A week of Fun!

Every year, spring break gets better and better. I don't know if it's because my kids are getting older and we can do more things or if I'm just getting older and appreciate things more! At any rate, we had a great week on Captiva Island and here are the pictures to prove it!
Our first morning....eating breakfast on the screened porch.....just happy :)

Throw something on and we're off to the beach....
Brooke is not so sure what to think of the beach.
Because our house is like 100 steps from the beach, I went in my pj's....who cares, I'm on vacay, but not without my coffee!!!!
Just soooooo cute! Look how calm the water is....it was awesome.
We go to eat at The Bubble Room every year and the boys climb this tree while we're waiting. Here's on of the little monkeys....
The next day, on the fishing boat....Jackson's first catch of the day!
A little while into the trip, Drew sees a fin come out of the water and shortly after that feels a strong tug on his line. Sure enough.......a shark!! Now, he is a member of the "shark club" which includes Jason, Auntie A, Jackson, and now Drew!
The shark was so strong, it took Drew 2 times around the boat trying to get away. Drew was so happy!
One of my favorite things to do is take a day trip to Useppa Island. It is a private island....no cars, just a few golf carts and they have 110 residents. It is such a quiet and beautiful island. Here are Papa and Brooke in front of the hotel.
They have a huge croquet lawn....no one was out there, so Brooke tried her hand at pushing the ball around. She did this for 20 minutes in the hot sun....who knew?!?!
There was also a giant sized chess set that the boys checked out with Jason.
Here we are meandering on the trail back to our boat. The residents want the tourists OFF the island so they can come out of their houses :)
One night, we went to crab races, but they were delayed in starting so Chris got on the ground and let all the kids tackle him. It took up 15 minutes of waiting time......anything to keep the kids entertained!
Here is Jackson picking his crab and naming him "Romo" For the rest of the races, we could take pictures and the guy was serious about it!! Kinda ridiculous if you ask me, but we all had a great time although none of us won. We'll go back again.
We kayaked thru the mangroves one morning and I am obviously sitting in the back of the boat with my mom and Brooke. It was so nice being back there with the birds and watching Brooke enjoy it. The boys were behind in a boat with Papa. Mom and I started first and ended up coming in last....what's up with that?
We found these boogie boards in the closet of our house so the boys are heading to the beach to try them out. I was taking a picture of the boys and told them to smile and Brooke ran over and said "Me smile too!"
Both of my cousins, Chris and Kyle, and their families were just 3 houses down from us which made the trip even more fun. Here are all the kids we had on the trip....6 boys and 1 girl!
My Aunt Paula had us play her version of "Minute to Win It" one night. Soooo much fun. Here is Drew telling everyone he already knows the rules to a certain game because he had seen it on tv. He and Papa were a team. I was on a team with Brooke (so, basically on my own) and Jackson was with Nana.
And the winning team was.....The Crabcatchers!! Nana and Jackson. They are so competitive.
We went parasailing one day and Drew was tall enough to do it, so off we went! Drew and I were the first to go up!
There go Papa and Jackson!
The little cousins buried Jackson and Drew on the sand.
Aunt Paula hid a treasure on the island for her grandsons to find....of course, there was enough Pirate loot to go around and here are all the pirates...we had a great time. Now, I'm going thru re-entry depression...back to reality....until next year!