When we flew to Hawaii in 2022, it wasn’t because we had planned some grand escape.

It was a work trip. (Yes — Hawaii. We know.)

We decided to add a few days to the front end — nothing extravagant, just time. Time to breathe before the conference began.

If we’re honest, we also saw it as something else.

A belated honeymoon.

When we said “I do” in 2018, we never really paused. Life kept moving, and so did we. We moved straight into the work of blending a family — and all the beauty and difficulty that came with it.

By the time Hawaii came around, we were four years into that season. Still in it. Still navigating the tension of building something new while holding everything else together.

Blending a family sounds beautiful in theory. In reality, it can be messy and exhausting. Between work responsibilities and trying to steady a home that felt stretched thin — holding boundaries where they were needed while protecting the rest of the family from the fallout — we were running on fumes.

We didn’t know just how much we needed to step away.

Hawaii didn’t fix everything.

But it did something just as important.

It gave us space.

Space to reconnect.
Space to laugh again.
Space to remember that we were on the same team.
Space to get our feet back underneath us.

On the flight home, we both said the same thing:

“We needed that.”

Not because it was glamorous.
Not because it was tropical.

But because it was the first time since our wedding that we had intentionally stepped away just for us.

We had taken vacations before — camping trips, lake days, family memories we wouldn’t trade for anything. But those were parenting in a different location.

This was different.

This was renewal.

And somewhere over the Pacific, we realized something else:

If we didn’t start protecting time like this, life would gladly consume it.

So when we got home, we booked the next trip.

Not because we had money to burn.
Not because we were chasing destinations.

But because we had seen what happens when you don’t step away.

Hawaii woke us up.

It didn’t change our responsibilities.
It changed how we carry them.

And we’ve been living differently ever since.

Adventure, on Purpose.