What we learned is that when we can be open and honest, whatever we are going through seems to be not so bad.

These kids, amid the squabbles and selfies, helped me realize—we don’t do these things together because we get along all the time. We all get along because we do these things together.

For our kids in the stands, it taught them to cheer for that kid, to root for that kid, to support that kid. And more than anything, it taught them that family comes before all else.

During the hardest of times, we talked, we cried, we supported one another, and we figured things out.

I’m grateful that we gave ourselves permission to rediscover our dreams two years ago and the freedom to relentlessly pursue a life that embraced those dreams.

I am thankful for the opportunity to serve our community—to be a part of the place we call home. But I am most grateful just to have this TIME with our kids. Time to visit and time to dream with them.

The truth is, they grow up. And I hope they grow up to always go after their dreams.

We know well enough that the absolute best things in life are free. We are excited to soak in all of the best things that we can!

Of all of the things we have done, nothing comes close to the memories we have made.

There are some days that alter our life course, that change our trajectory, days that will forever hold a significance in our life.

When we finally started to dream again, we allowed ourselves to dream in every area of our lives—including what we wanted our marriage our to be.

The truth is, vacations and spending quality time together as a family are important. But coming home to a place that you’re excited to live and living a life that you don’t feel you need a vacation from is a dream come true!

This trip is different because we have let go. We have let go of planning “the perfect trip.” We have let go of making sure every minute is accounted for and, instead, letting every minute count. We have let go of planning fun things to do, and, instead, we are simply having fun.

We never dreaded a day, not even a Monday, when we were on vacation.


We wanted that life—a life we could live like we were on vacation.

We hope our kids learn to find their purpose, and then live it. We hope they learn to listen to their hearts. We hope they learn to take risks, to be authentic, and to live life on their terms.

I wanted to say yes so many times. I remember thinking we have the time to do some of the things we wanted to do but we didn’t have the money. Or we’d have the money but not the time. It just never seemed to work out to where we had both.

Little by little, this was the beginning of us thinking more about time and less about money.

TAKE VACATIONS!! You can always earn more money, but you can never earn back the time.

As we continued to work hard and reach our goals, we were praying like never before. For the first time in years, we not only prayed hard, but we prayed with each other.

Our absolute favorite part of this entire story is that we gave ourselves permission to dream.