Sanibel Island-Dec 29th

Nothing better than sandwiches at the beach with your toes curled in the sand. (They may or may not have been fighting about each other's feet being in the 'holes' that they'd made by rubbing their feet back and forth. We'll pretend my kids are angels and this was not such a moment.)

 I have wanted to go to Sanibel Island ever since we moved to Florida and I heard about it. It is beautiful. The beaches do have incredible sea shells (supposedly the best shelling beaches in the nation). And the water--because it is on the Gulf side-- was crystalline and magical.

This trip, however wonderfully I'd imagined it, had a few bumps. Namely, we got up late. This turned out for the better though because I had thought it would be warmer or at least as warm as in Delray Beach, because it is directly across the state, not further north. But it was a good ten degrees colder--so the couple of hours probably helped us feel warmer. Also, I didn't account for the holiday traffic. We didn't hit traffic until we were on the island, but then it was pretty rough. Luckily, once you are on an island, the view of EVERYTHING is incredible and it's fun to watch out your window at all the tourists doing touristy things. Then, we didn't account for bugs. We haven't experienced noseeums enough to know what their rhyme or reason is. The first year we lived in Florida we camped on Key Largo for a week, and it had some pretty bad noseeums in the evening. As long as you are covered in clothes, you're good. But they do bite, and it does hurt, and the kids were not impressed. We tried to either be at the ocean (they don't swarm right at the waterfront) or in our tent by dusk. We've seen them a few times at dusk when we've had barbecues at parks right on the ocean. But this...this was the absolute worst. And me, trying to pack light, didn't even have a shirt with me to throw on (it was in the van). So I had bites all over my shoulder, the open space on my backs, up my legs on the front and back, in my scalp. We started running--Sterling took the baby straight to the van. The other kids got a few bites. I got 33. And they STILL itch...but it's much, much better than the first three days when I thought I just wanted to put my entire body in a vat of lava (the internet said hot water would help, I tried our shower, which spits out water so hot I thought my skin would fall off, and it did help...for thirty minutes or so.). We randomly saw a couple from our ward while at that beach (Bowman's Beach..highly recommend) and on Sunday she told me they had gotten so many bites too--her husband had over fifty! And he's bald and he had them all over his head! Poor guy!

To round out the few things that went wrong, Will threw up at the beach right as we were leaving. I mean, if you have to throw up, I am all about a pile of rocks that I don't have to clean up. But it was sad. He held a sand bucket the rest of the ride home and Sterling had to stop to empty it out a couple of times. Molly threw up the next morning, but that was the end of that. And I am ever so grateful. 

Sterling and I were in love with the general vibe of the island--very rural and small and quintessential. There's not really any year-round residents so it is VERY touristy and very fun. We want to go back when it's warmer and try to stay over so we can enjoy it for longer. It was really so breath taking.

That line of people further out shows where a sandbar was. It was really so neat. It got about waist deep and then got shallow again. People were finding all sorts of sea shells and sand dollars. We saw a lot of crabs. But we didn't find anything extremely fabulous. We did come home with a TON of super huge shells though. The kids thought the sand bar was seventh heaven, they would swim out there and play and come back over and over and over again.

Sterling pulling Will on the boogie board. The best activity. But look how clear that water was!

It was kind of a chilly day. It felt like Bear Lake in June. Actually, I'm quite positive it was warmer than Bear Lake in June. Because on Sanibel, as soon as you got moving in the water, it felt plenty warm. But that initial plunge was sure chilly!

We're not used to the lag time of getting out and having to warm up in the sun! Luckily, the sun was warm and bright so it didn't take too long!

Nap time for baby Russ means a nice, relaxing few minutes for me!

 After checking out Bowman's Beach, we headed (and got eaten alive) to Turner's Beach on the next island Captiva. We had heard that there was nothing like watching the sunset there. We tried and tried and tried to take pictures (while absolutely freezing to death, we really should've thrown some tshirts on) but it just does not do it justice. I have to post them anyway, to remind myself of the spectacular glory of that sunset. I am so glad we stayed to see it!

Standing on the largest beach of seashells I've ever seen!

Seashells for days!

There was even a perfect sailboat off in the distance!

I cannot get over the BUTTERY BEAUTY that is this picture.

Poor kid. We just thought he was cold. Had no idea he would throw up soon!

The end ones are out of order. This was the money shot. You had to be there in  person. But the light on the waves, and shimmering over the sand, and glowing through the sky and making everything orange and red and yellow. It was gorgeous. And breath taking. And I made Sterling promise to take me back here- just us- someday.