This year we spent a wonderful 9 day family vacation on Captiva Island, FL. The resort we stayed at (South Seas Island Resort) was very family friendly. We spent most of our time at the beach or pool, or both, every single day, but we also took time to enjoy doing a kids craft and having play time at Skully's (their children's entertainment building) each day, and visited the Sannibel Shell Museum and the Ding Darling National Wildlife Preserve one day. We enjoyed lots of delicious food, especially seafood, on and off resort. The kids' favorite was The Bubbleroom restaurant and Scoops and Slices (a cute pizza parlor/ice cream/candy shop....we all enjoyed some treats there!) Grace and Nicholas' favorite craft of the week was the tie dye shirts they made and brought home as their souvenir!
But certainly the highlight of the week was the beach! All three kids loved it (though Grace will tell you she prefers the pool because "the ocean is too salty.") They all enjoyed playing in the sand. Nicholas was a little fish and was swimming all over and never wanted to come out of the water. Once a manatee came close to shore where he was swimming and Nicholas was face to face with it with his goggles and even touched it! He was so excited! On the first day at the beach Grace was really scared of the ocean, even with the mild Gulf surf, but as the week progressed, she warmed up quickly and kept asking us to go swimming in the ocean with her. Henry, well he's fearless, he'd walk or crawl right into the sea if you let him so we just watched him close and he had a blast.
Overall, Nicholas made huge strides in his swimming this week. He is now truly swimming on his own! He swims the length of the pool and back and keeps doing it over and over. He loves to swim and seems to spend more time under than above the water! Henry also made big strides this week, literally! He went from walking 5% of the time and crawling 95% to walking 100% of the time, in just the course of our week vacation! Shawn and I both agreed the vacation was as relaxing as it can possibly be with three small children :-) We each had the opportunity to enjoy some one on one time with each of the kids which was very special. And we all just enjoyed being together as a family!
Most of our photos are posed ones from our little "photo shoots" because it was a full time job watching the kids around the water all week and was hard to find the time to take pictures!
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| We tried to take advantage of the great scenery to take the kids' yearly photos. Shawn did a great job as always I think. |
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| Mr. Smiles, NOT smiling for the camera.. unusual for him, but still cute all the same! |
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| Best buddies! |
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| These two are always full of giggles these days! |
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| Getting a picture of all three looking and smiling is nearly impossible lately it seems. This was the best we could do. Now that Henry is walking, he is on the go all the time! |
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| Our buddy who is not so little any more! |
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| Love those laughs! |
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| Enjoying the pool |
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| Grace was our pool girl! |
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| Fun splash time with Daddy! |
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| This was the harbor view out of our room window. |
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| More laughs! |
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| Nicholas was so excited to get this manatee hat after he met one while swimming! |
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| On the beach pictures.... |
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| Looking for shells |
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| On the move again! |
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| The girls |
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| Pure sweetness |
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| All boy! |
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| There's those two buddies again! |
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| Posing :-) |
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| This is a true Grace smile...love it! |
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| Nicholas' first castle |
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| They all really enjoyed the sand! |
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| This was a lake at the church we went to Mass at on Sunday |
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| Outside a restaurant after dinner |
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| Captiva is a fantastic place for seashells! These are the ones we just casually picked up at the beach. We didn't even go at low tide or in the "best" places. It was so easy to find amazing shells and lots of fun! |
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| We will always remember the great vacation we had together! |
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