Getting lost and found at Dad 2.0

By the time you are reading this, hundreds of dads have reconvened at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington D.C. for the Annual Dad 2.0 summit. Every year this is a great way for Dad Bloggers from all over the country to get together and continue working to advance fatherhood. I know that sounds like an odd thing to say, but honesetly, after a weekend with these amazing dads, you feel ready to take on the world.

"Here I am" A weekend in San Diego with Dadbloggers, LEGO Batman and Andrew McCarthy.

Going to Dad 2.0 Summit is one of my favorite times of the year. I get to hang out with the fellow dads I talk to online throughout the year and I get to learn some new things for the blog. Trying to recap the Dad 2.0 Summit is pretty hard to do in one post, so I am just going to highlight some events that happened this year.

T-Shirt Thursday

Today's T-shirt Thursday comes to you from sunny San Diego. The fantastic folks at Fodada have supplied the shirts for this year's Dad 2.0 Summit and they are comfortable.  The back of the shirt reads "San Diego 2017" and with the long sleeves it will keep me warm on those cold Chicago nights.

Until next week, friends!

Lessons from Dad 2.0 Summit in Washington D.C.

By the time you read this I will already be home. Depending on the day I post this I might be doing laundry, working at one of my two jobs or just hanging out with my children. The Dad 2.0 summit would have been over and everything has returned back to normal. 

Don’t get me wrong I am happy with everything going back to normal. The weekend of the summit feels so rushed and busy that I feel better with the slowed down pace of my home life. I enjoy soaking in all the moments with my family at home. As much I as am happy to be home though, I am also sad that the Summit has ended too fast.

My experience at my first Dad 2.0

The main stage for Dad 2.0

Before I begin my recap of my experience at Dad 2.0, I will say that this will not be a play-by-play account.  I will not bore you with the minutiae of every second that I was there. Instead, I will tell you a tale that includes, friendship, magicians, robots and dust in the eyes.  Let's continue on, shall we?

"It's so Crazy, that it did work!" #Dads4Oren

As many of you know, Fandads.com​ is part of a huge community of dadbloggers.  We were amongst the first 30 blogs that were asked to be part of the group and we were: A. excited that someone knew who we were, B. excited to see where this would lead.  Since its beginning the group has now totaled over 1000 members.

Lessons learned from Dad 2.0.

I just returned from the chilly streets of San Francisco to the freezing streets of Chicago after attending the Dad 2.0 Summit and I feel a little saddened when I think about it.  You know, like on the last day of camp everyone promises to write to each other and be best friends forever. The last day of the summit was like that, but the only difference is most of us are already best friends when we meet there and we will always be connected thanks to the internet.

Now I am going to write a full post on my experience at the Dad 2.0 Summit, but this is the TL:DR version, which will just highlight a few takeaways from the trip.