Spring Break-Staycation 2025

This year we decided to do a few things close to home for spring break. With a 5 year old and a 2 year old traveling can be quite an adventure of its own. We didn’t want to go anywhere that would be notoriously over crowded so we opted for a few adventures in our comfort zone.

We started the week by driving up to my husband’s grandmother’s lake property on Lake Fork. The area itself is pretty quaint, which was the vibe we were going for. We just wanted to relax by the lake, do a little fishing, enjoy the outdoors and of course make s’mores. It was just what we needed to start off spring break. Bonus: we found an awesome little park in Quitman, TX that was built by the Sabine River Authority. It was perfect, I highly suggest you check it out if ever on the area!

Next on the agenda our favorite, Huntsville State Park. All the camping spots were booked of course, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying the numerous trails and beautiful spring weather. (One of these days we will take the boys camping!)

We really wanted to do something new so we decided on the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin, TX. I knew ahead of time that this was a much smaller zoo, however we heard great things.

It was definitely small, and honestly, a little underwhelming. A lot of the bigger animals were hiding and there were quite a few exhibits under construction. Overall it was a pretty little zoo, and we did enjoyed our visit (especially seeing all the peacocks that freely roam the grounds).

And that’s a wrap for Spring Break 2025…we’ve got plenty more adventure on the agenda for this year 🙃

Spring Break Shenanigans

With our masks on and our hand sanitizer packed, we managed a few Spring Break adventures close to home.

First we decided to take Baby O to the downtown Houston Aquarium. It wasn’t a terrible experience, and Baby O seemed to enjoy himself, but I wouldn’t go back. It was overly crowded, people weren’t very kind, and honestly, there wasn’t much to see or do. Overall I give it 4/10.

Although the aquarium wasn’t a huge success we decided to try again the next day with a trip to the Houston Zoo. Other than getting caught in a chilly 40 minute thunderstorm, the zoo was a pretty good experience. It wasn’t too crowded ( we did have to book tickets online ahead of time) and there was plenty to see and do. Baby O saw lots of new animals and was even able to get out of his stroller and run around. I’d give it a 7.5/10.

We had a pretty good Spring Break and are already planning our next big adventure!

Spring Break- So you want to go on a cruise?

We’re Back!

Roasted crickets, slaughtered pigs, and dancing in the street…we found it all!

This was our second time on a cruise and we’ve came to the conclusion that we are just not cruise people.

We had the most fun when we were OFF the ship and able to soak up the sun and culture of Cozumel and Progresso Mexico.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of activities on the ship (including a hairy chest competition that The Bearded One partook in). There’s just so much more to see and appreciate off the ship!

Cozumel

Our first port was Cozumel, which we were slightly familiar with because of our first cruise. Once off the ship we grabbed a taxi and headed straight to Chankannab Beach for some much needed sand and snorkeling. The beach was beautiful, the snorkeling not so bad ( better than my first experience) and the staff attentive. We spend the whole day laying in the beach, watching the other tourists and chatting it up with our waiter Angel. He was so pleasant and beamed with pride when we asked him about his family (3 grown daughters all at university!). It was definitely a challenge to leave the beauty that is Cozumel and head back to our ship.

Progresso

Cozumel is the ‘fan favorite’ but personally, I love Progresso. It may be a little run down and impoverished but it’s full of authenticity and friendly people living their best lives. The Bearded One and I occasionally like to stray and explore when we’re out and about (no worries we were perfectly safe) and on this particular trip we wandered in to the markets and it was quite the experience.

We saw fresh fruit and beautiful flowers, butchered pigs and sharks, and so much more! We also enjoyed multiple buckets of beer on the beach, fun little gifts from numerous beach vendors, and a couple of crunchy cricket snacks 😉

All in all we had an amazing vacation (we always do). The cruise staff was great, the activities plentiful, the weather fantastic, the food decent, but making memories with my forever date was the best part ❤️