In the beginning of March we got to go on our first family vacation to Cape Coral!
We were a little worried how Kayla would do on the plane. So the way there we sat in first class on United, because the first class seats only had 2 seats and we had extra room up there (and the price was super cheap! Only like $200 a ticket).
She was such a little trooper! She did soooo good on the plane!! She didn't cry at all! I thought for sure that she'd cry as we descended because her ears would hurt from the pressure... but apparently not! We were giving her puffies to chomp on the whole time so I think that helped. She was also distracted by watching Sesame Street songs that I put on my ipad for her.
My big girl!!! She did so good! We were so proud of her. People around us even commented on how good she did.
The first night in we stayed at the Hyatt in Fort Meyers.
Somebody was excited for vacation!!
Right next to our hotel was Coconut Point Mall which is an outdoor mall kind of like Crocker Park. The weather was super nice so we got to walk around outside. Here is Kayla's first canoli! She was loving it!
They also had a toy store in the area that we went inside...
Look at their awesome Sesame Street collection! They had EVERY character there!
Nana bought Kayla a really cool Cookie Monster!
Here she is with him!
That night we went to a little pizza place called Amore/ Mamma Mia which is a small mom and pop shop. They had an outdoor seating area that we enjoyed. With the pandemic we were only looking for places to eat outdoors.
Right next door there was live music playing. And Kayla was having a blast there! I had no idea how social she was but she was saying hi to everyone!
They had an open area behind the restaurant and Kayla was enjoying running around and dancing to the music.
How cute is she!?!? My sweet girl! She was living her best life that night!
The next day we checked out of the Hyatt around 2pm and then headed to our resort! The Westin at Cape Coral! We have been wanting to come here for a few years but the timing never quite worked out, so we were super excited to get to come this year! Our first day, it was raining for pretty much the whole day. We basically pulled in and the bell hops helped us get our stuff up to our room. But we were able to get our groceries for the week and get all of our stuff unpacked. We got food to go from Pinchers which was a seafood place on our resort that we basically ate at every night!
The view from our room was amazing! We were on the 16th floor in room 1603 and were overlooking the Marina! It was so pretty!
Kayla loved it out on the balcony! I liked it because it was screened in! So no bugs, and no worrying about the baby throwing things down.
It was a huge balcony! We had a 2 bedroom unit so the patio spanned the whole area of our room.
Here is a picture of the Marina!
Our second day was still a little bit chilly (in the upper 60s) but we were still around the pool for the day. The pool by the hotel was right on the water so there was a pretty good breeze over there. But the pool was heated! So the water felt great even though the wind was a little cold. Kayla wasn't a huge fan of the pool because the air was cold. But she did love people watching! She loved for everyone to say hi to her. Older women were her prime "target" she would always greet them and get them to tell her how cute was and how much she made them miss their own grandbabies.
Here she is calling out hi to people! When they were paying attention to her she wouldn't always say hi, but if someone wasn't paying attention to her she'd yell HIIIIII!!!! Right to them!
For dinner we were waiting outside for the patio to open up so we could eat at Pinchers. While we liked Pinchers a lot... I would NOT recommend their crab cakes! They were made with blue crabs and while the meat was fresh... it also had little pieces of shell in the crab cake! Yuck!!!
My pretty girl!
We got shrimp for appetizers and I offered Kayla a bite and she ate the whole shrimp!! Who knew she liked shrimp!!!
The marina at night. It was so pretty at sunset.
My girl LOVED the balcony!! She was constantly trying to get out there.
On our fourth day, we took her to the Fellowship Park in Cape Coral.
She's still a bit too little to really appreciate parks I think. She kind of liked it, but wasn't in love with it.
She was climbing in the play area a little bit.
My baby girl!
Later on in the day we went to a small fishing village called Matlacha. We had lunch at Olde Fish House Marina. They had a couple of older people playing live music that was like grassroots country music... I think Kayla was the only one that really liked it haha.
We did have a nice view while eating though, and it was good food.
They gave Kayla some Oyster crackers that she loved! We picked up some fresh shrimp while we were there and Cody made us some yummy shrimp scampi for dinner.
The next day, we spent pretty much the whole day at the pool. We were able to grab one of the 4 free cabanas that they had, so we set up shop there for the day. It was good to keep Kayla in the shade.
It was nice that there were 3 adults because Kayla only wanted to be in the water for so long, so we all traded off to hang out with her outside of the pool.
We ate at Pinchers again for the night, and then we got fudge from the fudge and ice cream shop on the boardwalk. Kayla loved popping in there everyday for the free samples!
This is her... "I'll have another bite of fudge, please!" look.
Pretty sunset picture!
We almost got her to look!
There was live music playing by the Gather restaruant so we hung out on the boardwalk area and listened in.
Kayla and daddy!!!
My two loves!
Kayla running over to give mommy a hug!!
Then she turned right around to run back to daddy for his hug...
There it is!
Nana's turn!
They were having a good time together.
She was loving running around and dancing to the music.
The next day we went to Sanibel Beach. It was about an hour away from us, but Deb really loves going to the beach. So we figured we would go for the day. We got there and the parking was horrendous! They had two small parking lots and there were about 10-20 cars all circling trying to find a spot. As soon as someone backed out their parking spot was gone! It took us over a half an hour to finally get lucky and get a spot.
However, it was nice once we got there. Sanibel is famous for having a lot of sea shells. So it was a very shelly beach.
Kayla was not digging standing on the sand, and the ocean water was pretty cold so she didn't want to be in the water either.
But we did enjoy sitting around and enjoying the view. It was a pretty crowded beach so we tried to stay to ourselves.
Here's my pretty girl in her stroller. We had her in there for shade purposes. We put a bunch of sun screen on her, but I was still worried that she would burn. She HATED sun screen getting put on her!! Especially on her face... but we had to!
Family photo on the beach!
Another one!
We were there for a little while, and Kayla was basically ready for her lunch and a nap... so that's exactly what she did... She ate lunch..
And then fell asleep. She was napping for most of the time we were there actually. So we switched off hanging by her. Cody and I sat with her and Deb walked around. Then Deb wanted to sit for a bit... so Cody and I went off and walked along the beach for a little bit.
I enjoyed sitting down and watching the pelicans dive in the water.
They were all coming up, and then diving down together over and over again. We think they were hunting fish, maybe?
SPLASH! After the beach we came home and sat in the hot tub for a bit (still cold in the pool) and Kayla liked sitting on the hot tubs edge (it wasn't that hot, it seemed like the heater broke on the hot tub and then it was actually closed for the next day or two... so it wasn't too hot). We were chatting with some people in there and it was nice. Cody made burgers and hot dogs for dinner.
The next day we decided to go exploring and we went to the different pool complex. So they had the pool that was at the hotel, but it was really packed... so we decided to check out the other one that was by residential condos but we were still able to use their pools.
This pool area was fabulous!! We had such fun here! It was a nice big pool and it wasn't too crowded either. And they had large steps to get into the water, and Kayla loved sitting on them and splashing around and playing.
Family picture at the pool.
We brought her pool float from last year, and this year she's finally able to really enjoy it.
We were motor boating around and playing peek-a-boo together. She was having a great time.
Family fun in the pool!
Nana who is the best baby sitter! She would take Kayla and go on walks with her so that Cody and I could have some adult pool time.
Having a great day at the pool!
She was so funny!! This is how she started sitting in her stroller, with her feet up!! Goof!
Daddy and Kayla!
Sweet baby girl!
Here we are on Pincher's patio! She did so good in the restaurant. She was very interested in the people around us, but was pretty well behaved for the most part.
Our fudge shop!
Hanging out on the boardwalk.
Kayla loved all the fountains that we walked by!
Getting a closer look!
Such a happy baby!
Our group selfie!! Don't we all look so happy?? We were having such a nice trip.
Deb in the sunset!
Family picture!
Our first family vacation was a success! We really liked Cape Coral. We didn't really do a whole lot activity wise, but we did really enjoy the nice weather and the pool. We had a nice time with Deb with us, and she was such a big help with helping out with Kayla. I think that we would definitely go back to Cape Coral again someday.
