Sanibel and Captiva

On the last beach day with Erica, Mike and Rachel we went shelling, snorkeling, exploring, made sand pyramids and jumped over sand pyramids.  We went to one of the the really cool places here- Sanibel and Captiva Islands.  We haven't spent a lot of time up there because it's more of a drive- and we have so many great beaches so close to us.  But it was a great day for a beach trip and we had an amazing day.

On the way there you drive over 2 huge bridges- so cool and a little scary. Did you know I have a fear of bridges?

Turner Beach- one of the most popular shelling beaches in Florida. 

Those rocks were great to snorkel around and find shells.

Yes, that is an Anesthesia book.... at the beach- shouldn't there be a law against studying at the beach?

Kyle and Ellie played on the rocks almost the whole time.  They found a little cave in the rocks and had a great time playing house.

Rachie and Ellie

Piles and piles of shells.

This was heaven for me!  Sitting in a pile of shells.

Found lots of cool scallops.

We looked for shells in the piles on land, in the waves, and snorkeling.  The shelling did not disappoint!

Darren and me looking over the goods.

Shells of all kinds!

Erica and Gabe

This is the face he makes now when we say "cheese"!  He is so cute!

Gabe helping

I found a dead crab that was pretty much just the shell.  Gabe tore it apart and carried around the claw. 

This is sledding in Florida.  Gabe gets on and we pull him around.  It is always hilarious. 

  Sometimes he rolls off and face plants it in the sand.  What is worse- face plant in the sand or snow?

Me and Erica snorkeling

Paul loves his cast net.  He always catches fun stuff.  We always end up with a crowd of people- or birds- coming to see what he has caught. 

Isn't this a cool picture?

Whenever we get a bucket of Paul's bait fish, the birds come and try to steal the fish.   Lazy birds! Catch your own fish!

Paul giving the fish a kiss.

Paul and Rachie giving the fish lots of love.

Now Gabe wants to do it!

Me and my love.

Ellie eating a coconut she found and cracked open.

Rachie and Paul

What a life!

Mike showed us the skill of building sand pyramids.  We all got into it and made a huge one.

The finished product.  We had some random kids get into the pyramid building too!  When we left the beach was scattered with families building pyramids. 

Walk like an Egyptian!

As we were leaving I noticed a woman with a sticker on her car that said, "Iloveshelling.com"  Which happens to be my favorite shelling website- It was her! We chatted and she took our picture and we made it on her website!  The day couldn't have been better! (I guess unless we swam with dolphins, be we can't be too picky now can we?)  Check out our picture on her blog http://www.iloveshelling.com/blog/page/2/