After Jeremy and Carter watched the Lego Movie, Jeremy made a short video of the boys playing on the beach with the kite and feeding the crazy seagulls to “Everything Is Awesome”. The guys loved the movie and highly recommend seeing it … maybe some day I will get to haha.
Gavin
Video | Bowman Beach, Sanibel Island
We heard that Bowman Beach on Sanibel Island was a really cool shelling spot. We wore our sturdy sandals because there would be mountains of shells we had to walk through, we brought a bucket to put all the shells we found, we expected it to be a secret spot that was tucked away…
And then we got there and realized that it is high season for Florida. The beach was crowded, we threw off our sandals, and we walked the shoreline to find only a handful of shells. But the kids had fun building sand castles and playing in the waves.
Video | Flying Kites and Chasing Seagulls
We had a fun day out on the beach this last week. We bought the boys kites and then spent some quality time chasing the seagulls in the water. All set to a new favorite song, “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.
365 Project | A Year Of Moments | Week 6 of 52
A full week in Florida and we are loving the warm weather, the sunsets, and all our adventures!
Date Night! Grandma and Grandpa took the kids over night so we could get a break. Had a wonderful day at the beach and an excellent dinner by the sea.
Photos and Videos – so many photos and video! Lots of processing at night around here.
Someone was not wanting to fall asleep. And thought if he hid his face we wouldn’t notice.
The clouds had spectacular placement for this sunset – gorgeous as ever.
The boys out playing on a huge sand pile at sunset here. I am loving silhouette photos with the light we are getting!
We spend a few hours at Sanibel Island to see if we could find some sea shells. The four hour drive round trip (to go 20 miles) was not worth the two hours at a beach that was not as nice as the one in front of our condo.
Ferris Wheels! After going on the Mangrove Tour we enjoyed the Seafood Festival and the kids had a blast on the rides.
Video | Everglades Mangrove Boat Ride & Seafood Festival and Fair
So while I posted my photos from the boat ride through the mangroves, the video is what really gives you the feeling for the place. Jeremy did an amazing job editing it and giving you a real feel for what it was like for our lunch, then on the boat, then at the fair at the seafood festival later in the day (still photos of that part will be coming soon). Again, the sheer volume of wildlife we saw on our boat ride was staggering. This honestly goes down as one of the highlights of our trip.
Photos | Everglades In Florida
Holy Wilderness. At the recommendation of my parents, we headed out to Everglade City to catch their annual Seafood Festival and to take a boat ride into the mangroves in the swampy parts of the Everglades. Took us about an hour and a half to drive south through Naples and out into the Everglades.
After getting out boat tour tickets, we stopped for a lunch along the water and watched a pelican, then headed back to the park to wait an hour and a half before our boat tour began and watched another bird fishing in the water. The boys were entertaining during that wait – they found branches that were “gun” shapes and then proceeded to run around killing the bad guys. Whatever it takes!
This boat ride is unlike anything I have ever been on before. The sheer volume of wildlife we saw was staggering – our trip started out with playing with the dolphins at the entrance to the river, before moving on towards the mangroves. These photos don’t do it justice – they were diving under us and playing right next to the boat. The second photo is of a mama and her calf. And then there is the Seahawk that just caught its dinner.
This guy was a beautiful pink color – according to my parents, it is a Rosette Spoonbill.
And off into the wilderness we went – there were so many birds. My dad said that he and my mom counted nine different varieties throughout the trip. I honestly have no idea, there were just a LOT of birds. But the most stunning part of this whole experience was when we entered the mangroves. At first there were a few egrets that would take off down into the mangroves to get away from us as we entered. And then all the sudden there were a ton of them. These photos really don’t do it justice – it was one of the most beautiful and amazing things I have ever seen. And it kept happening over and over again. And not only did we see all these birds … we finally found an alligator! By the end of the boat ride, Gavin was worn out and falling asleep…
Photos | Luau, Frisbee, & Another Gorgeous Sunset
Seriously cannot get enough of these sunsets. Every night has been different and every night has been spectacular. After a lazy day at the pool, Grandma and Grandpa headed over to have a Luau at the beach. We threw the frisbee, climbed the groomed sand mountain, and BBQ’d hamburgers for a wonderful dinner.
Photos | Day 5 Mini Golf & Sunset
My mouse died. Which means I am REALLY behind in trying to get photos processed and posted. Editing photos without a mouse is painful (laptop touch pads suck). But I am back and it is a foggy morning and cooler outside, so I am trying to catch up.
I posted the video Jeremy pulled together of this day, but here are the still photos to go with it. Carter wants to go play mini golf again, Gavin is still just too little to be able to stick it out that long. Got to see our first alligator, granted it was a baby and at mini golf, but still cool. We continue to have gorgeous sunsets and it is making me want to stay forever.
When we headed to the beach, Jeremy brought the boys hotdog dinner so they could munch and watch the sunset. Then the seagulls attacked. There had to be about thirty of them dive bombing him, trying to get at the hotdogs.
Doubling Down 