Grosse Family Vacation

My parents celebrated their 30 year anniversary on February 17th this year. My dad was so sweet to plan a special anniversary trip for my mom to Captiva, Florida. For years she has wanted to go there, so this was a dream come true for her.

Love birds pictured below...

My dad kept it a secret from my mom that my sister, Cody, Greg, and I were all going on the trip with her. We were planning on showing up at the airport and surprising her. We had kept this secret for months and were anxiously waiting to see the look on my mom's face when she saw us standing at the gate with our luggage. Unfortunately, Continental's automated message gave the surprise away when it called the house the day before our trip and confirmed to my mom flight information for SIX passengers. She said her mouth dropped open and she started screaming. She called me super excited, and in a bit of a shock. At first I was disappointed that our cover was blown, but I've never heard her so excited, so it was still worth it.


We had to fake the surprise picture just for fun.

My dad found this great hotel on Captiva island and we all stayed together in one of their suites that had 3 rooms and a common living area and kitchen. We ended all our evenings there with some very competitive Catch Phrase and Pass the Pigs tournaments, or a little serenading from Cody and his guitar.

The island of Captiva is really narrow, with the beach on one side of the hotel, and the bay on the other. We spent time laying on the beach enjoying the white sand and green waters. Would a vacation ever be complete without a couple of jumping pictures?

One day we took a boat out and went to a nearby island (very small). We got close to the shore than got out and swam to shore.

Here is Captain Bill.

Greg did a little fishing off of the island and caught several fish. Oh and it is not cold outside; Greg is wearing long sleeves because he got burned.




One of the highlights of the trip for me was when I got to pet a manatee. They would come right up to the docks behind the hotel, and this one was friendly. If ever there is an animal willing to be petted, by all means I will pet it!




One of our nightly dinners.




One day we all rented bikes and biked through a nature preserve.

We also made time by the pool because it was so pretty.

We had perfect weather the whole time and it was a such a wonderful family vacation. It was hard coming back to reality, but we enjoyed Captiva while it lasted.

On an unrelated note, does anyone else want to throw their computer out the window due to blogger spacing issues? I can never get the spacing to come out on the way it looks when I am in edit mode. If anyone has any tips please share!!