beach trip 2012.

anna wanted to go to the beach.
who could blame her.
i started looking online for a last-minute getaway and found a super cute little cottage in our price range.
it was booked for the next two months straight.
boo.
but i showed it to john anyway, and the next day, while he was looking at it online, five days magically opened up on the house's calendar. 
serendipity. 

it's easy to take pics at the beach.
something is always, always catching my eye.
hear are a couple dozen of my favorites.
who am i kidding?
they are all my favorites.
i can't narrow them down--i love them all.
i am madly in love the beach so i suspect that might have something to do with it.

(we had some cloudy days so the contrast is a little strong on some of these.
it's sorta kinda ticking me off but oh well)

well, that's about half of them...clearly i have a problem.
:)

the days were warm and breezy and it rained almost every night.
we had one big afternoon storm and it was a doozy.
my mom and dad came down a day after we got there--so glad to have them.
we cooked dinner every night, a big spaghetti dinner, old-fashioned cookout and a seafood feast.
anna made friends with a little girl from houston, texas.
they traded mailing addresses.  it was darling.
josh wanted to fish all day, every day but would only catch little ones.
ben wanted to boogie board like the big kids, go in deep like the big kids, stay up late like the big kids.
he is definitely mr. independent.
john and i split time sleeping with three kids and we were exhausted by the time we made it home.
the two older kids got the stomach bug and took turns getting sick.
but the view, the lovely entrancing view, the beach, the sand, the sunrise, the sunset, the lullaby of the ocean...heavenly.
the beach is our place to refuel, re-energize, regroup.

 the gulf shores/fort morgan area is a lovely place for families.
we used reed real estate and rented this little cottage.
it was super clean (very important to me!), had everything a family could ask for AND had a fifty yard walk to the beach!
our favorite beach house, happy ours, was booked this time, but can certainly be booked for next year if you're interested!

see our past beach trip pics here, here , here, here and here.