March showed up loud, messy, beautiful, and full of motion — which honestly feels on brand for this year. I secured the first few stops of our road trip, picked our flight date (late June!), and found Neville a comfy temporary home while we’re transient (not forever, he’s still our boy). Things are happening, and they are happening fast!

The historic Kona Low storms hit the islands again and kept us home from school and work for a few days. Our side of the island had landslides, flooding, and wind damage, but nothing compared to the catastrophic loss on the North Shore. Homes, businesses, entire livelihoods gone. If you have the capacity to support our ‘ohana, you can find ways to help here: Kona Low Flood Relief Recovery.

We squeezed in a quick meet‑up with one of my best friends, Rachel, who was island‑hopping with her family. We’ve been friends since we joined the military in 2005, and I will always take any scrap of time I can get with her and her family.

And then — SPRING BREAK.

I decided to give Ivey her first real Spring Break adventure. Most years I work through it and she goes to her school’s camp (which is great, but she hates it). So we hopped over to the Big Island for a little “practice round” of our upcoming gap year. We put on our matching purple sweat suits, grabbed her digital camera, and we were off!

We stayed in the cutest little studio near Hilo — just big enough to feel like a tiny home, not a hotel. We cooked, we rested, we listened to Coqui frogs sing us to sleep. It felt like living, not visiting, and that alone made the whole trip worth it. I’m honestly so glad we went because it really filled my cup, and helped me fall back in love with the islands again. Oahu (our current island) is a LOT, but the Big Island brought me peace. I told Ivey, if we ever make it back to the islands to live, we are going to Big Island. Have a listen to the frogs that sang us to sleep every night!

🌺 Ziplining, Waterfalls, and Cats We Couldn’t Rescue

The first thing Ivey wanted to do was zipline. Botanical World Adventures took us over Hakalau Forest and Kama’e’e Falls, and it was as magical as it sounds. Ivey had to tandem for the first few lines, but after a few zips she trusted the guides, trusted her gear, and went solo — even accepted my challenge to go no‑hands! When I asked her favorite part, she said, “That I got to go by myself.” Same, kid. It was so fun to watch. Here she is crossing the suspension bridge.

We visited ‘Akaka Falls next, but the park was closed and the weather wasn’t ideal to walk in and explore. We parked on the roadside, got rained on, and fell in love with a colony of homeless cats instead. One was injured and Ivey desperately wanted to rescue it, but the follow‑through would’ve been more than we could take on. We sent love and hoped the Auntie feeding them could help.

🐄 Cows, Black Sand, and a Very Large Ice Cream

The next morning was the Krishna Cow Sanctuary — the thing we couldn’t stop talking about from the moment we saw the sign the day before. It took Ivey a minute to warm up to the situation (she didn’t want to sit on the ground), but once she did, she was in heaven. A cow literally chose us by walking over and lying down beside us. Later, a baby cow rested her giant head on Ivey’s lap until her legs went numb. She would’ve stayed forever if she could.

We found black sand (and green sand!) at Richardson Ocean Park, explored tide pools, and then visited Rainbow Falls — beautiful, but $10 per person for 5 minutes of viewing felt… steep.

Kaumana Caves, though? Free, accessible, dark, wet, and absolutely worth it. Ivey didn’t want to go at first, but she ended up loving it — even with water dripping on her.

We wrapped the day with ice cream at Makani’s Magic Pineapple Shack. Ivey got the Unicorn flavor (ube + dragonfruit) in a pineapple bowl the size of her torso. She couldn’t finish it, but she tried.

🌋 The Volcano That Was More My Dream Than Hers

Our last day was Volcano National Park — the whole reason I planned the trip to the Bid Island. And of course, Ivey wanted nothing to do with it. She was burnt out, and honestly, I know her limits. But I insisted. We made it to the viewing lanai, snapped a few pics, and she was done. The lava tubes were too crowded to park, so we grabbed our passport stamps, a Junior Ranger guide, and a pair of warm socks. Not the epic moment I imagined, but it turns out volcanoes and national parks are my thing, not hers. The lesson here: forced fun for one of us = no fun for both of us. We spent about 3 hours driving to, from, and looking for parking, and spent about 15 mins actually enjoying the park. Womp womp- I will plan better for the next “mom” activity 🙂 I had a vision of us hitting all of the National Parks on our journeys, but that dream may be postponed for a few years…

We ended the day at a laundromat, washing our matching sweatsuits. Ivey learned how to load, transfer, and fold laundry, made a friend on the steps, and genuinely enjoyed herself. She enjoyed that more than the volcano! It was the perfect low‑key ending to a very full week.

🌱 Things I Forgot About Traveling With Ivey and Was Quickly Reminded Of

• Ivey needs downtime/recovery time
• Multiple activities a day is too much to handle
• Don’t spend too long away from home base

🌱 Things I Learned and Will Carry Forward

• We think we know what food to buy from the grocery store… we do not
• I can be better at preparing for spontaneity
• Put the high‑priority things up front and recover the rest of the week
• Animals will always be a win, as long as there are more animals than people
• Nature activities are hit or miss — manage expectations

🌱 Areas to watch for growth

• Ivey is not a fan of parks, tours, or anything involving listening to strangers talk
• Food flexibility is still a work in progress

🌿 The Truest Preview of Our Gap Year

Looking back, the real preview of our gap year wasn’t the zip-line or the cows or the waterfalls. It was the quiet moments — sitting together in a little room that wasn’t ours yesterday and won’t be ours tomorrow, winding down or waking up slowly, calling a place “home” for now. Just being together, settling quickly, finding our rhythm. That made me excited for what’s ahead, and at peace with the decision I made.

There were plenty of moments of sadness this month — quiet acknowledgment of what we’re leaving behind. But there were also moments of excitement and deep calm. Both can exist at once.

If March taught me anything, it’s that our gap year won’t be about doing everything — it will be about learning what fills us up, what drains us, and how to choose joy and rest in equal measure. And even in the middle of uncertainty, there were flashes of peace that told me we’re exactly where we’re meant to be.