How Would You Spend $500 on Valentine’s Day?

This is an easy question for me. If I had an extra $500 to spend on my husband I’d buy him a new Nikon camera lens. I know a lot of folks might think that doesn’t sound very romantic.

I know everyone is expecting me to blog about taking an extravagant trip where we’ll ride horseback across a beach and spend our evening eating chocolate covered strawberries and toasting with champagne. While all of that does sound unbelievably lovely, and I certainly wouldn’t turn it down if anyone offered it to me, I don’t think anything would make my husband happier than a new lens for his camera.

Over the years my husband has worked as a semi-professional photographer taking pictures of local sports teams in and around Washington, DC. He loves capturing the ball in mid-air, the personal foul that went unnoticed and the game winning shot of an underdog team against one that was nationally ranked.

But more than anything else he loves capturing the simple every day moments of our family spending time together. While some folks only pull out the camera for major holidays and birthdays my husband has managed to create a visual journal of our lives over the last fifteen years. He’s snapped photos of us doing all sorts of things like barbecuing in the backyard, picking veggies from our box garden, cooking dinner in our tiny kitchen, boogie boarding in the ocean and playing in the snow.

Last fall he was able to capture the most amazing moment in our lives. The birth of our son. It’s absolutely true what they say, if I loved my husband before my son was born, somehow my heart opened even wider because now I love him more than ever.

Our lives have taken on a whole new meaning now that our son has arrived and we want to capture every special moment of his life. Some of my favorite photos are the ones my husband took leaving the hospital. I cried when we left because I couldn’t believe how fortunate we were to take home a beautiful, healthy baby boy. My husband caught that moment on camera and we now have an incredible photo of me holding our newborn son as a small tear runs down my cheek.

As soon as we arrived home we began taking pictures of all of those pivotal moments that make up our young son’s life. My husband takes photos of him sleeping in his crib, taking his baths, opening his fingers and of course cooing and smiling. Every moment feels so special and unique.

I’ve never seen my husband as excited as he was the first time we took our son to the beach. This December we bundled him and ourselves in blankets and coats and laid out a towel on the sand. It was a pretty cold day, but we felt the warmth of the sun and placed sand on our two month old’s hand for the very first time.

It’s amazing how a moment in time can feel so magical. My husband has always loved the ocean. He surfed and windsurfed for years and I could see in that moment his desire to share his love of that deep blue water with his son.

As always he brought his camera along and captured that moment forever. My son, being only two months old, will certainly not remember that day, but with photos in hand we can not only reminisce about that moment but also share it with him when he gets older.

A new camera lens will ensure that we continue to capture moments like these indefinitely.

This is my entry for the Spoil My Sweetie Contest hosted by Ultimate Coupons. Enter to win up to $500 in gift cards.

2 thoughts on “How Would You Spend $500 on Valentine’s Day?”

  1. I would love to buy my wife more jewelry. When we started dating I used to buy her alot of jewelry. We got married and had 2 children pretty quickly and she hasnt worked since because she has been home with the lil kiddies. Money has been tight and I would love for one day to get back to buying her jewerly. I loved seeing her face when I would give it to her…Great post!!

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