Naples Vacation

The kids finished school on Wednesday, May 24th.  They were done early this year because they started early last fall, so we have a long summer this year.  We left really early on Saturday morning for a trip to Naples, Florida for fun in the sun with Nanny and Grandpa!

The kids were troopers when we got up at 4:30am for our 6:45am flight.  When we got on the plane, Trevor took the safety announcements very seriously and got out the safety card in the seat pocket to follow along with the announcements.  Here is my tired baby "reading" the safety card.

The benefit of leaving so early in the morning is arriving with half the day left to play!  As soon as we arrived, we enjoyed some lunch poolside on the patio. 

Then lots of swimming!

 Taking a break to read.

Ramming speed!

Unfortunately, Trevor had some consequences for not listening to Mommy when he took off his swimmies to go potty and didn't put them back on right away when he came back to the pool.  I shouted at him to not jump in the pool without his swimmies or an adult in the pool with him.  I shouted "NO!" multiple times when he was approaching the pool looking like he was going to jump in.  He then jumped in the deep end, panicked, and went under choking and sputtering.  I had to run over and pull him out of the pool!  I hope (probably in vain) that he remembers that when he considers ignoring me again.  His panicked little face as he tried to drown is burned in my memory for sure!

He can swim, and they practice what to do if you fall in the pool when he is at swim class.  They do "chop chop timber" in which the kid stands at the edge of the pool and the teacher splashes water at their legs while saying "chop chop", then on "timber" they jump in the pool, and immediately turn around and swim to the edge.  Trevor is good at that, but when it came to voluntarily jumping in the pool by himself, he didn't just swim to the side, he panicked!  After this incident, I put him at that same spot later on (with me in the pool this time) and had him practice getting turned around and back to the edge himself.  He also could stand up in the shallow end of the pool, so between his newly remembered comfort with swimming to the edge and his newfound ability to stand up in the shallow end, he was swimming all over the place without his swimmies by the end of the trip!

The next day, we headed to the beach!

Sarah and Trevor had a blast digging in the sand and water.

The water is so warm in the Gulf!

Trevor made sand "volcanos".  He would make a pile of sand, dig a trench from the peak, and then pour water to go down the side making the sand into wet "lava". 

 We tried to get a family pic on the beach, but it was very bright, so we're definitely a little squinty.

 Austin took a break to read in the shade.

Despite using lots of sunscreen and reapplying during the day at the beach, poor Sarah's back fried in the sun!  Nanny ran to the store for some aloe and a swim shirt, so she was better protected the rest of the trip.

On Monday, we headed to Marco Island for a dolphin tour!

Excited to get started...

We learned a lot about dolphins and got to see 11 different dolphins during the tour.  We learned that the way they identify the dolphins is by their fins. Each dolphin has a characteristic look to its fin due to wear and tear (mainly due to getting scratched and bitten by each other).  We got to look through the picture book of the dolphins they had already identified in the area and compare to a photo they had taken previously.  When we found 2 dolphins on the tour, the guide took photos of their fins and printed them out on the boat for us to identify who they were.  The first 2 we saw were Mamawane and Jason.

Mamawane (see how the fin matches the top left picture above).

Jason (reference pic above)

The dolphins came close to the boat and the kids got to see them really well.

Capri used the sea wall (above) to catch fish against. Here he is with a big fish in his mouth (hard to see in the photo, but it was easy to see in real life).

We saw a mother and baby pair, Sintas and Fireball.  In the reference photo below, look to the left and you'll see the Grandma dolphin Giza.  Giza is Sintas's mother and Sintas is Fireball's mother.  Giza also just had another calf in 2015 when she became a grandmother.

Here are Sintas and Fireball. 

 

The babies stay with their mothers for about 3-6 years.  We don't know if Fireball is a boy or girl dolphin, because it is hard to tell the babies' genders until they either pair off in buddy groups like the males do or have a calf like the females do. 

The dolphins like to play in the boat wake.  Here is Sintas playing right in front of the kids.

A video of the dolphins playing in the boat wake:

We stopped a little island beach to pick shells.  Sarah had a blast and picked up lots of pretty shells.  We chose some favorites to bring home to Minnesota.

There were some beautiful birds along the water's edge, facing into the breeze.

Trevor wanted to touch one, so he kept walking down the beach trying to get to them, but of course they flew away.

 What a fun tour!

While heading back to the marina, Trevor spotted a sailboat with a skull and crossbones flag flying and wanted a photo with it.  You can't really see the flag, but check out the cute little pirate in the front of the photo!

My little cutie working diligently on the picture he drew on his "Dolphin Challenge" booklet.

The kids were well behaved and had spied some cute stuffed animal souvenirs in the gift shop before heading out on the tour, so they each go to choose one to bring home.

Sarah with her mermaid, which she named Marina Rose.

Austin chose a dolphin and named him Oracle.

And Trevor, of course, picked out the pirate shark (with the pirate hat and eye patch and everything) and named him Jaws.

After the dolphin tour, we found the house my Nanny and Grandpa used to own on Marco Island.  A restaurant that the dolphin tour staff recommended was right down the street from the house and we stopped in there for lunch.  It was called the "Crab Shack" and it had a pirate statue on the front porch that had an outfit that looked an awful lot like the pirate outfit on Trevor's shirt.  Trevor then referred to it as "the pirate restaurant" for the rest of the trip.

After that, we had some more pool time in the afternoon.

That evening, we went to DaRuMa, a Japanese steakhouse with table side teppanyaki.  The kids were pretty entertained by our chef.  I didn't catch Trevor's (slightly terrified) initial reaction to the flaming onion volcano, but he was clearly entertained the rest of the time.

Austin concentrating on eating rice with chopsticks.

On Tuesday morning, we went parasailing!  We thought Austin would be old enough to try it, so we asked at the beach club when we went to the beach on Sunday and they said age 6 and up could go!  Sarah said she wanted to go, but we weren't sure if she would actually do it.  We all went out on the boat together and Austin and Grandpa went first, followed by Sarah and Mommy!  We all had a blast!

 The before picture

 Austin and Grandpa launching off the back of the boat.

 Big smiles!!

Watching them go up and getting Sarah excited to go next.

 Sarah and Mommy all strapped up to go.

 Look how high they are!

At the top, they are 400 ft in the air and 1200 feet away from the boat!

Coming down for a dip in the water.

Then Mommy and Sarah's turn.

 More big smiles!!

We had an absolutely gorgeous morning for parasailing. The water was really smooth, so we could see through the clear water from the air.  While Sarah and I were sailing, we looked down and saw 6 dolphins, a hammerhead shark, and LOTS of fish!

Austin decided this would be a good time to cut us loose!

Coming down to dip in the water (right after seeing the shark below us!)

The 2nd dip in the water was deeper (up to our chests!)

 Trevor had fun hanging out on the boat and even got to see the hammerhead shark swim by the boat.  Maybe he can try parasailing in a couple more years too.

 The after picture.  A fun time was had by all!

On Tuesday afternoon, we decided to try a visit to the Naples Zoo.  We wanted to visit while we were in town, but the weather report near the end of the week kept predicting thunderstorms, so we wanted to get the zoo visit in before the weather got stormy.  Unfortunately, we picked a really hot sunny afternoon and were pretty warm the whole visit.  We still had fun seeing the animals and learning new things.

Nanny and the little zoo explorers

Sarah and Trevor watching an alligator swim by.

The lion was sleepy, but it was still impressive to see how large he is when you see him in person.

These birds thought we would feed them, so they didn't fly away from Trevor like the ones on the dolphin tour.

The giraffes were gorgeous!

We took a boat tour in the lagoon to see the primates.

Then cooled off with some drinks and ice cream treats while watched the safari show.

Then we saw some more amazing animals.

This one was quite interested in the kids.

And this python wanted to eat Trevor, I think.

The panther came right up to the window multiple times, so we go to see him up close.

The cheetah showed off its big bite with a yawn or hiss (not sure what he was doing).

We wrapped up our hot afternoon at the zoo with the gator feeding.  I think there were around 16 alligators lined up along this beach.  The trainers showed how they fed them and how well trained they were.

The trainers have trained the alligators to only come up or respond to their own colored circle on a stick.  The gators would stay put until one of the trainers called them up by name and with their stick.  Crazy to watch!

We happily returned to the house for some more swim time to cool off (although Grandpa's pool is kept at a nice warm 90 degrees, so not too cool!).

On Wednesday, we had a low-key day and then enjoyed a delicious dinner at La Playa Beach Club.  Trevor decided to be a goofball and try to eat a lemon wedge that was on the edge of my glass of lemonade.  Here is the face he made...

All better sharing chocolate ice cream with Grandpa.

On Thursday, the kids wanted to stick around the house for another pool day.  We played games in the morning - dominos, cards, board games like Sorry, etc. and relaxed, then swam after lunch.  It was probably a good thing we didn't go to the beach, because a few strong storms drifted by and we had to jump out of the pool for a while a few times that afternoon when dark clouds were approaching and we heard thunder rumble.  We hung out on the patio playing games and keeping an eye on the radar until the storm had passed, then jumped back in the pool.

Trevor was a grouch about the Sorry board game, but had fun coloring in his pirate coloring book!

Here are a few fun videos of the pool fun from the last few days of our stay!

On Thursday night, the kids got to stay up late for a night swim!  They had a blast with Daddy and Grandpa in the pool with the pool and fountain lights on.

We headed home on Friday and had some very tired kids by the time we turned into our neighborhood.

We had a wonderful trip full of adventures, relaxation, and FUN!  What a blessing to enjoy such a wonderful week with family.