webcoynes: Sanibel Vacation: Volume One

Where do I begin? We've just returned from 8 days and 7 nights on Sanibel Island. Brian's family has been going there every year for almost 30 years now. We are up to 13 adults and 4 kids. Sanibel is very "natural Florida" and the island works hard to protect it's small island family-friendliness - rarely a chain store or restaurant and no large signs or billboards. There's biking, nature trails, pool time, and of course, the beach.

We took James there when he was four weeks old (eek!) and again last year at 13 months (not walking yet), but this year was his best year so far. He spent HOURS in the pool jumping from the side, countless walks on the beach and many sandbars in the ocean, he developed his first cousin-crush, and ate his weight in ice cream.

In this volume, I will share some general photos of our time there. In the next couple of posts I will share some fun little ditties and bizarre adventures.

Here we are minus one family (Brian's cousin Karen came the next day). L to R top: Opa (Brian's dad), Aunt Cathy, Oma (Brian's mom), Uncle Kevin, Aunt Katie, Aunt Lisa (really a cousin), Uncle Ernie (cousin). Bottom row: Brian, yours truly, Uncle Ernie (really Great Uncle Ernie), (Great) Aunt Judy. So James really has two Uncle Ernies (and two Uncle Kevins but that is a blog post for another time). To separate them in his own mind (I guess), James took to calling the younger, "Uncle Ernie" and the older, "Uncle Bernie."

Aunt Katie is a Wildlife Ecology major at UF. She dug up all sorts of great animals out of the ocean. She even set up an aquarium so the kids could see them close up. Here she is showing James something gross and slimy.