Tarra Yvette

haha, not really – but we did hop on a flight for a trip last week.

Why?

It’s cold in Kentucky, and the days are short, and I spend most of my time inside. My mood has been up and down since having Viv and lately, I’ve felt really overwhelmed. It seems like anytime I’m doing something to help Viv, LB feels neglected or needs my undivided attention and vise versa. Also, I haven’t had an uninterrupted nights sleep in forever because if by chance Viv doesn’t wake for her 4 AM feeding, LB somehow knows and wakes up instead. Did I mention Viv still rejects all bottles? I feel like it never ends sometimes and while I love being a mom, I do not love feeling like I can’t get 15 seconds to myself.

And did I mention Brian was in a wreck and totaled his car the Saturday after thanksgiving ? Thank God everyone is ok – but sorting out everything hasn’t been easy.

Needless to say I’ve been under a lot of stress. I’m always tired and anxious and jumpy because i hardly have a second to myself. Add that to how big of a mental shift it has been since I quit beachbody coaching and started helping Brian with the marketing for our gym… it’s just been a lot!

So I told Brian that. And coincidently, I got an email from Frontier telling me about $15 flights. And we had been talking about how much JUNK we have at our house (toys mainly) and how we couldn’t see buying a bunch of toys for Christmas when LB has stuff he hasn’t even played with yet. So…

I decided this was a great christmas gift. I checked all of the locations. I knew I wanted somewhere warm and sunny and on a beach! We were between Daytona and Tampa, until Brian recognized Sarasota on the list and said he heard it was nice. I found a flight from Cincy to Sarasota Florida for $15 each ticket. We took Viv as a lap baby. And we had enough points on our card to fly back. I hopped over to Air BNB and found a good deal, and the next thing I know I was taking LB on his first flight 🙂 (well and Viv but of course she didn’t care).

The experience:

We stayed at a beautiful airbnb (click that link for a credit on your first stay) that was about a 5 minute walk from a beach that was nearly private. The weather was above 70 and sunny on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and in the 60’s Wednesday and before we came home Thursday. Honestly it was a perfect trip. We got there at 8 AM on Sunday. We were all EXHAUSTED because we flew out of Cincinnati at 6:10 am, which meant we had to be at the airport by like 5 AM, which meant we left our house in Lex at 3:30 AM. And I’d been up late packing. Our plan was to be carless the whole trip, but since check in wasn’t until 4 PM we decided to rent a car for the first day. We went to eat at a nice little diner and then went over to an antique car museum to kill time.

Me and LB had a blast! It was tiny but they had some really cool gems in there. Then we hung out near the waterfront in Sarasota. Last we hit up a sea food festival near a public beach and then headed over to Anna Maria Island/Holmes Beach, which is where our house was. We got settled, grabbed some dinner, got in the pool for a bit and got the kids in the bath and bed. We didn’t stay up late that night at all, I was so tired.

The next morning Brian got up and returned the rental car and we walked over to Publix (right behind us) to get some groceries. And we finally hit the beach. OMG. It was breathtakingly beautiful and the beach access near our air bnb was basically locals only. I’d say at any given time there were no more than 10 other people there, but usually it was just us.

 

The rest of Monday/Tuesday kind of blend together but we ate some local food, swam in the pool, and spent a lot of time at the beach. Like, I have tan lines. Did I mention my Aunt Roz drove over from Orlando to visit?

 

We also took the free trolly and went to the larger more public beach access with food and shops at the entrance.

Wednesday it was cold (well, 60 feels cold when it’s been nearly 80) so we stayed inside. We rode the trolly to explore the island, painted sand dollars at a local shop, hit the local library, had ice cream and just enjoyed life.

 

Thursday we had to check out by noon so we spent that morning packing, doing laundry, and getting ready to go to the airport. We did go out on the beach for one last time. Honestly it was so beautiful there it moved me to tears.

Our flight left at 4 PM but we left at noon and got ot the airport at 12:30. We ate and looked at the fish tank until time to check in and go. Next thing we know, we were back in Cincy and there was SNOW on our car from the past week. Crazy!

All in all we spent like $150 for taxes/fees/bags etc for the flight and we booked this airbnb. We always use air bnb to travel (It’s just so much easier when traveling with kids). We brought cash with us so we didn’t have to worry about overspending when we were there.

All in all, it was exactly what I needed. The warmth and sunshine gave me life. Honestly though, everytime we go on a beach trip I wonder why we dont’ live at the beach. Why do I hustle hard to be able to spend a couple weeks a year at the ocean? Instead of just living there? I feel I’d be happier with a lot less if it meant I was by the beach.

Either way, this trip was just what the doctor ordered. I feel like a new woman. And even though I had to amazon prime the few things I was getting for the kids for Christmas, it was worth it. AND now that I know the kids did decent on a flight, we can go a lot more places! The goal is to travel 1x a month this summer.

Anywho, here’s a few other pics 🙂