Family Adventure - SANIBEL!!!!!!!!!

Well, Dave, Andrew and I did wake the two sleepy older girls up at 5:30 am the Friday after Thanksgiving and said we had a surprise, when Amelia promptly said "You got me a long beak dinosaur?!", WHAT?? (I better work on finding out what a long beak dinosaur is before Christmas......) We explained we were leaving for a surprise, early birthday trip to Florida. Everyone including baby Jenna was ready to go!

We made our usual pit stops, one being "South of the Border". Seems they should be there waiting for us behind the knick knack store- in front of the campground. We've stopped there so many times to stretch and take a bath room break... We stayed at our usual hotel in Brunswick, GA and after what seemed like a really, really long next day - finally made it to Sanibel. Immediately following dinner we all dove into the pool. The temperatures in the beginning of the week were in the upper 80's - very warm. They cooled off to low 40's some mornings towards the end of the week. We did a lot of beach walking, bike path walking for donuts and coffee, lots of swimming and hot pool time. We went shelling, plenty of beach walking and sand time. Dave took the girls fishing and caught a flounder, we saw an iguana, which I first thought was a baby alligator, because he was sunning himself right next to the alligator pond right outside our back door. We went out for a dinner one night and on Friday night went to Sanibel Holiday Illumination night - where every 6 feet or so for about 5 miles along Periwinkle Place there was a candle lit and all the restaurants and shopping centers had lights up and decorated for the holidays. Really beautiful.

We celebrated Jenna turning 20 months old on the 2nd, and no matter how many times those elderly ladies asked me at the pool how old she was I still had to think about it!!

My most memorable moments from this trip are - Andrew super relaxed in his hot tub time, Amelia and our shelling excursions, Ava and her super excited self enjoying the Christmas program at the Church on that last night, and Ava mastering swimming without her floaties - diving underneath and everything! and Jenna swimming with her floaties by herself all over the pool. I love to watch Jenna fit right into our quirky family time - donuts, fast food and beach time. It's like she's always been here.

And to note... my least favorite memory was my forever attempting to get that annual christmas card photo. Funny thing though.... a German tourist stopped to ask to take our family picture - and didn't that ONE photo turn out the best! That ONE photo - that ONE time! Darn!! The other thing that wasn't good....at all.... was Jenna learning how to open the front door to the condo and leave. This has reminded me for certain that I need to stay one step ahead of Miss Jenna at all times..............

Thanks to my husband for not stressing out at all on the 19+ hour drive each way. I love my husband so much for basically rearranging his schedule to take me up on my last minute whirlwind desire to purchase a cheap week to my favorite place in the world!