Fourth of July on Sanibel Island

We went back to Sanibel over Fourth of July weekend. We actually rented a condo in the same complex where I used to go on my annual family vacations growing up. Many of the same families were there, but we also introduced some new friends to the island fun, including our daughter, Brianne. I was fortunate enough to be able to take Thursday and Friday off, so we got to have a nice long weekend. I had just gotten back from a work event on Wednesday night, so I had to have a speed packing session on Thursday morning. This resulted in some tears and meltdowns (that would be me - the baby was happy as a clam to be going on vacation).

We were able to get out the door in the late afternoon, and caravaned over to Sanibel with our friends, the DiPaolos. We shared a 2 bedroom condo with the DiPaolos, which was a whole lotta fun. Thursday was pretty much over when we finally got there, so we loaded all our stuff into the condo, and got ready to enjoy the rest of the weekend.

On Friday, Marty and Frank went to the gym, so Alona and I took the babies out for a stroll around the complex. We walked down to the beach and saw the only sunshine we'd see for the entire weekend.

We brought out the jogging stroller for the first time for this trip. Brianne really enjoyed it! Here is Brianne and Bradley enjoying the soothing ocean sounds.

Here we are dipping our toes in the water. This was the only time we got near the ocean the entire trip due to rain. Very sad, but we managed to still have a lot of fun.

After our walk to the beach, we scoped out the pool area. Brianne must have been ready for a snack, since she was willing to munch on some leaves.

This trip marked the first time Brianne wore her Crocs. They made a very fun squeaky sound when she sat on a pool chair. Here's a video of Brianne making some music with her Crocs.

Brianne and Daddy in the pool. We tried to sit Brianne on Marty's shoulders but she wasn't having anything to do with it. So she settled on paddling around with Dad.

After some swimming, we noticed the babies eyeing the bikes.

So we went on Baby's first bike ride! We had a special pink helmet for Brianne, so we were ready to roll! We actually went all the way to Captiva (about 4.5 miles from our condo). Captiva is very scenic and has a lot of enormous houses right on the ocean. Brianne was so excited by the bike ride that she didn't even fall asleep. Though since it was at the end of a long day, we had to race back home to get the babies to bed before we had any meltdowns.

And all this was in the first day!