Family Vacation 2016 - Longboat Key

This year, we were fortunate to be able to take a family vacation with my entire family to Longboat Key, Florida.  My amazingly generous aunt and uncle recently bought a place in Longboat Key and graciously allowed us all to stay there.  The last time we all went on vacation as a family, I think I was in college so this was pretty exciting – although I have to admit that I had a little bit of trepidation about living with my siblings for a week after not living with them in over 15 years. 

We hopped in the car after work on a Friday afternoon and hit the road. 

And we're off!

I did my best to prepare to be in the car with a two and four year old for 16 hours.  I had games, snacks, crayons, books, movies and even little wrapped gifts to give sporadically to help pass the time.  Even so, it was not the easiest drive and I think we will fly if we ever go that far again.  However, we made it and the reward of spending the day on the gorgeous beach made the drive well worth it.  It was amazing!! 

We stayed right on the beach.  There was one huge balcony the overlooked the water, but almost every window had spectacular views of the ocean and beach. One of the things that I’ve always looked forward to when going on a beach vacation is being able to sit outside in the morning and have my coffee while watching and listening to the ocean.  Sounds silly, but to me it is the perfect way to center myself and start the day.  Not only did I get to do that each morning,  I was able to sit and watch the sunset each night, glass of wine in hand.  Perfection!!

The week was in a word – Wonderful!  We spent the days schedule free, alternating from the pool to the beach and back again.  The kids were little water babies and would stay in the pool each day until their fingers pruned.  We took walks down the beach and found some pretty amazing sea shells.  We built sandcastles and Evie buried herself in the sand.  Although we did go out to eat a few times, Pat and I decided ahead of time that we were going to try and stay in for dinner most nights in order to save ourselves some stress. 

 

Although no one expected him to cook, Pat whipped up some amazing meals and everyone was so appreciative!!  We bought a cake one night and celebrated Mitch’s 2^nd Birthday.  One afternoon, everyone, but my mom, Holly, me and the kids went deep sea finishing.  We took the kids to St. Armand’s Circle for some shopping instead.  Overall, it was a wonderful vacation and exactly what my entire family needed after a rough few months.  When we got in the car to leave a week later, Pat and I both teared up that it was actually over.  Hopefully we can look forward to having a lot more vacations like that in the future!