I hate this picture. I really do. It was taken over a year ago, and this is the first time I have shown it to anyone. I hated taking it, and I have hated keeping it on my phone. But I love what it means to me. Let me explain. We are all about giving our kids experiences as gifts rather than tangible items. We usually give concert tickets, tickets to a major sporting event, or something like that, something we couldn’t typically afford to do for the entire family, something special for the birthday kid. Last year our oldest daughter, who was turning 14, talked all summer long about wishing we were taking a beach vacation. She went on and on about wanting to go to the beach. So when her late August birthday rolled around, I planned a trip, for just the two of us, to go to the beach for the weekend. I had no idea how she would react. Like most parenting decisions I make, there was quite a bit of self doubt. I knew it would be a quick trip there and back, and I d...