Sanibel Island with the Bradford Family: Day Two

Like I mentioned in my previous post, we decided to go on a fun trip to Sanibel Island with the Bradford family the day after Thanksgiving.  Our first day was spent exploring one of the local beaches, eating ice-cream, and then hot tubbing into the wee hours of the evening...all with a toddler in tow.  I love how well Daxton travels!  He had a blast swimming up till late and then slept in the following morning so his mommy and daddy could relax.  We had planned to only stay one night, so after a bit of relaxing we checked out of the hotel.  While Dallas was taking care of picking up the car and loading our luggage, I took Daxton down to explore the dock.  As we were walking by the pool we heard screaming and looked up to see the Bradfords waving from their hotel balcony.

The dock was pretty cool and Daxton immediately got a kick out of running back and forth along the wood.  He also loved climbing the railing like a monkey.

Daddy joined us after a few minutes which soon turned to chasing each other.  It was pretty cool to look off the different docks and watch all the fish swim below.

Proof that mom was there too...

The curse of always being the one taking pictures usually means you're not in any of them.  So I had to do a couple selfies for good measure.

After checking out of the hotel, we drove to the opposite end of Sanibel Island and found a really fun beach to explore for the afternoon.  It had super soft sand and then right where the waves crashed into shore there was a line of thousands of sea shells.  The kids had so much fun looking for all sorts of shells.  It was a beautiful sunny day, but since there'd been so many cold fronts come through, the water was really cold.  Much too cold for me to even want to get in my swimsuit!  Even Daxton stayed mostly out of the water which says a lot.

After setting up our camp, Tiffany immediately got to work on building a sand mermaid, while the kids built castles and dug in the sand.

Daxton quickly became best buddies with Isaac who he drug around the beach and even did head butts with.  Isaac was so sweet and patient with him!

Every once and awhile Daxton would remember he had parents and would come back for a quick visit, but that was usually only when he wanted a snack or water.

I love his wavy blonde mop and cute little features.

I also love this handsome burned man on mine!

Noah was the only brave (crazy) one to venture out into the water.  He found a sand bar a few yards off shore and was greatly rewarded.  He brought back the COOLEST crab I had ever seen!

It was so colorful with all sorts of shells latched on to the inner shell.  There was even a tiny crab crawling around the outside shell (top right picture).  The bottom right picture shows the crab poking his head out of the shell.  It was seriously amazing.

We of course had to say goodbye to the crab and send him back to the ocean.  Afterwards it was time to finish up the mermaid.

Tiffany's creation was pretty impressive and even included a shell bra to help with modesty.  After the family picture was taken, James and Daxton got right to work on smashing it.  Daxton even quoted his favorite movie Wreck it Ralph saying, "I'm gonna wreck it!" over and over.  You gotta love boys!

The whole group

Noah, Lucy, Isaac, James, Adam, Tiffany, Me, Dallas, and Daxton

Our setup was pretty great.

Daxton especially loved the additional fort daddy made for him to block out the sun.  He would run around and then jump inside saying he was going to take a nap, of course he never slept; there were too many things going on!

Because the water was pretty cold, it made for the perfect ammunition for a water fight!  The kids all ganged up on Dallas, but quickly found out that he was stronger and faster than all of them.  He beat every single one at a foot race and was rewarded with lots water hits.

Towards the end of our afternoon, we took Daxton on a walk along the beach to pick out different sea shells and explore one of the bridges.  It was really popular with the fisherman and was pretty busy, but fun to see everyone bringing in their catch.  

While under the bridge we were able to watch a pelican fish for it's food.  It was crazy to watch the throat expand to allow water and fish inside.  When expanded and stretched the skin was translucent which was pretty freaky to see.

Daxton was pretty tuckered out from all the running and walking, so he convinced his daddy for a lift on the way back.

After spending the day at the beach, we packed up all our things and headed to a fun fish and chip place for dinner.  I wish I could remember the name because it was really funny.  They had Santa being pulled by dolphin on their lawn and several wooden chairs at the entrance.  They also had live music and several tropical bird cages behind the restaurant.  It was your typical crazy south Florida establishment that we've come to love while living here.

We had a great dinner and then drove the hour and a half home.  We had such a blast with the Bradfords!  We love them so much and were so grateful they were willing to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with us.