No one snapped footage of my daughter Ava's first home run. I was umpiring behind the plate and couldn't ethically take out my iPhone to capture that moment in the New Mexico desert, Axios' race and justice reporter Russell Contreras writes.

• ⚾ Why it matters: The home run doesn't exist in the cloud, but my mind recorded every detail. It will never be erased as long as I am me. That's the beauty of a memory created when we put the smartphone away.

I can replay it anytime: the hard slap past third base, a 10-year-old's dash around the bases while holding her helmet, her teammates sprinting from the dugout, our quick smiles at each other as she crossed the plate.

• Had I recorded it on my phone, we'd have watched it a few times that night. Then it would have disappeared into the maze of "important" moments in our digital archives that we infrequently revisit.

🖼️ The big picture: We're programmed to pull out our phones at crucial — often milestone — moments: weddings, piano recitals, kids' basketball games, award presentations, birthday serenades and graduations.

• We'll rarely rewatch them. And as we stare into a screen, we lose out on being present.
• We are missing opportunities to load up our minds with shared events and images that can't be deleted or repeated. Our brains have more space than we use — and don't charge a storage fee.

The test: I recently took a sabbatical and tried to put the phone down more.

• 🐕 I took walks in the desert mesa with my dog Chaco and watched sunsets across the Sandia Mountains, streaked watermelon red.
• 🎂 I watched my daughter Elena blow out birthday candles while announcing her last year in single digits. "My little girl years are almost gone," she declared.
• 🐍 I stared down a rattlesnake during a confrontation on a desert dirt road. "I know who sent you, but I'm not going with you right now," I said. The snake swirled away behind the juniper, and I stood there, alone.

Between the lines: My mind has a lot of space to fill and not much time.

• My family has a history of Alzheimer's, which came for my grandfather Carlos, and his siblings.
• I may have the gene, but I'm more worried I'll be left with the bad memories if I don't load up on the good soon.

✨ The bottom line: I want the best memories waiting for me at the end.

• I want to recall Ava's swing, her turn around second, the crowd screams and her smiling gaze at me right before she touches the plate.

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Over in Iceland, Axios Seattle reporter Christine Clarridge broke out her phone to snap watery wonders along the Golden Circle scenic loop.

• Above is the Gullfoss Waterfall; below is the Strokkur Geyser.

Christine also checked out Thingvellir National Park, where visitors can stand at the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.