Category: family

Cheers to Ten Years

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We took our first big “airplane” trip with both boys and it was amazing!

The Bearded One and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary this June with a vow renewal ceremony in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was such a beautiful experience and we had a wonderful time!

We have visited Puerto Vallarta previously for our first wedding anniversary and fell in love with the culture, the people, and the beaches. Since we enjoyed it so much, we decided it was the perfect place to celebrate our 10-year vow renewal.

We have traveled to several parts of Mexico and we chose Puerto Vallarta specifically because of it’s location on the Pacific coast and the fact that it doesn’t have the same summer time sargassum blooms as the Cancún areas.

We started planning our trip a little over 18 months in advance to give all of our family and friends a chance to join us (which didn’t go as planned but that’s a story for another time).

The first time we stayed in PV we spent a week at the Hyatt Ziva. We enjoyed the Hyatt, however, we felt that Hard Rock Vallarta was more kid friendly and decided to give it a shot.

https://hotel.hardrock.com/vallarta/

Technically the resort is a little outside of Puerto Vallarta; it’s located in on the beautiful beaches of Nuevo Vallarta, in the center of Riviera Nayarit,Mexico. The resort was beautiful, had great amenities, delicious food and wonderful staff. The only negative I’d say would be the construction. As of July 2026 they are closing the resort down to renovate it for six months. (After seeing the renovated room my mom stayed in, I’m excited to see what they do!)

Resort Days

Arriving at the resort was surprisingly stress-free. I have to say, the boys did fantastic on the plane. We were also joined by one of our favorite couples (my incredible bestie and her wonderful husband) and my fabulous mom, which made the trip even more memorable.

We spent the majority of our time enjoying the pool, swimming at the beach, and just relaxing at the resort. Of course our little guys are water babies and absolutely love to splash and play. This resort was very kid friendly; it had a waterslide, a kiddie pool and a ton of beach activities such as kayaks, boogie boards, and paddle boards. I lost count of how many times the boys slide down the slide (myself and The Bearded One also joined in) !

Pool Fun

Pool service was fantastic. The staff was friendly and our cups stayed full. The kids loved the pizzeria by the pool and we all enjoyed the lunch buffet set up daily.

The Iguanas 🦎 Wanted Pizza 🍕

For a big name resort, I was a little nervous the food would be average, however, we enjoyed pretty much everything. Surprising, my favorite was the Italian restaurant Ciao!

Excursion: City Tour

On our third day we decided to book an excursion to go explore the city. The Bearded One and I loved PV the first time and did our own little wandering, but we were in no way experts. We decided a city tour was probably the best bet for our little guys (a little too young for snorkeling and ATVs). We decided to book a private tour so we didn’t have to stick with a group, and I’m glad we did.

The tour started out in the Malecon, which is essentially the giant board walk. I honestly wish we would have just spent the day here, however, our tour guide had other things in mind.

After the Malecon we saw The Church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a small candy store where the boys get paletas and The Bearded One got crickets (I’m not kidding) then a silver factory/shop after heading into the mountains for the last leg of our tour.

The mountains were beautiful and along the way we stopped for a little tequila tasting and then at a small family owned restaurant for an authentic, delicious lunch.

All in all I would say the tour was very informative and gave us an opportunity to experience the culture of Puerto Vallarta. It was different than what I expected, but we all had a great time and our guide was fantastic (the boys slept solid on the way back to the resort!)

If you’re interested, we book the tour through : https://www.amstardmc.com/en/

Vow Renewal

While at the resort, we planned a small vow renewal ceremony and it was perfect. As some of you may know, we were married in Mexico and it poured down rain, so we didn’t get our toes in the sand beach ceremony. This time, the weather cooperated and we had our perfect little ceremony. Unfortunately, I don’t have all of our pictures yet because I haven’t got them but stay tuned!

Overall, I give Hard Rock Vallarta 8.5/10 and The Bearded One gives it a 9.5/10. The location was perfect, the resort over all was beautiful, and the staff was very accommodating and helpful. We’d love to return after renovations to see the new look!

Spring Break in San Antonio

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San Antonio holds a special place in my heart. It was the very first “grown-up” vacation I took with the bearded one. Since then, we’ve made countless weekend trips back, spending evenings on the Riverwalk with dinner and cocktails, wandering through Market Square, and stopping for shopping and micheladas along the way.

This spring break we decided San Antonio would be the perfect adventure for our 6 and 3 year old. The goal we had in mind was Sea World, both our boys love all things sea creatures, and as educators, the bearded one and I had free passes (we also signed up for a free pre-k pass for our youngest). We knew Sea World wouldn’t be our only stop but it was our biggest surprise for the boys.

After a 4 hour car ride, we arrived at our destination. I heard so many fabulous things about the Drury Inn so that’s where we decided to stay, and it did not disappoint. The hotel itself self was an old bank and full of beautiful architecture, stained glass, and old bank fixtures. They also had free breakfast and a free snack hour each evening. The snack hour honestly had full meals and free cocktails (which we enjoyed), but our boys opted for popcorn 🍿. The hotel also had a rooftop pool and hot tubs which of course we had to checkout.

The first day we checked out our hotel, took a river boat tour, and enjoyed the Riverwalk.

The second day we headed to SeaWorld and I was pleasantly surprised. It has changed so much since the bearded one and went last time (over 15 years ago). There was lot to see and do. We visited all of the aquariums and watched all of the shows. We decided to skip the rides this time, but will definitely check them out next time.

We packed a lot of little adventures in to our short two day trip; we took a riverboat tour, saw the Alamo, ate at Rainforest Cafe, and shopped in Market Square. There is so much to do and see in SA; we will be back to explore more next time. I feel like the city is very kid and family friendly and we greatly enjoyed our little adventure away from home.

Lazy Beach Days

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We spent our first vacation of the summer at the beach, and of course we had a great time.

Once again we traveled to our favorite little condo in Corpus Christi, right on the beach. Everyday the Bearded One set up our tents and chairs and we basked in the Texas sun with our toes in the sand. Our whole family came with us this year and the boys had so much fun. We played in the sand, painted seashells, fed the seagulls, and braved the ocean with the yucky jellyfish 🪼 (yes we all got stung!)

We only had one day of bad weather so we decided to take the boys to the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History. It was fun for the kiddos, lots of history and interactive exhibits for the boys. Plus, teacher get a discount!

We had a fabulous beach trip, as always, and I already miss the salty air!

Pro Beach Tips:

  • Bring lots of snacks of course
  • Vinegar helps neutralize a jellyfish sting (thanks lifeguards)!
  • Bring watercolors to paint seashells
  • If you check out the museum, you have to eat next door at Railroad Seafood and Brewery (best crab cake I’ve ever had!)

Christmas At Kalahari

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Christmas time at Kalahari year three did not disappoint.

We’ve always been able to enjoy the resort during the week around Christmas time, however, this year we had to book the weekend before. I was a little nervous that it would be entirely too crowded and unenjoyable. Although it was more crowded than we’ve experienced in the past, it wasn’t overwhelming and I feel like there were lots more holiday activities to enjoy.

The boys were able to see Santa and Mrs. Claus, color in an igloo, search for Kalvin the elf daily, and participate in other fun Christmas activities.

If you’re on the fence about waterparks in general ( I’m genuinely not a fan) then I suggest you try Kalahari. Everything is in close proximity, the resort overall is clean, the staff is friendly, there’s so much for kids and adults to try. 10/10 we will continue to come back and enjoy the holidays at Kalahari in Round Rock, TX.

We’ve contemplated visiting the resort during the summer season but I truly enjoy the holiday magic 🎄🎅🏻

Link: Kalahari

Our Midwest Road Trip

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6 Days-5 States-4 Hotels-2 Kids

We knew we’d be laying my grandma to rest this summer in Saint Louis, MO, and in order to get there, we had to plan.

To get to St. Louis from our home in Texas we were looking at an 11 1/2 hour drive one way. With a 2 year old and a 4 year old that task seemed almost impossible so we decided to break it up in to multiple days.

Our first day of driving was supposed to be about 5 hours but of course took much longer;we knew it would. We took into consideration potty breaks, bathroom breaks, and honestly the occasional snuggle breaks for our sweet toddler.

We stayed in McAlester, OK the first night and it was just okay. The hotel was decent, the area was fine, the biggest letdown was the dirty pool. I intentionally booked every hotel along the way with the pool in mind and unfortunately that didn’t work out as planned. But we made the best of the situation and had dinner and ice cream at the Braum’s next to the hotel.

Day two we planned to see my little brother and family in the Kansas City area. We really had such a great time. Nothing makes my heart happier than seeing our sweet boys enjoy their family, especially their cousins. We stayed in Lenexa, KS the second night and in hindsight we definitely would have stayed with family. I did not pick a good hotel, it was a tad sketchy and the bearded one got stuck in the elevator! (Which of course we can laugh about now).

Another 5+ hours in the car on day 3 and we finally arrived in St. Louis. I picked my favorite hotel for our 3 night stay, Hilton Home2Suites. If you’ve never stayed, I highly suggest it. The rooms are huge and have plenty of space for the littles to run around. They have a large kitchen area, pool, breakfast everyday, and so much more. It’s our go-to hotel on long vacations. The first night there we picked up some groceries and used the hotel grills for our dinner.

While in STL we attended my grandmother memorial at the Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. It was definitely difficult, but I was happy to be around my loved ones.

After the service we all went to a pretty good restaurant, Three Kings Public House. Once again our boys got to see more of their family.

We didn’t want to rush back home to Texas so we decided to do some sightseeing and explore STL a bit. First we picked up my older brother and went to see our old house, my grandmother’s house, and hit up a few favorites like Ted Drew’s and Imo’s (you can’t go wrong with frozen custard and pizza).

The next day we wanted to check out the science center but it’s closed on Tuesday and Wednesdays so we went to the zoo instead.

Fun fact: The STL Zoo is free! My brother and I have so many great memories of the zoo and it was the perfect place to take the boys. We stayed all day, saw all the animals, and road the train a couple of times. It was the perfect ending to our whirl wind road trip.

After we left STL we traveled home a different way, which took us through Arkansas. We stayed in North Little Rock in a hotel downtown. The hotel was good but once again the pool was closed. We did however find a cute little park on the river and let the boys run off some of that energy from the long hours in the car.

Our last day in the car was the longest at just over six hours (before all the stops). But at last, we made it home safe and sound. After 4 different hotels, 6 days on the road, and ridiculous amount of hours in the car, we finally made it home.

My biggest takeaways from this road trip would have to be

  • Go with the flow, stop often, don’t get stuck on the minute to minute plans, you will eventually get to you destination
  • Pack snacks, lots and lots of snacks, our boys have their own snack boxes
  • Keep them entertained, we bought dual DVD players which we used a lot
  • Relax, stay calm, make memories

Up Next…THE BEACH!

Camping Chaos

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The Bearded One and I have enjoyed camping since we were kids. We’ve always camped in a tent, cooked over an open fire, and all those other seemingly baffling outdoorsy things some people just don’t understand. We really want our boys (currently 4 and 2) to experience and love all the same adventures as us, but we decided they’re a little too small to sleep on the ground and run around an open flame. We desperately wanted them to experience the spirit of camping but in a safer, less taxing kind of way. So I did my research and settled on Jellystone Park in Waller, TX.

Of course I’ve heard Jellystone before but I’ve never experienced it for myself. After reading reviews, checking out fellow traveler pictures and blogs, and looking for discount codes, I settled on the perfect cabin.

If you’ve never seen or heard of Jellystone do yourself a favor and check it out. Their website gives so much information on the lodging, amenities, and overall experience. They have everything from tents sites, to multi room cabins. Activities and amenities include a fishing pond, pillow jumper, gem mining, restaurant, and my favorite, the thing that sold me, a pool and waterpark playground.

The night before our Jellystone adventure we packed up and hyped up the boys about their first camping trip. I didn’t realize camping required so much, but it definitely was quite a bit to pack.

The Bearded One and I took a half day off work in preparation for grocery shopping before our arrival. About 30 minutes before we were supposed to leave I received an email from Jellystone Waller saying they had to cancel our reservations due to the previous night’s storm and massive power outages!

Of course I was in panic mode, but long story short, I was able to cancel for a full refund and rebook the Jellystone Tyler location (which was an extra 2 hours away).

The boys did pretty well in the car, and it honestly wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating.

We arrived around 5pm and still had plenty of time to check out the waterpark, which the boys absolutely loved. The waterpark stayed open until 7pm and opened the next morning around 11 (the sign said 11 but it was open at like 1030ish).

After a night of s’mores and late bedtimes we were excited to wake up and explore all the park had to offer. We started with the pillow bouncer, then drove around to find the playground, and finally did a little gem mining for treasures. You have to buy the bag of gems which was about $9 but it was totally worth it.

I think the waterpark was our favorite, our boys love the water. We spent hours at the water playground, enjoying the waterslides, getting ice cream and of course purchasing a few adult beverages at the bar (yes the campground has a bar!).

There was so much more to explore and do at the park but we just didn’t have the time. They have an app that you can download that gives you a play-by-play schedule of events happening around the park. It was very family friendly and we will definitely be back. Despite the unexpected turn of events, I give our first experience at Jellystone a 9/10.

Travel Notes:

Packing with toddlers is no joke, here’s an example of my packing list for reference.

Every Summer Has A Story

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Chapter One: The Beach in Corpus

As always we had a fabulous time. Beautiful location, fabulous weather, and my boys were happy.

Chapter 2: San Antonio Hyatt Resort

Of course one vacation just isn’t enough so I had to find something else to do. The bearded one and our boys are happy as long as they are near water and the San Antonio Hyatt Resort is known for its lazy river. After extensive review reading, I book us a suite for a couple of days and we headed on down to SA. The drive wasn’t bad, our 3 year old and 1 year old are surprisingly great car riders. After loading up on snacks at Buccee’s we finally arrived and hurried on down to the pool and river. To be honest I was slightly underwhelmed. Yes the resort had a beautiful lazy river to float around in, but that was about it. They did have a few other features like a water slide and tiny kiddie pool, I think I was just wishing for a larger pool to hang out in, or an indoor pool would have been nice. Prices for everything (food, drinks, souvenirs etc…) we’re expensive, as to be expected at a resort. All in all we did end up having a great time. I’d probably give it another try in the future. https://www.hyatt.com/en-US/hotel/texas/hyatt-regency-hill-country-resort-and-spa/sanhc

Chapter 3: Road Trip

Our finally adventure was to Bartlesville, OK. I know what you’re thinking, …why?! Well we had the best reasons, to see family of course! It was the perfect in-between stop to catch up with relatives. Before we headed to good ole Bartlesville we made a 4th of July pit stop in Dallas to visit more family and celebrate the holidays. This road trip was pretty long for the boys but they did great. We stopped frequently for snacks, potty breaks, and lunch. When we finally arrived our room was ready and so was the pool (of course we had to swim). Bartlesville is actually a cute little town. It has lots of yummy restaurants and original shops downtown, which were all within walking distance to our hotel. I also found a cute little kiddie park with amusement rides which was super fun! If you’re ever in the area you also have to check out the aquarium in Jenks, OK. It was one of the best we’ve ever visited (hands on exhibits, not to crowed, lots to do). All in all, we enjoyed our little stay in Oklahoma.

Chapter Four: Let’s Stay Home

This summer was full of great memories and lots of laughs. No matter where we go I know I will always have the best time because I’m with my boys. My favorite place in the whole wide world will always be wherever they are.

Much Needed Getaway

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This was a well deserved, much needed, beach vacation. After a tremulous end to our year, full of change and the unknown, we throughly enjoyed our stress free week away from it all. I honestly feel that the salty ocean air and sand between my toes, brings new perspectives on what is truly important in our lives. There’s no where else I’d rather be than on vacation with my boys.

I know Texas beaches get a bad rap but we really do love Corpus Christi. We’ve spend countless hours on the murky beaches of Galveston, which are nothing compared to the clear, clean beaches of Corpus.

We stumbled upon our vacation spot by chance a few years ago. We were looking for a place to take baby O and had already attempted Galveston. I researched beachfront condos on the coast and found El Constante Condos on North Padre Island in CC. We were presently surprised with the locations, amenities, and cleanliness of our condo and have been returning ever since ( this was year three).

It can be kind of daunting taking a toddler and baby to the beach but I think we pretty much have it figured out. The most important aspects of baby beach travel are 1-sunscreen 2-shade 3-snacks and 4-toys. Once you have those four figured out it’s smooth sailing.

We did our best to stick to a schedule and our boys loved very minute of beach, pool and family time. We can’t wait for our next end of June vacation! Stay tuned for something new.

Kalahari Resort-Round Rock

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We tried something new for Christmas vacation this year and decided to book a few nights at the indoor water park, Kalahari. The park is advertised as the largest indoor water park and it’s not too far away from us, about 2.5 hours. It’s located in Round Rock, TX which is just outside of Austin. On the day of departure we loaded up the car and the boys and headed off on our little adventure.

To be completely honest I didn’t have very high expectations, I am not a water park fan. Kalahari completely changed my mind, I absolutely loved it! More importantly, our boys loved it too!

We were a little nervous that there wouldn’t be many activities for the littles but half the park was designed just for them. My toddler went down so many slides, floated the lazy river, and enjoyed all the water table activities with his baby brother. We spent hours splashing around and playing in the water. I do have to say it was a tad bit chilly but we acclimated quickly. The water is kept at 84* but good ole Texas was having some pretty cold weather and we could tell while in the park. Anytime the boys seemed chilly we just hopped in the giant hot tub for a few minutes. Overall it wasn’t too bad.

The water park is the resorts biggest attraction but it also has an enormous arcade and adventure park with rides and activities such as rock climbing, bowling, escape rooms and several other things. We spent a good amount of time in the adventure park playing kid friendly games with our toddler. He’s never been to an arcade and absolutely loved all the games. He was even able to pick some pretty cool prizes with all the tickets we won.

Kalahari also has several resultants and shops which we took full advantage of. Before we left I followed the advice of my fellow travelers and we stopped at the store to pick up snacks and easy meals for the kids. Our room had a microwave and fridge so we were able to do simple breakfasts and lunches in the room. We did however grab pizza at the Italian restaurant, cocktails at the lounge, coffee and desserts at the cafe, and on our last night we had dinner at the resorts burger place. The food was pretty good, priced as you would expected for a resort. I’d definitely eat there again, it was super convenient and there were quite a few restaurants to choose from.

This place had any and everything you could possibly need to have a wonderful family vacation. Since it was the holiday season the resort was decked out in beautiful Christmas decor and made our trip that much more magical. I would definitely recommend Kalahari Resort to anyone looking for a family vacation. As a matter of fact, I’m already planning next years trip!

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Our Next Greatest Adventure has Arrived

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It’s hard to put into words the overwhelming emotions you feel as a mom. Pure joy, immense anxiety, constant uncertainty, a sense of accomplishment and most of all the inexplainable, unconditional love just to name a few. Over the past few years I experienced all of these and more; being a mom is the oughest and most rewarding role I’ve ever played and I wouldn’t change a second if it.

On April 13th we welcomed sweet baby L into the family and our party of 3 became a party of 4. I am now officially outnumbered because, surprise, it’s another boy! I knew in my soul I was destined to be a boy mom and I’m okay with that. How can I not be when I look at my sweet, perfect little boys?!

When we welcomed baby O into our world a few years ago everything was so fresh and new. We were terrified and excited to become parents and had no idea what to expect. It took a lot of adjusting but we figured it out (and are still figuring it out daily with our wild toddler !). Surely we would have it all figured out with baby #2…

While I was pregnant with baby #2 I constantly worried about being able to divide my time between 2 little humans. How could I possible love someone as much as I love baby O? How will baby O feel when he’s not the center of our universe? All of these self-doubting questions and more popped up while we prepared to become parents one more time.

I expected baby #2 to arrive early because baby O did but boy was I mistaken. After almost 2 weeks of doing EVERYTHING to induce labor naturally we finally made the decision to be induced on April 13th, bright and early.

I dreaded labor and delivery but it honestly wasn’t nearly as bad as I remembered. I went in pretty confident in my birth plan and better prepared for postpartum recovery. After a full day of laboring and a few minutes of pushing, baby L finally graced us with his presence at a whopping 8 lbs 15 oz. We were blessed with another happy, healthy baby boy and it was time to figure out the new normal.

I remember holding baby L in the hospital, looking at his cute little chunky face and I still had that nagging question that filled me with mom guilt what would baby O think? I was ready to go home and introduce my sweet boys but the hospital had another plan. We had to stay an extra night, which meant one more night away from my O, I was not happy.

Thank God for my husband because the next morning he went all the way back to the house to pick baby O up from my mom and bring him to meet his baby brother.

Their first meeting couldn’t have gone better. O was a little nervous but determined to hold and kiss his new “brobber”, and of course we let him. We spent the whole morning together and O did great. There were minimal tears when we had to take him home but I knew watching them together that it would all be fine.

We still have some adjusting to do but 3 weeks in we are finding our new normal. O gets plenty of mommy and daddy time and is learning the ropes with his baby brother. He helps bring him his blankie, sings him songs, and does his very best to snuggle baby L gently. I know my boys will forever have each other and share the same unconditional love.

To all the moms out there with unanswered questions just know it will all work out 💙

Without further ado, meet the newest member of The Beam Family.