I never in a million years thought a week out of her bed would mess Ellie up like it did. When me and the girls went to Florida in August, she slept just fine in the pack in play. With Me and Isabella in the room. She just didn't like it this week. It didn't matter if she had her own room or if we were in the room. She wanted to be by my side. She didn't even nap that well either. It was almost as if she was overly tired and wouldn't just let go and sleep. She napped like usual, like we were at home, 1/2 hour in the morning maybe an hour in the afternoon. Only you'd think being in the sun would drain a child of 14 months! Being in the sun and being as active as we were. We've been home two nights and she still isn't back to normal. You know what she learned to say on vacation? "Mommie" and its so cute in her little voice. She also started saying it during the screaming fits at night..oh, talk about tugging on my heart strings. And no that's not why I got her out of bed each night, and gave up on her crying it out. We really didn't want to mess with Sarah and Isabella's sleep. Much less the neighbors! Yes, you could hear the crying outside. Each time I had to run outside quickly and she saw me leave, she cried at the top of her lungs..like I was leaving her for ever..and yes, you could hear her all the way to the parking lot. So sad :). Monday was another beautiful day..we woke early again and walked the beach for beautiful shells. Which we did find! Getting up at 6 to find shells is the best time to do it! Plus you see so many other interesting things that early. We saw dauphins swimming, multiple dead fish laying on the beach (mostly due to the slight red tide), live shells (animals living inside), etc. That afternoon after lunch the kids were exhausted so Chris laid down with Ellie and got her to sleep for quite a while, well he fell asleep as well! We made Isabella lay down also, swimming just wore her out. Sarah fell asleep on the lounge chair on the porch so I grabbed a blanket and took a nap as well! Oh and it felt good. The weather had been near perfect the whole week. In the 90's during the day and 65-75 at night. Still a little hot during the afternoon but nothing a quick swim in the pool or dip in the ocean wouldn't fix. Some days we just left the porch doors open and let the breeze sweep thru the condo.
Monday night we went to great mamaw and papaws house for dinner and had a great time. Papaw fixed chicken and dumplings and it was delicious. Isabella LOVES papaws cooking and talks about it every time we go see them.
Tuesday morning..it was still a little chilly so Sarah and I didn't feel much like swimming, oh but Isabella did. And it was her last full morning to swim, we really didn't want her to after about noon. Years ago Sarah and I went on a mission trip to Mexico and the night before we left we went swimming, well the water didn't drain completely out of our ears that night as we slept. SO the next morning when we were flying back home as the plane climbed in altitude our ears were killing us. Talk about pain..it was awful and something I don't want to ever feel again. So anyway, Chris and Iz swam all morning while Sarah and I went shopping. There is a cute little pet boutique that Sarah likes to go to off of Periwinkle and Tarpon Bay. So we went there and to some shops in the same strip, I can't remember the names of the shops but they were great. A lot of the little stores on Sanibel sell locally made items, arts and crafts. And they are wonderful. A lot of it is beach and ocean related but there are so many different varieties of things to look at. Paintings, glass works, ornaments, jewelry, embroidered items. I found a beautiful blown glass sea horse and fell in love with it but, did I buy it? No of course not, and now I regret it. I love items like that. There were two shops side by side selling wonderful things. One of my favorite stores there is called Pandora's Box, its located on Periwinkle and I love going there every year. Most of the items sold there are expensive and I've never bought anything there before (I'm quite a penny pincher). Some year I may. But, they sell beautiful ornaments and glass hangings..beautiful original works of art. A lot of glass works but, unique things you wouldn't find anywhere else. If you ever visit Sanibel you have to go there.
After lunch, since we wern't going to swim and the kids were a little tired and burnt out on the beach we decided to become adventurous and head back to the mainland, in search of something new to do. Just south of Ft. Myers are the Florida Everglades, so there are lots of air boat rides, crocs and other animals to see. After calling a few air boat ride places we opted out of that idea, too pricey (plan to spend at least 25-45 dollars per person for not very long of a ride). We learned pretty quickly that Naples (about 30m south of Ft Myers) has a zoo. It was still a bit pricy at $19 per adult, but I thought it was worth it. I love zoo's just love them. I love to see all kinds of animals and every zoo is different and has all different kinds. The Naples Zoo has a huge crocodile pond for your viewing, Zebras, Gazelle's, Lions and tigers, all kinds of reptiles, all kinds of monkeys, and lots of beautiful plants and trees and flowers to look at. Oh, what a fun photographic opportunity. I love taking pictures of wildlife anyway so this was perfect for me. One great thing about this zoo was it is very informational. Every hour or so they had live shows for you to see. At the reptile show they had 4 different kinds of snakes native to Florida and a water monitor. Pretty cool..and they walk most of the reptiles around the audience for you to see closer. We also saw the lion feedings. That was pretty cool. Another great thing about this zoo was the closeness you got to the animals. All the fences for the cages were with in 5-6 feet of our viewing area. And they wern't covered by a lot of foliage so that you couldn't see the animals, like The Cincinnati Zoo..you could see all of them really well. My favorite thing was the boat ride around the monkey islands. They have this huge man made lake with about 4 islands, on each island is a different species of monkey or ape. Monkeys don't like to swim at all and they don't like to mix amongst other species so they stay on their islands. The boat ride gets right up next to the island and within probably 5-10 feet of the monkeys.
The whole time we were there in the distance we could hear this lion roar..we assumed it was some recording in a children's play area..but, it was really loud. We headed that direction next and as we got closer the sound got louder. In this huge huge cage there was a lion by himself pacing the front of the cage, and he was probably 5-6 feet from us and he just growled and roared as he paced. Evidently he does this all day long, starting at 5 in the morning. Talk about amazing to hear..after he paced he climbed on top of this platform and just layed down there and growled even louder..it was so neat. I had never heard that up close...it was just so great. Being that close to such a powerful animal. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of Elie's face as he paced and growled, she squished up her nose and mouth and just looked at him..almost like she was trying to make a face at him. It was beyond cute. She wasn't scared at all..
By the time we left the zoo it was 5 O'clock and we were exhausted from walking around in the heat. Sarah's pregnant feet were swelling and we were just ready to hit the bed. So we didn't really want to think about cooking dinner when we got home...then having to pack to leave. So we headed back to the island and ate at The Island Cow. Talk about a delicious restaurant. We waited for probably 20 minutes for a seat at about 6pm that night. It's not a large restaurant so seating was limited but it was a nice night to wait outside.
It was sad packing up to leave, knowing we were leaving the next morning. We had all had such a great visit together. My sister and I are pretty close and don't get to spend a lot of time together so a whole week together was pretty great. Yes, we were tired all week from Ellie not sleeping well, and from being in the sun so much. But it was so nice to be away and reconnect and just hang out. Chris and I didn't get a lot of time alone unfortunately but we had a lot of fun being with our kids. Watching them learn and enjoy being with us. Watching Isabella learn to swim and become less scared of the water, and Ellie learning to go underwater and jump off the side of the pool. Being a parent is so rewarding.
Our Wednesday morning went pretty quickly. We went for our last walk on the beach, saw some more fish, shells, and oh two sting rays! We visited with mamaw and papaw for a little while and then we were home before we knew it. Back to life and back to our normal routine.