A Trip to Bond with Dad

Every year I take each of my kids on a separate trip alone with dad. My nine year old and I share the passion of baseball, so we go to spring training each year. We go to about 4 games each trip. We get to each game about 2 hours early to watch batting practice and get foul balls. I really enjoy watching my son manuever to gather autographs. This annual trip is special because we visit my dad, who also has the love of baseball in his DNA.

Last year, I took my daughter to the red carpet premier of the DVD release of Cinderella in NYC. This included a Cinderella Ball after the Disney premier. My daughter dressed up in a Cinderella gown. I think that she really felt like a Cinderella princess because many New Yorkers stopped to ask her if she was the real Cinderella. I will never forget that day as long as I live.

I older son loves to fish, so our last trip was a fishing trip. (I hate fishing.) We decided to go to beautiful Seattle to fish Silver Salmon on the Sound. We got a private boat and a captain. After 4 hours, we had 5 fish and lots of laughs. I was thankful that my son got the biggest fish. He was so proud about that that he bought a T-shirt to tell the world that his fish is bigger than his dad's fish. He needs wins.

This weekend my older son and I are in Chicago. His other love is cars. So we are at the 2007 Autoshow. I like cars more than to fish so I am happy. We listened to Michael Savage on the way up. He got his first dose of conservative politics. I was surprised how attentive my son was and that he did not want to change the channel for some rap music. He even commented that Michael Savage should run for President to protect this nation.

My wife is a stay at home wife and gets a lot of individual time with the kids. These trips allow me to bond each kid. I highly recommend it.