The Anderson Family: A new tradition- longest post ever!

We loved our Florida trip so much last year that we decided to go again during the same time of year. We flew into Tampa and drove, in our convertible requested by Mia, to Crystal Beach, Fl. We had an amazing time relaxing at the beach, shopping, checking out all of the touristy events, trick or treating outside in downtown Dunedin.....so much fun family time!!

We're hoping to make this a new family tradition!

This is not a very organized recollection of our trip- more just a splatter of fun memories! :)

In the airport- can't wait to be in Florida!

Mia really enjoyed kicking back and watching movies...she traveled great!

Her ears started to hurt so I broke the 'you can't have gum til your 5 rule' and let her chew gum for a little bit- she was extremely excited!

Our first night in Florida we went to a Mexican festival in Dunedin, Fl- Mia wasn't too sure about these people in very tall costumes.

We ate a great Mexican restaurant that has acrobats doing shows in the air while we ate.

We also celebrated Mia's birthday early- the wait staff sang to her and gave her a whipped cream cupcake- she loved that!

Craig and Mia enjoyed their lazy morning eating breakfast on the Lanai while I got ready and packed our lunch picnic for the beach.

Our first day at the beach- loving the sun!

Lots of sand castle building on this trip

and lots of good snuggling in the sun and the sand- so nice to slow down with the 2 people I love most!

Mia requested a convertible for our rental car and it was actually several hundred $$ cheaper for some reason- we loved it!!

One night we attended a celebration of the sunset on the beach- Mia held a parrot...

and got a braid in her hair. You can see the beads in her hair on the right side of her head.

Love this picture on the beach collecting crabs

This is paradise...

We only have a few family pictures and none of them are great unfortunately

The crabs daddy and Mia collected

We ended one of the days with a swim at the condo pool and pizza at a local pizzeria- the best pizza we have ever had!

Our condo has a looooong dock that extended out into the ocean- Craig and I are watching a horseshoe crab and Craig saw a shark while jogging one day.

This was probably Mia's favorite night- we let her choose her own dessert to bring home and stay up way to late watching the movie Dolphin Tale.

At a local playground that had this amazing old hot springs you could walk across on a bridge

After watching the movie Dolphin Tale, we spent the next day at the Winter museum. Mia loved seeing the real Winter perform a show and seeing lots of props and things from the movie.

Touching a sting ray

Winter

On a trolley ride to another part of the museum

In the hurricane simulator- not Mia's favorite thing!

On a boat ride back to the original museum- what a fun day!

We took this picture last year as well- so fun to watch her grow!

Playing in the waves before dinner

We woke up really early one morning to watch the sunrise...it was so cloudy though that we didn't see any of the sunrise- bummer!

Mia enjoyed strolling the beach, drinking hot cocoa and finding sea shells.

Our one good family picture- using the timer on the camera

Being silly over chocolate chip pancakes- yummy!

Wandering the shops of a small town- with Mia in jammies!

One rainy day we visited a mall. It had a train that drove through the mall, not on tracks, and gave rides- so fun! It also had a huge ice skating rink- it was a great mall!

Last day at the beach. It was very windy because of hurricane sandy but we made the best of it and still enjoyed ourselves.

Another fun sand castle

Trying to warm up from the wind- kind of chilly

And yet another sand castle

You can see the big waves from the wind in the background

We spent our last night trick or treating in Dunedin. It was very cool. The streets were closed off and all of the small stores were handing out treats.