Our Thanksgiving Getaway to Florida’s Anna Maria Island…

Happy FriYAY!!! SO excited it is the weekend once again! This is John and I’s kidless “every other weekend” and we’ve decided to make it half work and half play. A day of “Johnny’s Hideaway” demo and construction and a little of our fave… cocktail and app hopping! Our game plan for the cabin is to have John prep the bathroom floors with DuraRock so Ab and I can get to tiling next week… have him install crown molding in the living room (which is currently on odd shelf)… and demo the upper cabinets in the kitchen. Will share some peeks on IG stories while we get stuff done! YAY!

Today I am finally getting all of my pictures and such together to share the details of our Thanksgiving trip to Anna Maria Island, Florida. For the last decade or so now, it was our tradition to travel over the Thanksgiving Holidays. Between the fact that it’s an entire week off of school, one of our sets of parents usually worked over the Holidays and the other traveled North a good bit, it just kind of fell into place for us to take advantage of the time off and get away. Over the years we’ve gone everywhere form the beach to Disney World to simple “friends-giving” weeks at our former cabin. Although things have changed in my life and with our family of course, it’s a tradition I am hoping to continue as my own family grows and expands. John’s family lives in New York so it’s kind of back to the same Holiday “situation” as before except this time we only have our kiddos every other Thanksgiving Holiday.

So this past Thanksgiving, we decided to give it a go! We packed up our crew of six and hit the road to one of my very favorite spots in Florida… Anna Maria Island. I first visited this quaint little GORGEOUS beach spot as a kid. It was one of the first trips I took with my mom and then stepdad and I remember absolutely loving the little island. I’ve been back several times as an adult and have fallen more in love with it each and every time. The sand is white, the water is clear and the island is quaint and precious! The entire island/peninsula is beautiful from Anna Maria at the north-end to Holmes Beach and Siesta Key further south but the small town feel of Anna Maria has always been my personal favorite.

Although I could and will rave and rave about Anna Maria, I have been reluctant to post about this trip because of the Airbnb. Don’t get me wrong… it was beautiful and the location was great and everything but the service and experience with the vacation rental management company was a NIGHTMARE! I always try and stay positive and I absolutely hate sharing negative reviews on here. As an airbnb owner myself, I know we all live business-wise for good reviews so I soooooo hate saying this but it was honestly terrible. My mindset is always that situations and problems will always arise but it is always how it’s handled that sets the tone for me. With my own rental home I always try my best to respond immediately, supply my cell number for all guests and to do my best to get things handled as quickly as possible. So having said that, my issue isn’t so much with the actual “issues” that arose as much as how they were handled by the management company. I won’t consume this post with negativity but I did want to give an honest heads up. I actually didn’t even leave a review on Airbnb because I felt so guilty but let’s just say that there was no key when we arrived and they responded back four hours later, the a/c was out for four days and I had to call several times, every single day, to even get someone to come out and take a look at it and the pool alarm was broken the entire time so it buzzed so dang loud every time we opened the basement door (the button to bypass it wasn’t working). ANYWAYS, like I said the house was beautiful and we still had an amazing time and the weather was mild enough that the a/c wasn’t a HUGE issue but just wanted to give y’all a really honest heads up. So, without further ado, here’s our trip!

Like I said above, the house is beautiful (RENTAL INFO LINKED HERE)! The pool and hot tub are beautiful and were well-loved by us as well! P.S. If you’re going during the cooler months, I would absolutely suggest paying for them to be heated! We did so and the kiddos swam non-stop…

MY BATHING SUIT

As far as recommendations, my very first two would be to stock up on groceries and to RENT BIKES! My very favorite thing about AnnaMaria is that it’s quaint and not very built up so I would personally recommend cooking in a good bit. There’s a Publix in Holmes Beach on your way up to Anna Maria where we stocked up on our way in…

Next, BIKES… BIKES… BIKES! Truly our very favorite part of the trip aside from the actual beach. The streets are calm, very bike/pedestrian friendly and everything is easily accessible by bike. We rode them to the beach everyday, to breakfast, to get ice cream and to dinner! We rented from Lazy Turtle Beach Rentals and had a great experience…

Next and almost honestly back up at the very top of my list was BREAKFAST! We ended up having a little daily bike to breakfast tradition where John and I would grab a mimosa (and the kids a smoothie) at North Shore Cafe while we waited for our donut orders at The Donut Experiment. Yes, I said WAITED for donuts. Y’all… I don’t even like donuts and their donuts are one of the yummiest things I have ever eaten. I swear that there were more people there every single morning than we ever saw on the entire island. LOL. Worth the wait! We ended up popping by pretty much every single morning.

And then of course, THE BEACH. The beaches of Anna Maria are STUNNING! We found that our two very favorite beach spots were…

Bayfront Park

And at the end of Tuna & Spruce Avenue. We chose this spot because there’s a handy little bike rack right at the beach!

I can truly say that we had THE BEST TIME. John and I are constantly voicing how thankful and grateful we are that our kiddos have meshed so well, so quickly and so easily. Joining families is never an easy task and we both came into our relationship putting our kiddos first knowing good and well that that could be a huge make or break for us as a couple had things not gone so well. John had gone nine years without introducing a woman into his kid’s lives so this has been huge step for all of us. This trip ended up being a really big stepping stone for us into a more definite timeline of next steps which is exciting beyond words for me. Sometimes “surprises” aren’t as doable when you’re 39 and have four kiddos in the mix! All in all I just feel so ridiculously blessed to have met someone so wonderful so quickly who has the sweetest, most respectful and kind boys that I can’t wait to one day call a part of our family.

And yes of course… we cooked a big ol’ traditional Thanksgiving dinner!

And to cap off an amazing trip, the boys spent the last day deep sea fishing and the girlies and I had a GIRL’S DAY! Massages and mocktails and time together on the beach…