Tropical Easter

It was a very non-traditional Easter for us this year.  But we had a really fun day.  The kids woke up and found little piles of Easter goodies for each of them as well as an egg hunt around our villa.

Then we went outside to join the Egg Hunt at the resort.

There were eggs everywhere!

We have our baskets and are ready to go!

Found some!

Check, out that haul!

Then we dyed some eggs.

And we saw the Easter Bunny.

And we spent all day at the pool and the beach.  We played all kinds of resort-sponsored Easter-themed games, all pool-side.  Like family Easter trivia, water balloon toss, sack races, etc.

Dave was walking with Riley and he stopped and said "Riley, smile."  And this is what he got.

And this.

Oh my!  We've got our hands full with this one...... 8 going on 18!

Eventually everyone needed a rest and headed in...... except this one!  The waves were big on Easter because of the storm the day before, so she stayed in the ocean as long as we'd let her.  She came in for the ice cream sundae bar and then headed back out!

Eventually, we all came back to the room and changed and then headed to Naples Pier for the sunset.

And we got some family pics during the Golden Hour.

A mama and her baby.

Love my sweet Ellie belly

The sun setting on Easter.

A reminder that just as the sun sets, it also rises.  And so did our Savior.

We know that our Redeemer lives!

The following day (yesterday) was our last day in Florida.   We checked out of our resort and made our way to Everglades National Park where we got on a 1.5 hour boat in the Everglades to see some wildlife.

Ready to see some dolphins!

Dolphin sighting!

Riley and Ella dolphin selfie

Riley and some pods

On the lookout

After our Everglades boat ride where we saw dolphins, we decided to do something a little higher speed in hopes of seeing some gators!  So we headed to Wootens and hopped on an airboat!

Ready to go!

Gator sighting!

And then we headed to the Alligator sanctuary....

where we got to hold alligators!

This budding herpetologist was in 7th heaven!

Two babies.

Family of seven.

And that concluded our Spring Break!  We did Marco Island, Bonita Springs, Sanibel, Captiva, Naples, the Everglades and Fort Lauderdale.  We packed it in!

We arrived back home today and are getting our mental agendas set to all head back to work and school tomorrow.  But so grateful for that week long break of family memories!

Sanibel and Captiva

For the past 10 years or so, I've been trying to visit/experience/do as many things in the 1000 Places To See Before You Die book as possible and today I got another checkmark (#231 to be exact!)

We drove about 1 1/2 hours North from Marco Island to visit Sanibel and Captiva!

Our first stop, per the recommendation of the employee at the Visitors Center that we stopped at as soon as we got to Sanibel, was lunch at the Laughing Cow.  Yum!

From there, we went to explore the Ding Darling Wildlife Refuge, which covers 1/3 of the island.

Checking out the view from the top of the Observatory Tower.

Then we went to check out the "shelling" at Blind Pass Beach.  We didn't have a lot of luck here, so we moved on.

Next, we went to Jensen's where we heard you could see Manatees.

But no luck on that front either.

So, we decided to check out The Bubble Room.  A local, who I chatted with at the Laughing Cow, where we had lunch, said we HAD to go to Captiva and check out the Bubble Room.  She said she brought people here every time she had visitors from out of town.  Apparently, they are famous for their bubble lights (and other crazy decorations) spread throughout the restaurant, which is made up of several themed rooms, tons of year-round Christmas decorations, dozens of framed, autographed pictures of famous people, etc.  It's pretty wild!

The outside of the restaurant was as interesting as the inside!

We weren't ready for another meal yet, but we were told they were famous for their cakes.  They had probably 8-10 different gourmet cakes you could choose from and the slices were HUGE!  We chose the red velvet cake....

And the Buttercrunch ice cream cake.

Delish!

Then we made our way back to Sanibel and decided to try another beach.  This time we went to Bowman's Beach and it was MUCH better!  The kids found tons of shells and there were big waves there (since it stormed last night) so Lacey, my wave-lover was in heaven!

I love this picture.  Tanner spent the whole time combing the beach for the perfect shell.  And, as you can see, the beach was covered with them!  More shells than sand in many areas!

And that's a wrap!

We ended the day by swimming in the hotel pool and soaking in the hot tub.

A pretty perfect way to end a pretty perfect day!