On the cover - West Fargo Fire Chief Dan Fuller, Local Hero - Fargo Police Sergeant Kevin Pallas, Having a Beer with Radio Host, Scott Hennen, Hunting with Bret Amundson and more in Fargo Moorhead's only men's magazine.
FATHERS | MR. FULL-TIME DAD
MOVING ON,
NOT LETTING GO
WRITTEN BY: BEN HANSON • PHOTOS BY: URBAN TOAD MEDIA
Almost ten years to the day after my wife, Emily, and I
moved into our first home together, we packed up all our
earthly possessions and moved south … approximately
30 blocks. There were four of us to move this time
around, including our son, Macklin, and our dog, Lucy.
After ten years of accumulation, and now being fully
moved into a home roughly twice the size, it's amazing
how much we crammed into that first home.
Beyond the physical stuff — which we brought with us, for
better or worse — the move provided a wonderful
excuse to get lost in nostalgia over all the
intangible stuff we also crammed in during
the past ten years. We created enough
memories, learned enough lessons
and experienced enough "firsts" to
write a small memoir … minus all
the heroics and achievements one
normally reads about in memoirs.
And so, the hardest part of the
move wasn't physical, although
I'll never again be a willing
participant in moving a piano.
For me, moving felt like
forever walking away from
the set and setting of my life
as a full-time stay-at-home dad
— arguably the greatest time of
my life.
I will never again be greeted by those
seven steps up from the front door to
the living room, where Mack learned to
climb stairs, or the seven steps down to
the basement, where he was often too
adorably afraid to go by himself. I will
never get to chase Mack in circles around the
wall that divided the kitchen from the living
room. I'll never sit under our flowering
front tree with him on a blanket like we
did every sunny day before he learned to
walk. I'll never walk in to wake him up in his
old bedroom, where I put together his crib
not once, but twice … and then a third time,
2 / THE GOOD LIFE / urbantoadmedia.com