A few weeks ago, we did something a little insane. We decided to take our kids (a three-year-old and two one-year-olds) to Hawaii – which meant a 4-hour drive to Boise (cheaper to fly out of), a 1.5-hour flight to Seattle, and a 5.5-hour flight to Oahu. Was it worth the two wild lap babies and waking up at 3:30 a.m. to catch our flights? Absolutely.

Some of our closest friends (from Justin’s childhood) live on the North Shore side of the Island and while we see them when they come back to Idaho, we decided it was time to travel to them and experience their life on the Island. This included visiting their farm – where Sage and their daughter lived their best adventure life. We ate guavas straight from the tree, gathered papaya to take back for breakfast, chewed on fresh sugarcane, and the all-time favorite – broke open a coconut, drank the water that came from it, and scraped out the meat.

Our week there was filled with the beach nearly every morning (Sage’s favorite), shaved ice (the boys favorite), phenomenal food, and more – we put our phones to the side (besides documenting the trip) and just watched as our children experienced this beautiful place and simple way of life. I only took out my camera twice on the trip – for family pictures and our day at the farm. It was perfect, it was simple and it was the reset we needed as a family. It wasn’t fully a vacation (we did have our kids with us) but it was a beautiful week of watching our children experience and grow outside of their comfort zone.

We cannot wait to return.