Before having kids I was that person who wondered why parents take their babies to Disneyland or on extended road trips or trips around the world. Isn't it pointless? They won't remember any family adventures before at least the age of 2. I won't even mention what I thought of fussy babies on the plane. I was either too young or too broke to order wine from the drink cart, or I longingly envisioned my unused earplugs tucked away in the medicine cabinet at home.

Then we had our son, and before his first birthday we’ve taken several trips within the U.S., mostly to see family and friends. Each trip we took, each nap and bedtime we compromised to squeeze in one last adventure, and each stranger who smiled at his overtired moments–all was worth it.

My perspective changed a little more with each trip, as I caught him taking it all in: toes in the sand at Honeymoon Island State Park, sea-soaked eyelashes at the Ballard Locks, and that smile every time the wind took his breath away. He ran his little hands over the bark on a redwood tree, tasted kimchi and frozen yogurt, sucked ocean water off his hands, got his first bug bite in a hammock in the forest, and gazed at all kinds of new flowers.

I just realized we called his attention away from those flowers so he could look into the iPhone lens for a picture. Maybe we have something to learn from this kid.

Though he won’t recall these moments individually, I’m convinced that they mean something to him. Even if they just communicate love, security, adventure, family…now and in the future…each new thing left an imprint and laid in him a template that the rest of life will be filtered through.

Or something like that. Plus, kids under 2 fly free. That’s enough of a reason to make it work. In the tender words of Shia LaBeouf (who said it better than Nike): “Just do it.”