Crystal Beach Vow Renewal

Last weekend was a lot of fun. Kim and Kevin celebrated their 10 year anniversary with a vow renewal ceremony. They didn't have a big wedding when they got married and always regretted not having friends and family there to celebrate. Keith and I were among the only guests at the first wedding so I was excited to be at the renewal too. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Keith was unable to go due to getting stuck being on call at work all weekend.

The kids and I left Thursday after school with Mason and Wendolin. Wendolin is a good friend who has a photography studio in the same building Kim and I have our real estate office in. She graciously took on the challenge of photographing the vow renewal weekend so that our family photographer, Kym, could sit back and enjoy the weekend and be in the pictures.

We finally made it to Crystal Beach, just outside of Galveston at 10:30 p.m. The beach house "Hotel Ya Ya" Kim and Kevin rented for the week was awesome. It was beachfront and slept 30 people. The kids and I were in the bunk room upstairs. This room had 4 bunks. The tops of each bunk were twin and the bottom full size. there was also a sleeper sofa, big screen tv, pub table and game table in this room. There was one other bedroom upstairs off the bunk room which had a full bath, queen bed and two bunks. The downstairs featured a master bedroom with a king bed plus 4 bedrooms with queen beds. These rooms were utilized by families with small children so that the entire family could sleep in the same room with pack-n-plays and they either had their own bathroom or shared a jack-n-jill bath.

The home had a huge deck that wrapped around the home with a hot tub and views of the ocean.


The kids had a great time in the hot tub above and in the ocean.

And being buried in the sand.


And being a mermaid.

We also enjoyed a bonfire each night down by the water.

Fun with the family (Jessica, Me & Kim on bottom, Courtney & Kym on top)

The vow renewal turned out perfect. Kim spent a lot of time planning this event, months of preparation went into each detail. Luckily, many of the guests chipped in to make sure every detail was pulled off.
Kim made a beautiful bride for her renewal.


I love the following picture before they walked down to the beach. Apparently, Gavin was a little grumpy ;-).


They did a family sand ceremony. The bottom of the container had sand from the beach then Kim and Kevin had the same color blue sand to add to the beach sand and each of their boy's added another color of sand.

Afterwards, there was a dinner reception on the porch. Tons of great food put together by Jeanne, Diane and Sheila.

Desert table:

The night got interrupted at the dinner when some teens in a pick up decided to steal the firewood Kevin had sitting down on the beach in front of the house for later that night. Thankfully, a truck passing by and a call to the cops caught the teens who returned the firewood. However, it took several of our party to go down to the beach to get things straightened out.

The weekend was made better by a visit from Toni and Tom. It was so much fun to spend a little time with her over the weekend. It's never enough!

Kids and I:



Thanks for a fantastic weekend, Daughertys!