Disconnected

Last night, Clayton, Madi, and I went to a park nearby to play and have a little picnic. Halfway there, we realized we didn't have our cell phones... either of them. About to turn the car around, Clayton stopped me. He said, "are we REALLY freaking out about not having our smartphones for a couple of hours?" Suddenly we seemed a tad ridiculous. We didn't turn around, we kept driving toward the park, and it was surprisingly refreshing.

We stayed at the park for three hours. We ate, fed the ducks in the lake, played on the "pay-gound" (playground in Madi language), and took a walk down a nearby trail. I didn't have my cell phone to constantly check, or worry about snapping a cute photo for Instagram. I enjoyed the moments we had and didn't worry about capturing them. The bad part is when you always live behind the camera, the pictures you take are your only memories. You didn't see that smile with your eyes, you just captured it with your phone. You only saw it through a camera lens or iPhone screen.

Madi had a lot of fun with us, she had our undivided attention for a matter of hours and she couldn't get enough of it. We went for a walk and picked flowers which she immediately said were "pitty" (pretty) and she had fun running through the trails with Daddy. Her cheeks were rosy and she was exhausted but she didn't want to leave. Finally we offered her some chocolate milk and mentioned going to see Nonna & Papaw and we got her to oblige.

There are no pictures to finish off this post. But, that's not what's important. We "disconnected" for an afternoon and had good- much needed- family time. We may do it more often, and I encourage you to too.