Captiva Island

We took a family vacation to Captiva Island on the gulf coast and it was HEAVEN!! 5 days and 4 nights of fun, relaxing, family time at the beach and pool. Really, it was so dreamy.

The four hour car ride wasn't the best but it was well worth it and our kids were pretty decent travelers.

The bayside view from our 1 bedroom room. It was a pretty perfect set-up. Daniel and I had our own room and bathroom, there was a full kitchen, Ivy had a little crib and Jackson slept on a Murphy bed. 

 We brought our own breakfast and lunch but then ate at a different restaurant each night. One of the nights there was a big gathering right at the beach and we went to see what all the fuss was about... oh, just the sunset! I guess that location is famous for the sunset. It was pretty spectacular! 

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We rented bikes and they were perfect! We would bike to dinner in the evenings, to the pool, around the resort. The kids took turns in the seat and trailer. It was so fun! And a good way to work off our dinner!

 

I bought all kinds of treats and junk for the trip. Just dunking some oreos in our milk here before bed one night. Or snacking on pop tarts! It was the good life for these kids.

 These two cuties.

We stayed on the south end of the resort but their large pools are on the north end. They have trolleys running every few minutes or so. We would often bike but we took the trolley a few times and kids loved it. 

The pools were so dreamy! They had 3 large pools at the north end of the resort but then every section of the resort had its own. We spent the majority of our time at the main pools but we often had "good night swim nights"(as Jackson called them) at our own pool. I love how you can see the ocean just beyond the pool. 

After we had some pool time, we'd hit the beach! The kids loved finding shells and playing in the sand. We took walks and swam, fished and saw manatees!

 This little catch did some damage on one of our afternoons when it stuck Jackson with its barb right in his hand. He was a super sad kids, but very brave. Nothing a good night swim night couldn't fix!

 

 Here is the wounded soldier.

Poor little tuckered Ives!! We tried to get naps in each day but sometimes that bike ride back to our room was a little too long.

 The resort gave Jackson free ice cream vouchers after he hurt his hand. We enjoyed them!

We took a lot of photos here... it was one of Ivy's favorite spots.