A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of taking a week-long trip to one of our favorite places in the world Captiva Island, Florida. Captiva is a little (tiny) island off the coast of the Ft. Myers that sits right next to the more well known island of Sanibel. My mom’s side of my family has been traveling to the Sanibel/Captiva Island area for my entire life so I was thrilled when Nathan quickly fell in love with it, too! It’s a looong trip (about a 14 hour drive before stops) so Nathan and I only go with them every other year but the quiet beaches, yummy restaurants, and uninterrupted family time make it worth it, always!
We made the trip down in two days stopping just north of the Florida state line for the night. We ate dinner at our hotel and let the kids burn off some energy in the hotel pool before heading to bed. We woke up bright and early, met my parents at Starbucks (they had left after work and driven through the night) and finished out the trip! After stopping in Ft. Myers to grab groceries at Walmart (groceries on the islands are ridiculous – we paid $7 for a bag of tortilla chips one night) Camden was ready to put his toes in the sand as soon as we got the car unloaded.
We stayed in the Captiva Shores condos and I can’t recommend them enough. Steps from the beach (so key with littles IMO), a community pool, and one condo held all 8 of us comfortably.
Lucy had NO qualms about the salty water or sand all week! Such a beach baby.
That night we hit up our favorite first-night dinner spot, The Lazy Flamingo! Shrimp Cesar salads, conch fritters, and kids meals served in frisbees. What’s not to love?!
After dinner we walked across the street to the beach for sunset. We quickly learned that if there was water and sand involved, Camden was going to be covered in both in record time. We let it go and he had the time of his life splashing away before riding home in his car seat naked!
He did NOT appreciate the seaweed!
I love my people!
My top is from Amazon here (LOVE) and these shorts are awesome too!
The next day (and most of them after) was spent at the beach from sun-up until nap time. Lucy usually took her morning nap in someone’s arms then slept in the condo with Camden after lunch.
Lucy’s swim shirt | Reusable swim diaper | My swim suit
I finally finished this book. This whole series was so good and I’m so sad it’s over!
Life jacket | Rash guard
You could find Camden in the ocean always!
Pro tip for beachin’ with babies: Get one of these foldable pools to keep under the tent for babe! Both my kids have loved them. Though Lucy figured she could climb out and eat sand much sooner than Camden, ha.
This one was just SO excited to be on her first trip to the beach that she couldn’t sleep a wink at night.
Mid-week we decided to take a break from the sun and head over to the wildlife refuge on Sanibel, Ding Darling. Lucy fell asleep on the trip over so we drove through the majority of it stopping at certain areas to get out and look around.
My sunglasses | My top | My shorts
After the drive we headed up the road to Tarpon Bay Explorers where my mom treated us to a boat ride tour of the bay. We saw a ton of wildlife including more than a few dolphins. Camden had so much fun scanning the water to see what he could find, though he was disappointed we never saw any alligators on our trip. (Me, not as disappointed).
As part of the boat tour experience we got to visit Tarpon Bay’s Touch Tank area. I was shocked that Camden actually put his hand in and touched some of the creatures! They were all things that had been found in the waters of Tarpon Bay and the guide was super knowledgeable. Overall, it was a fun experience!
The next day was our favorite – boat day! We drove out to some other islands to look for shells, played around on the jet skis, stopped at Barnacles for lunch, and did some fishing. And of course all fell asleep on the trip back to the marina. 
My swimsuit | Started this booked and LOVED it!
On our 2017 trip one of my favorite things was getting Camden out of the house while everyone else slept for early morning adventures. We recreated that one morning with a trip to Starbucks (cake pops at 7am because #vacation) and the marina to check out the manatees (of which there were none that morning but we had fun looking at the boats).
This year:
Vs. two years ago:
Look at that little baby!!
We also participated in one of our most favorite vacation traditions – crab racing! It’s as dumb as it sound but oh so fun. The kids pick a hermit crab out of a big bowl and give it a name (Camden affectionately named his “Mommy crab”). Then they are all put in the middle of the table and “race” to the edge. Mommy crab actually won one of the heats so Camden got a very special prize – a kazoo! The gift that kept on giving all week long, lol.
Other than that we did a lot of ice cream eating, sunset watching, Catch Phrase playing once the kids were in bed, and relaxing! In all honesty there were many hard moments as it was our first trip back since my brother died tragically last year. We tried to remember and be thankful for the sweet memories we had there with as best we could, but it was still hard. I’m glad we had these sweet babies to brighten our days!
See ya in 2021, Captiva!
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