Cheers to Ten Years

July 2, 2026July 2, 2026Leave a comment

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 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.

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

March 28, 2026Leave a comment

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.

Our Midwest Road Trip

June 8, 2024June 8, 2024Leave a comment

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!

Baby O’s First Big Trip

July 9, 2021Leave a comment

They say that traveling is good for the body, mind, and soul and I overwhelmingly agree. We knew from the start that we wanted to instill our love of travel and adventure into our children and in order to do so we started right away. At 6 months baby O was on a 14 hour road trip to Colorado. At 12 months another mini road trip to see Santa. And at 18 months, we decided to take baby O on his first international vacation to Mexico.

The unpredictability of traveling with a little one had me not only apprehensive but very anxious. So many unknowns, would he be okay? Fussy? Sleepy? Throw a fit? I was pretty confident in my ability to calm him down in any situation so we packed up and headed to Mexico with a dozen of our favorite people.

When I planned this international family vacation to celebrate our 5 year anniversary, I wasn’t anticipating a pandemic and I was completely unaware of how traveling with a toddler would be. Overall I was pleasantly surprised! Our first big vacation with our little one was a complete success! 1800+ miles away from home, 4+ hours on a plane, and zero meltdowns; he did so well!

Here are a few things I learned on this trip:

When traveling with a baby/toddler:
- Pack snacks ! Not just for the airplane but for the resort/hotel as well. Baby O eats a lot and frequently. Snack are a necessity at all times of the day!
- Keep them entertained. Whether your little one needs screen time, toys, or books, pack them all!
- We took advantage of baby O being under 2 and he sat in our laps on the plane. Next time he will definitely get his own seat.
- If possible, book the plane ride during baby’s nap schedule. Baby O slept on the plane both ways!
- Pack extra necessities such as sunscreen and diapers. We packed enough but if we needed them, they were expensive at the resort.
- When traveling to Mexico for the summer stay on the pacific side. The other side is swamped with seaweed from May to September. If I would have known this in advance I would have booked Puerto Vallarta instead of the Riviera Maya area.
- Book a local photographer for family photos! It was inexpensive and easy to do.

We couldn’t have asked for a better first big trip with baby O. We soaked up the sun, enjoyed family time, and were able to watch our sweet boy enjoy vacation as much as we do.