Jay, Melanie, Ben (13) and Brie (10) moved to The Resort in May 2019 from the mean streets of

Keller. For years Jay would ask Mel, “Where do you want to live when we finally make it?” And

she would always say, “On beautiful Eagle Mountain Lake in a community full of deer.” Well,

now they’re living their dream!

 

If you’ve talked to Jay for more than a minute, he’s already told you he’s an F-16 fighter pilot who flies with the 457th Fightin’ Spads based at Fort Worth Naval Air Station. He’s served 24 years,

logged 4,000 military flight hours and deployed seven times. He’s also a Southwest Airlines pilot and swears the Christmas meltdown was not his fault. (He has spare luggage you could borrow if SWA never returned your bags.)

 

Melanie grew up in Abilene then moved to the big city of Lubbock to attend Texas Tech. There

she didn’t just rest on her good looks, turns out she has the goods upstairs too. After graduating with a zoology degree, she attended the Texas Heart Institute in Houston.  She has been a cardiovascular perfusionist, the specialist who operates the heart-lung machine during open-heart surgery, for the last 23 years. 

 

Before Mel was fixing hearts, she was breaking them. She stole Jay’s in Austin in 2003 and

made an honest man out of him in 2006. After spending a couple years in upstate New York

snow, they hightailed it back to Texas. In 2009, the kids started showing up.

 

Ben and Brie currently attend the International Leadership of Texas Charter School.  It’s a

trilingual program where students ignore their teachers in English, Spanish, and Mandarin

Chinese.

 

Ben loves playing sports, plays percussion in the school band, and surfs better than Dad.  He

recently celebrated his Bar Mitzvah with friends and family from all over the country.

 

Brie is taking hip hop, jazz, and lyrical dance classes. She is extremely fond of animals and

talks of becoming a vet.  She has a ball python named Noodle who she adores and terrorizes

unsuspecting guests with. 

 

The family takes a ski trip to Colorado each year, which consists mainly of complaining about skiing. Disney World, camping, and beach trips are also regular family events.  Jay and Mel enjoyed an adult vacation to Italy last year where they forgot to call the kids for a week!

 

The Bernsteins have two adorable goldendoodles, Maisel and Conner. The pups don’t have any skills or talents, but they have great personalities.  Their favorite food is socks. Maisel is disturbingly aggressive when it comes to demanding attention.  Conner, well, let’s just say no one’s holding their breath hoping he gets into Harvard.

 

Living on the lake is great, but it’s the folks that also call The Resort home that makes living here so special. In 2019, Jay deployed just weeks after they moved in. The support they received from neighbors who they had just met (and who are now dear and close friends) was incredible. For so many reasons, they are proud to call this place their home.