Dancing with Kenzie

Twelve-year-old Kenzie has mitochondrial disease, a condition that prevents her from walking, talking or caring for herself. To provide some semblance of normalcy, Kenzie’s parents

Shanice and Maurice—From the Street to the Stage!

SHANICE AND MAURICE
AUDITION

Maurice and Shanice Hayes

As the father of the best girl ever, I’m a sucker for Daddy and Daughter stories. So I love that Maurice Hayes and his daughter Shanice summoned the

One More Pitch: The Music Video!

My lil' bear cub and me

Yesterday was a happy, happy day! I had the wonderful and profoundly moving experience of showing my daughter, Erin, the music video for One More Pitch, a song I wrote to celebrate her childhood and the joy of our Daddy and Erin times together.

Click here to read about the history and meaning of One More Pitch. You’ll find the lyrics to One More Pitch at the bottom of this post.

I am forever indebted to my very good friend Jeffery Goodson for writing the music to go with my lyrics and for doing such a beautiful job of putting this video together. That’s Jeff with the guitar at the start of the video.

All the home movie footage and photos are

The $25 Plunge!

Umm, no, this isn't me. If this was me, I'd be plummeting down feet first while holding my nose

My daughter Erin had just finished sixth grade when I lost my job at a small investment management firm. Unemployment was stressful but the good part of it was that Erin and I spent many happy days at Shady Oak Beach that summer.

We would wade out to waist-deep water, where I would hold my nose, dive under the surface and lie face down on the sandy bottom. Erin would then step on my back and “Daddy surf,” never missing an opportunity to plant her foot on the back of my head and grind my face into the sand. I loved it!

From the beginning of the summer, Erin was determined to jump off the high diving board but kept on chickening out. I offered her $5 as a reward but she couldn’t muster the courage to do the deed. I upped it to $10, but she just couldn’t do it. Each time that she tried and failed I added another five bucks. Her bounty eventually swelled to $25, at which point I said that it would go no higher. Finally, on the last day of July, she took a deep breath and took the $25 plunge. Victory was sweet . . . and profitable!

Then, gulp, it was my turn. I had always been afraid of the water. More than once, I took swimming lessons as a kid but always flunked out. The thought of finding myself in water that was over my head panicked me. As an adult, I could manage to dogpaddle in deep water but was very uncomfortable doing so.

There Goes My Life

Kenny Chesney

Ever have one of those lives when all your plans go kablooey . . . only to find that things worked out better than you ever could have imagined? 

I love this video by Kenny Chesney. It’s pretty much a description of my life, and perfectly captures the joy of fatherhood. Get ready

A Fond Farewell to Wisconsin Dells

Erin methodically cleaned my clock in miniature golf

It was Erin’s hole-in-one on the 16th hole that erased all hope. When she followed that up with a two on the 17th hole, I was officially toast. As she calmly sank her last putt to cinch a three-stroke victory, I dropped to my knees, stretched out my arms and humbly and repeatedly bowed at her feet in homage to the newly crowned queen of miniature golf. Grinning and turning beet red, she stage-whispered, “Okay, okay, that’s enough, Dad!”

And so began our farewell tour in Wisconsin Dells on a Sunday evening in August 2001. We had first vacationed there when Erin was eleven and had immediately fallen in love with the town, which she had aptly described as “one big amusement park.” Sure, it was block after block of pure schlock, but to a sixth-grader it was Kid Heaven. With a fudge shop and a miniature golf course on every corner, every day was Saturday in the Dells!