Sanibel Island

There are two islands off the coast of Florida by Fort Myers.  They are called Sanibel and Captiva Islands.  I had heard they were beautiful and the shells were amazing.  I knew we needed to go before we left Florida, so I decided to go Friday (not that we are leaving that soon, but we've got to go sometime!).  I called our adventure buddies, the Smiths, and they were game.  We packed our picnic lunch, our beach gear and we were off.  We paid the toll to cross the bridge to get there and wandered a little on the island before we found parking.  The island was kind of fun with small shops and a lot of biking paths.  By this time it had started to sprinkle, but not enough rain to pack up and go home. I'm not sure if it was the day, time, weather, season, or what, but the beaches were not that impressive to me (sorry to anyone who loves them--when is the best time to find them?).  They were covered with seaweed and tiny shells.  But the kids didn't care.  We ate lunch and they had a blast in the water.

A view down the island.  It is still beautiful.

Ashleigh enjoying a Go-gurt---a beach necessity!

We had enough tubes for everyone.  They had a fun time in the tubes. . . 

Making circles. . . 

Just relaxing. . .

Lining up (Parker, Kara, Erin, Ashleigh, Macey, Janiel and Wes). . .

More lining up. . . 

Kicking back and relaxing. . . 

And being pulled like a train!!!  Parker was a good sport to pull the girls.

Melanie took a turn.  What a fun mom and friend!

A shot of all the kids enjoying a ride, thanks Melanie!

And Wes pulled the train too.

 Our time on parking was expiring, so we decided to take a drive to the lighthouse and beach on the other side.  We were all standing in the water and a crab pinched my foot, then a split second later a crab got Melanie.  After both moms screamed and jumped around, the kids weren't so excited to be in the water anymore.  

This is the lighthouse you can read about below.  

The parking lots were sand.  It had been raining on and off and so there was a lot of muddy sand.  It was great for the interior of the car.  I had to wait for a few days for the sand to dry so that I could vacuum it out.  Our suburban has never been vacuumed so much than when we moved here.  But sad to say, there is still probably a bucket full of sand in the carpet.

Wes got creative with the tubes.

Kara has a great pouty face.

Poor Erin was swimming with Macey and Janiel and started crying.  I just thought it was a angry/frustrated cry.  Then she started running through the water to shore.  When she got close, her cry became a petrified scream and she couldn't crawl fast enough out of the water.  It turns out a crab pinched her on her leg and when she was getting out, she stepped on another one that pinched her foot.  She was done after that!

Another view of the light house from the beach.

The kids got out some chips and the birds instantly came.  This picture only shows just a few. 

If you look close at this seagull, it has a hook and line in its left side. 

What a fun and different day at the beach.  We are especially glad that we had the Smiths to enjoy it with.