can thank me for this later!)
A little boy gave us this boogie board, so we took turns "surfing" on and off the shore! One day, the dolphins were playfully jumping between boogie boarders and swimmers. It was very cool!
At night, we always went to see the sunset. Many evenings clouded over, but we were able to capture a few gorgeous ones.
It is tradition (maybe just on Captiva?!?!) to toss in a shell as the sun goes down while making a wish. Cooper and I had lots of wishes, so we threw in fistfuls of shells.
I practiced my photography skills and took a picture of Mommy and Daddy, not bad!
If you ask me what I love most about Captiva Island, I would list the following in no particular order... beach, trolley rides, and ice cream. We hit all three of these daily! The trolley is a light blue nostalgic trolley (it rides around the resort delivering people to where they want to go). I insisted on sitting in my own seat, maybe a sign of what is to come as I age?!?!?
Trolley stop where we often had to wait and wait and wait while getting bit by the no-see-ums (mini-mosquitos- so annoying).
The big boys played golf daily and we often walked up the beach to meet them. We mostly went to just catch a ride on the golf carts, although Daddy thinks we really went to see him (shhhh!) The annual men's golf photo is on Auntie's camera, so it will probably be posted next year :)
When we were not on the beach or on the course, we hit the pools. There are plenty of them all around the resort. We were not picky, they all have their perks. The one outside our condo is quiet and often empty. The main pool has waterslides and we have a cabana for shade. We typically split our time between them all. Above photo is with extended cousins Grace and Jack... love cousins!
Wearing goggles sure helps!
You had to be 40 inches to ride down the waterslides, so technically Cooper was a few inches too short. The first day they still let him go down and the second day a "crabby lady" as we named her told him "no!" He was devastated... had a major meltdown, and had to go in for a nap. We didn't see crabby lady the rest of our vacation which meant we had a happy camper once again. We went down the slides a bazillion times per day.
And Daddy forced Mommy to take a turn down the tunnel slide (which goes straight down). Thankfully, she kept her suit on as she sunk like a anchor at the bottom of the slide!
All of the sun and water made for easy sleeping at nights and Cooper even snuck in a cat nap while at the pool one day.
We want to thank Grandma Carla for inviting us to stay in her beautiful villa all week. We loved our time together!
We were also fortunate to spend time with Papa and Grandma Sharon who vacation in FL and came to see us for two days. We had fun with them at the pools and at dinners together!
And to finish off the blog, we added in a few of our favorite photos from our last night in Captiva! We sure had a great time and look forward to a reunion next April!
** Also a special note to my fellow blogger and better "other" half, Heather, who subbed for me on Thursday and Friday so I could go to FL. Thank you so much! I appreciate you more than you could know!
