“Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.” – Anthony J. D’Angelo
As long as we have been parents, we have valued experiences over things. We figured out very quickly that our kids were getting too much junk for Christmas. Piles and piles of toys that would typically be thrown away after a few months. After a few years of going through this process, we realized something needed to change. We decided that our kids needed more experiences rather than material things. When we lived in Kentucky, we were about 15 minutes away from the local zoo. One of the gifts we received one year was a membership to the zoo. This way, we could go as often as we wanted to for free. We had so many great experiences at that zoo. When we moved the Charlotte, the zoo was a little further away from the house. Instead we did memberships to the local theme park. The would often go in the afternoons during the summer to ride some rides and have fun.
Typically, when we plan our holidays, we focus more on what we can do together. We focus less on what we give. Last winter break, the family and I took a trip to Orlando, Florida. We spent our first day hanging out at Discovery Cove. Discovery Cove is a nature resort where you can spend the day with dolphins, flamingos, stingrays, and other amazing wildlife. The package deal with them also included a day pass to SeaWorld. We took advantage and spent our next day there. The park was crowded, but we got to see a lot of amazing wildlife. One of my favorite parts of the park was the penguin exhibit. We were pretty close to them, and we got a taste of what their environment is like. It was freezing at the exhibit. My son and I stayed because everyone else said it was too cold. We were the only ones who stayed for any amount of time.
Through Griffin's Lens 