Anna Maria Island, FL

We are in full summer mode over here.  How about you?  We started off with a bang by going to the beach, as we've done for several years now.  We typically travel to Alabama, but this year we changed things up and went to Anna Maria Island, Florida instead.  

Last year Brett and I went on a trip, just the two of us.  I picked Sarasota, Florida as our destination, after literally going through photo after photo on a fellow Instagrammer's feed of the place.  I just fell in love and wanted to see for myself if the water was really THAT turquoise.  We went and obviously you can predict the ending to that story because this time we took our whole entire family to marvel at the turquoise water. 

This was our girls' second trip on an airplane, but the first goes down as one of the absolute worst (at least for Betsy and I), so we're not really counting it.  They did great this time!  We live in Northwest Arkansas and found the cheapest option was to drive to the Springfield/Branson airport (a 2-hour drive) and then fly to St. Petersburg/Clearwater airport (a 2-hour flight).  By lunch, you're there!

I kept an eye on the weather like it was my JOB the week before we left and felt my hopes sinking more and more. A tropical storm was going to be making its way through Florida and the seven-day forecast just wasn't super.  I had a rainy-day list made that would have been tons of fun, but I was pretty bummed about the weather.  We landed and still the forecast on the weather app was the same. 

You know what wasn't the same though?

Our actual weather!

 Sure, we were met with cloudy weather and a few sprinkles at first, but no thunder and lightning!  We got to enjoy the beach from day one and the fun continued all week long.  While I'm so very thankful the sun decided to come out and play for several days, I'm also not regretting the time walking on the cloudy beach or riding our bikes in the gentle rain.  

 Yep, you read right.  We rented bikes!  This was the most fun I've had in a long, long time.  We biked to eat, to the beach, and back to our Airbnb house.  It doesn't get better than biking around in your swimsuit, sandy toes and all.

 Our house also had a pool which was amazing!  The kids especially liked it. I was unsure how safe I would feel with a pool in the backyard, but surprisingly it didn't worry me once we got there. For starters, the house had an alarm (a very LOUD alarm) on the only exiting door to the pool.  So it wasn't like a kid could quietly escape out there.  Second, we brought life jackets for all the kiddos and had them wear them.  Third, the kids were only allowed to play outside (in the area surrounding the pool) if a grown-up was with them. 

 Our shell collecting was amazing!  We found way too many to even be able to bring back home.

 I call this "mermaid tail." 

 Our whole crew! 

I just love them.

 We got to watch these birds at lunch one day.  I made a joke about them looking down their noses at us which I thought was hilarious.  Didn't get much of a reaction from Brett though, lol.

 We also found sand dollars!!! Sand dollars to me, are like the unicorn of the beach.  My heart seriously fluttered when first Betsy reached down and pulled one right out of the ocean.  I was grateful to find another! 

This was our Airbnb we stayed in!  Contact me if you'd like to know more about it! 

Oh yeah, and there was a rainbow spotting with a sand dollar.  I mean, I just can't even.  Two of my most favorite things on the planet in one view.  Chills.

We adored this place for breakfast!

 A very nice thing about renting an Airbnb is that they usually have beach chairs, beach umbrella, ice chest, beach toys, etc. for you to use.  

This was legit such a wonderful week, truly.  I was sad when it was time to leave and I'm still missing the beach! From the turquoise waters to eating the best french fries ever to having Brett with us and not at work and finding shells and riding the bike and no makeup and all the things about the beach are simply my fave. 

What about you? Are you a beach person too?

*all photos were taken with my iPhone 5*