After two hours on a plane we were in southern Florida and ready for adventure!
The first hotel we stayed at was in Sanibel Island.
The first thing we did after checking in was check out the beach that was just yards away.
The kids were immediately impressed by all the seashells the beach had to offer.
We're talking a lot of shells.
The hotel also had a nice restaurant where we enjoyed some meals together.
The first night's sunset was incredible- complete with a lightning show!
The next morning I woke up very early and decided to head to the beach for some sunrise photos.
I'm so glad I did!
Mark decided to initiate Charlie into the rite of shaving. (Don't worry, he didn't use the blade!)
The beach at sanibel island was so nice. The water was on the gulf side and it was warm and calm.
We found sand dollar after sand dollar. It was amazing!
Check out the boy behind Charlie. He found a starfish with nine legs. We saw a few of these here although we did not find any ourselves.
The hotel also had a pretty nice pool.
Morgan got to practice her newly acquired skills.
Taylor really liked the hammocks at our hotel although Morgan did not quite understand their appeal.
Charlie liked the ping pong tables.
I liked the turtle nests, and just wish we had been there at the right time to see them hatch.
Our next hotel where the conference was being held was incredible. It was a Marriot Resort and we stayed in a suite. It was the biggest hotel room I had ever seen!
Each night the kids took turns who slept with mom and dad in the king size bed while the other two slept in the pull-out couch.
On the third night of our trip, we went to see the American Idol Live concert.
The kids had fun dressing up for the occasion.
It was an entertaining show and the kids seemed to enjoy it.
The resort was on the harbor side, but we headed to the beach one day while Daddy worked.
This one had slightly bigger waves and still tons of shells.
I enjoyed the sunsets each night at the hotel. Just looking at these photos makes me wish I was back there.
I must say the kids were very well behaved and pleasant for most of our trip. They were even able to hang out in the hotel for some down times which I appreciated.
Even if they did get into a little mischief.
The hotel pool at the resort was huge!
That little inflatable ball provided hours of entertainment.
The hotel also had the biggest hot tub I had ever seen!
When we found ourselves at the pool close to sunset one night, I couldn't resist taking some photos. These were some of my favorite pictures from our entire trip.
Then I waited for the sun to set completely to take some long exposures of the pier.
Mark had two days in which he finished work by lunch time. We managed to squeeze in some geocaching and a movie.
Can you find mark?
This was the strangest movie theater I'd ever seen.
There's really not a lot of diversity in our photos. We basically just went to the beach or swam in the pool each day. It was glorious!
Oh, and we ate. This photo was taken outside a restaurant called The Lazy Flamingo.
We spent our last night in a hotel near the airport.
We were able to find a few more caches nearby.
Then we ate at PF Chengs
On our last day our return flight was an evening flight. It was also delayed so we had plenty of time to swim in the hotel pool.
We even headed to one more beach.
Finally it was time to head back home.
It was a wonderful vacation. I do feel bad the Mark had to work for part of it, but I am happy that we were able to show our children such a beautiful part of Florida. I truly feel blessed for all the experiences we shared together.
