The Breuers: Sanibel Island

Last week we went to visit my parents at their rented house on Sanibel Island, Florida. We flew down on Saturday, February 8. We took a morning flight, which worked out well for Lola - we had to wake her up to leave for the airport, but she was calm and sleepy on the flight. My parents picked us up at the airport, and then we spent the rest of the day at their house. My Aunt Maggie was there as well - she had been visiting the week before and overlapped with us one day. We were so happy to get to spend some time with her! We had a nice day playing in the pool. Lola loved it! We took an evening walk on the beach (about a five-minute walk from their house) before putting Lola to bed, and then Dad and Joseph cooked steaks and burgers for dinner.

Sunday we just relaxed more at the house. Monday we rented a bike trailer for Lola. The rental house came with four bikes, so we hooked up the trailer to one so Lola could tag along. She's too small for a child seat, but the guy at the bike shop showed us how to strap in her car seat to the trailer. It worked perfectly! Sanibel Island is fairly small and covered with bike paths, so we definitely wanted to do some bike riding. We biked to lunch at Doc Ford's. Lola got a bit fussy at the end of lunch, but she fell asleep on the ride home. Monday evening we left Lola with my parents and went out to dinner at Sweet Melissa's - our first date night since December, and only our third since Lola was born. It was nice to have an evening out by ourselves, and the food was delicious.

Tuesday we drove to the J.N. Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. We saw some beautiful wildlife, and it was very peaceful. Wednesday we drove to Bowman's beach. The beach by my parents' house was nice, but covered in shells and not really a beach you want to lay out on. So we drove to the more popular beach at the end of the island. We tried out our new sand-repelling beach blanket and pop-up tent, and both were great. Lola got to the play in the sand and seemed to enjoy it.

We were supposed to fly home Thursday afternoon, but Snowpocalypse 2.0 had hit Atlanta Tuesday night and our flight was canceled. We were rebooked on a flight Friday afternoon, and it was actually a nice treat to get to stay an extra day (even if I had been looking forward to a day off at home to take care of some things). We took advantage of the extra day and biked for several hours. First we took a morning ride through the neighborhood, and then we took a lunchtime ride around the island, stopping for lunch at a Mexican restaurant.

Friday we had to leave for the airport right after lunch, but we were able to fit in one last walk on the beach in the morning. It was a wonderful trip, and we had so much fun with Lola experiencing new things. She loved our daily pool time! We also enjoyed spending the evenings talking with my parents and playing cards.

If there was one thing I could improve, it would be Lola's sleep. She woke up 5 or 6 times each night and would not go back down easily. Sometimes she would just scream for an hour, no matter how much we rocked/nursed/cuddled her. She was in our travel pack-n-play and in an unfamiliar environment, so we'll chock it up to that. But it was awful. Luckily my mom offered to watch Lola in the morning after her first feeding so that Joseph and I could go back to bed for an hour or two. Since we've been home, she's been slowly improving, so let's hope we get back to a semi-normal sleep schedule soon.

I haven't downloaded the photos from my SLR yet, but here are some photos from my phone.