Ft Myers Favorites

Happy Friday!  It's been a good week to be home and get back into our Summer groove.  

I have a fun Ft Myers recap for you today. We had a really fun week there.  I got lots of messages about the food reviews I did yesterday.  While we didn't have the most amazing food finds to share, we did really enjoy our cozy condo with ocean views and had a blast going to the ocean and pool several times a day.  

We LOVED staying so close to the ocean.  I'm so glad we got to try this condo set up!  We definitely recommend visiting new cities and finding new favorites even if they don't end up being some place you'd go again.  If we returned to this spot, we learned a lot from our first visit and we could navigate things even better a second time around.

My favorite family picture from the trip - our last night, at our favorite spot (Tommy Bahamas in Naples) with my favorite people!

1. We arrived in Ft Myers late at night, in the rain at dark so it was SUCH A TREAT to wake up to these views!  We've never stayed ocean side before.  We could see the ocean from our room.  The weather was perfect the entire week we were there.

2. Leo loved the water and loved driving his cars in the sand.  He somehow had a growth spurt and needed a Target run to buy some emergency 5T swim suits!

3. It was really fun to see what each of the kids enjoyed doing at the ocean.

4. I built tons of sand castles for Leo's trucks to destroy.  I shell hunted with the big kids and we all found favorite things to do.

5. Everyone felt relaxed and cozy in our condo.

6. Sunset strolls at the ocean were my very favorite.  Best shelling.  Best views and just so relaxing.

7. We found lots of places to rest and relax.

8. Flowers!!  The tropical flowers and trees in Florida are gorgeous.  To me, it's a wonderful reminder that you're on vacation far from home.

9. Cheers!  Kevin was so sweet to set up our chairs and umbrellas every day for us.  He packed a cooler with all the essentials.  He was relaxing when Leo took note.  He pulled up a chair by Kevin and reached for a Capri Sun :)

10. We did a fantastic job of making sure the kids didn't burn, but we both got a little roasted at the start of the trip.  We took better care of each other after that.  Good team work!

11. We saw several fisherman catch baby sharks while we were in Ft  Myers.  It was cool and scary because where are their much larger parents hanging out!?!  This poor Hammerhead shark washed up on shore one evening.  We tried to save it, but it wasn't breathing.  None of us had ever seen a Hammerhead in real life.

12. HUGE shells.  We found so so so many shells.  Fletcher and Kevin are probably the best shell hunters.  Fletch was really proud of this clam shell.

13. Leo was a total trooper adjusting his routine to work in vacation mode.  He had some meltdowns and all the normal toddler craziness, but he really did great rolling with things.  He had quite the fan club by the end of the week.  He's shout SAY HI to everyone that walked by.  Everyone would say hi and smile at him.

14. Play in the rain.  We thought we were going to dodge the rain, but we ended up just enjoying a nice walk in the rain.  We were all in our swim stuff so it worked out perfectly.  We met a new friend that later in the week realized our whole family was in some of her sunset pictures.  She sent me this one!  I love it so much!

15. New Crocs!  One of the highlights of going to the beach is a trip to the outlet malls.  The kids all got new Crocs - all agreed that orange was the color and they wanted to match.  They spent a good chunk of time debating which charms to get.  They were all thrilled with their picks.

16. This is our stage of life - toddler in the shade playing in the sand with one parent and the big kids in the ocean or collecting shells with the other parent.  Divide and conquer.

17. New freckles and new adventures together.

18. We headed to The Naples Zoo one day because it's our very favorite zoo.  It was about 30 minutes away from our condo.  It's gorgeous and has really cool animals.  It was HOT, but we still enjoyed ourselves.  The big kids fed the giraffes and we zoomed through all of our favorite animal encounters.

19. Gosh, I really loved all our opportunities to watch the sun set at the ocean.  We didn't have to worry so much about sun screen, chairs and umbrellas, snacks and stuff.  We'd just take a few things and walk and play.  It was probably my favorite part about the whole trip.  The beaches were not crowded, people were very friendly and there were lots of shells to find.  Big win for Ft Myers.

20. Sunset swims!  We followed sunset at the ocean with a swim most nights.  It was fantastic!  I'm standing outside of our room and this was our view.  Lovely!

21. Starfish twins!  A few years ago Olive surprised me with starfish earrings for my birthday when we were celebrating in Florida.  Then this trip she surprised me by getting herself a pair of starfish earrings.  She planned that we'd wear them together at our last dinner.  9 year olds are so fun!

22. Souvenirs.  I really enjoy collecting Christmas ornaments when we travel.  I picked out the sand dollar and the kids surprised me with the flip flop ornament.  I write the date we visited in Sharpie on the back.  Fletcher collected shark teeth souvenirs, Olive collected ankle bracelets and Leo collected cars.  Kevin grabbed a t-shirt and koozie.

Whew!  What a fun trip!  We enjoyed Ft Myers.  Message me if you have any questions!

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