A Meltdown, A Few Miles, and Many Boxes of Kind Bars

Disclosure: I have partnered with Life of Dad and KIND for this promotion.

This is a busy world we live in. In my family, we are always running from one thing to another hardly ever slowing down enough to enjoy the journey together. I have an 8 year old, 5 year old, and a 1 1/2 year old so our lives are barely ever boring. My kids and I decided to spend the last two weeks trying to see what it would be like to spend more time enjoying this journey together and less time focused on the destination. 


To help accomplish this, we decided to join a cause started by Kind Snacks called #KindMiles Matter. For every mile we walked/biked/swam together as a family Kind Snacks would donate one box of bars to the charity or school of our choice. We told our kids that we
were going to use these two weeks of summer to help others and hopefully have some family fun together at the same time. Since we don't have bikes for our whole family, and by the time my kids swam a mile they would be in Jr. High, we chose to take walks together. 

Now, if you are going to walk as a family, you need to accept the fact up front that you will never break any land speed records. The picture below is a typical walk with my kids. It's not exactly the fastest route from point A to point B. We live about a mile from downtown so we planned that this would be our regular path during the #KindMilesMatter campaign. Day 1 arrived and we geared up with some of our own Kind Bars, and headed out. I chose the Strong & Kind bars. They are savory with 10g of protein and use whole almonds, seeds, and pea protein. Plus they are extremely tasty!

It only took about 1/4 of a mile before the first meltdown. In my child's defense it was about something extremely rare and valuable...a stick he found on the ground. So my wife took him home and the rest of us walked on undeterred. At the one mile mark we turned around and headed home. However, we did something on the way back that we never had done before. We stopped and climbed a tree. I had always thought that tree was one of the best climbing trees I had ever seen, but we never had the time. So we took the time. Families will never "have the time" to stop and enjoy the journey, so we as parents need to take that time back. This might have been the first but it wasn't the last time my kids made their way up into that tree.

I'd like to say we walked every day, but we didn't. Sometimes I had to work or it just became too late, but we did our best. Many times we jumped over hot lava, took out lasers, and defeated a number of pirates. 

One of my favorite memories was when we traveled to my brother's wedding on the coast. the morning of the wedding my daughter and I had an hour to kill so we just walked by the beach, and had conversations about life, the interests of an 8 year old, and the wedding. I wouldn't trade that hour with her for anything. 

When all was said and done my family ended up completing around ten miles together. That might not seem like much but when you consider that it was all of us together, I think those were some of the best miles we have ever traveled. I'm pretty excited that our local Tri Cities Food Bank will get the boxes of Kind Bars as well. I know they will go to families who need them. 

I am also thrilled that Kind Snacks has partnered with Target in their "Made to Matter - Handpicked by Target" program. This means Kind Snacks has been chosen by Target, along with brands such as Seventh Generation, Yes to Carrots, and Babyganics, because they make better-for-you and better-for-the-world products.

So the next time you find your family too focused on the destination, maybe you should stop, grab a snack, and look around for a tree to climb. It might just be the better than finishing your journey in record time.

To find out more about Kind Snacks, visit them on KindSnacks.com, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

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