Nothing gets my family moving quite like music. I play music to get our kids up in the morning, dancing in the afternoon and motivated to finish the bedtime routine at the end of the day. Great music makes ordinary tasks so much more fun.

In the past, I’ve mostly used my phone to play music around the house and in the backyard. But now that I have an Altec Lansing SoundBucket XL Waterproof Bluetooth Portable Speaker, I realize how unsuited my phone was for the job.

Whether we are dancing in the living room, swimming at the pool or playing in the backyard, the SoundBucket takes the experience to another level. The music enveloping us now is so much more clear, crisp, strong and resonant.

The SoundBucket plays our favorite songs straight from any Bluetooth device while pumping an amazing sound through its 50 watt RMS speaker. My kids also enjoy the glowing LED and strobe lights. With Just Ask, I can also receive answers, updates and notifications via Siri or Google Voice Assistant through Bluetooth. And with up to 20 hours of battery life and a built-in QI wireless smartphone charger, my speaker and devices can stay powered on throughout the night.

If music gets you moving, the Altec Lansing SoundBucket XL Waterproof Bluetooth Portable Speaker will help get you moving however and wherever you want to go.

To learn more, check out the SoundBucket on bestbuy.com.

Disclaimer:  The reviewer (me) has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free. 

Most people think dad jokes are the lowest form of comedy. Dictionary.com even says that a dad joke is, “a corny and generally unfunny joke reminiscent of the types of remarks made by middle-aged or elderly fathers to their children.”

Burn.

But most people, including the editors of Dictionary.com, are wrong. Dad jokes are more than corny jokes and shouldn’t be judged by their punchlines alone.

When does a joke become a dad joke? When it becomes apparent.

You might not remember it, but you probably laughed the first time you heard your dad say, “Hi Hungry, I’m Dad.” By the tenth time you heard the joke, you probably stared at your dad. And by the 100^th time you heard the joke, you probably cringed. It happens.Dad jokes are repeated so many times that they generally aren’t funny to people older than four years old. But if you repeated the best jokes by Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Chappelle or Ellen DeGeneres again and again, they would become corny too.Great jokes have a surprise twist or comment on a specific moment in time. But dad jokes don’t do that. They can’t because they’ve been repeated for generations. And that’s what make dad jokes so special.

Dad jokes are more than jokes. They are family heirlooms, passed down from one generation to the next. Your great-grandmother’s piece of antique furniture may be a bit ugly and your great-grandfather’s pocket watch might not be practical anymore, but you still love them when they are passed down to you. Dad jokes deserve the same type of love.An ugly piece of furniture might be just what you need when you get your first apartment and can’t afford anything else. Likewise, when men begin the dad phase of life, dad jokes are a starter kit for making kids laugh. They may not be funny when your kid’s sense of humor becomes sophisticated, but there is a sweet spot when the jokes are just right.

So the next time you hear a dad joke, don’t cringe. Appreciate it like you do that strange-smelling, yellow piece of furniture from your grandmother’s house that gave you something helpful to put in your first apartment.

Your Turn to Share A Dad Joke and Possibly Win Prizes

It’s no surprise the folks at Laffy Taffy who create those delicious taffy bars wrapped in jokes absolutely love dad jokes. And in honor of dad’s favorite holiday this June – Father’s Day – Laffy Taffy has teamed up with Parents.com to celebrate dads and their groan-tastic jokes. And for that they are turning to you for help. Through June 21, send in your favorite dad jokes for a chance to win one of five Amazon prize packs valued at up to $2,000. Laffy Taffy will feature the best quips on upcoming packaging, providing the ultimate in Father’s Day bragging rights! A winner will be announced shortly.

Learn more about the contest here!

Thanks to Laffy Taffy for sponsoring this post!

This post is sponsored by Georgia-Pacific; however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

As a parent of three kids, I have changed thousands of diapers over the years. It’s a tedious task, but I can’t deny how much better parents today have it than parents decades ago who didn’t have absorbent diapers to soak up baby messes. It was with this in mind that I visited Georgia-Pacific’s Foley Cellulose Mill: one of the primary locations we have to thank for making the absorbent material found in diapers: cellulose.

What the cellulose is cellulose?

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, cellulose comprises about 33 percent of all vegetable matter (90 percent of cotton and 50 percent of wood are cellulose) and is the most abundant of all naturally occurring organic compounds. In short, it is the basic structural component of plant cell walls.

The Georgia-Pacific Foley Cellulose Mill, which is only an hour from my house in North Florida, is a major producer of cellulose fibers derived from slash pine trees. These cellulose fibers are used in more than just diapers too. They are in everyday things like clothing, food products, tires, shampoo, filters, and towels. The fluff pulp Georgia-Pacific makes from cellulose is ideal for disposable diapers and baby wipes because it has tremendous absorbency.

But that’s not all. Cellulose also makes dairy products smoother and creamier. I bet you never realized something in your baby’s diaper was also in your dairy products. Yum, right?

Who is Georgia-Pacific and what makes them so special?

Georgia-Pacific operates nearly 200 facilities, mostly in the United States, and employs 35,000 people. Sixty-five percent of U.S. households have consumer products made by the 91-year-old company. Familiar household brands owned by Georgia-Pacific include Quilted Northern®, Angel Soft®, Brawny®, Dixie®, Sparkle®, Mardi Gras®, Vanity Fair® and STAINMASTER™ cleaning products.

The Georgia-Pacific Foley Cellulose Mill is the largest employer in Taylor County, Florida with 600 employees. Its estimated impact to the local economy is more than $230 million per year. Recognizing the importance of giving back to the community and being a good neighbor, the mill donates more than $100,000 annually to charities and schools including the Tallahassee Museum, Boys and Girls Club, Habitat for Humanity and Red Cross. The mill and its employees also contribute over $100,000 to the local United Way campaign annually. Impressive.

Operating Like a Good Parent

On my tour of the Georgia-Pacific Foley Cellulose Mill, it occurred to me that the mill operates like a good parent. It’s running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It has to manage hundreds of different tasks at the same time. And it takes safety very seriously, constantly reminding everyone to be careful. I could use a couple of these signs in my house:

     

Thinking of the Future

Another way the Georgia-Pacific team acts like a good parent is how they think about future generations and sustainability. They are very energy-wise. By using environmentally conscious production practices, they maximize the use of renewable raw materials. Georgia-Pacific uses every part of a tree and transforms wood waste into energy for their mills (called woody biomass). The Georgia-Pacific Foley Cellulose Mill generates 85 percent of its total energy needs from renewable biomass.

Black Water Keep on Rollin’

After our tour, we went on a boat ride down the nearby Fenholloway River, a black water stream used by the mill. Since that time, I haven’t been able to get the song Black Water by the Doobie Brothers out of my head.

 

The Georgia-Pacific Foley Cellulose Mill has invested $250 million to improve the water quality of the river. The effort is called the Fenholloway Water Quality Project. You can learn all about their environmental restoration efforts here.

What’s in Your Backyard?

I had driven through Perry, Florida, where the Georgia-Pacific Foley Cellulose Mill is located, many times without ever stopping to see the mill. Now that I’ve had the chance to visit, meet the mill’s great employees and learn about how it’s helping the community and surrounding areas like mine, I feel like I know my neighbors even better. And it’s good to know how much they care about their neighbors, including the wildlife.

If you have a large business near you, I encourage you to visit them and ask how they are helping your community. Maybe you’ll even learn a fun fact like I did about how cellulose is used in food and diapers. I know I’ll be sharing that one at the next cookout if anybody complains about my cooking.

 

This post is sponsored by BabbleBoxx.com.

Shopping for a dad isn’t easy. As a dad myself, I’m aware I don’t do my family or friends any favors. I rarely mention anything I would like for Christmas. It’s not that I don’t want anything. Rather, I just don’t take time to think about it because I’m so focused on what to get my wife and kids. Also, if there was something I really needed, I would just buy it instead of waiting for Christmas.

Dads may be bad at making Christmas wish lists, but that doesn’t mean you can cross them off your shopping list. There are great options available for dads. You can be sensible and get something they need. Or, you can be fun and get something they want. The best-case scenario is it’s both. Here are some options to make that possible:

AfterShokz Trekz Air

Listen up. Whether dads are going to work, working out or doing work around the house, they are always on the go. For the music or podcast lover, having a reliable pair of headsets makes being on the go much more entertaining. That being the case, a great gift idea is a pair of AfterShokz Trekz Air.

Trekz Air are inspired by elite athletes motivated by music. They are the lightest and most organically designed open ear headphones to date and have the next generation of bone conduction technology. As part of the #GiveGoodVibes campaign, with every order of Trekz Air placed through aftershokz.com from November 23 to November 26, you’ll also receive an unboxed item of Trekz Titanium Slate Gray (while supplies last) to gift.

Learn more about AfterShokz Trekz Air here.

Beau Brummell: Charcoal Facial Mask

Help the dad in your life look and feel good. The Beau Brummell: Charcoal Facial Mask is great for removing excess oil and dirt from your skin’s surface and deep within pores. The face mask for men also tightens the skin and minimizes the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, although you probably don’t want to mention anything about your dad’s wrinkles.

Right now, you can get 15% off your total purchase at beaubrummellformen.com by using the coupon code: BEAU15BRUMMELL. Offer valid through January 31st, 2019 at 11:59 pm EST.

Learn more about the Beau Brummell: Charcoal Facial Mask here.

Dr. Scholl’s NIKOLA Sneaker

The Dr. Scholl’s NIKOLA Sneaker is a sneaky good gift. The shoe features Dr. Scholl’s premium materials with glove-like softness. Translucent soles and marble-print accents are standout details. It’s also worth noting the quilted heel counter, copper-infused lining, anti-microbial sock and deconstructed raw-edge leather upper.

Right now, there’s a special offer if you use the promo code: Babblebox20FS. It will get you 20% off + Free Shipping (*Exclusions apply. May not be combined with other offers. Not valid on previous purchases. Free ground shipping applied automatically during checkout and is not valid in Alaska or Hawaii. Promo code and free shipping expires 11:59 p.m. CT November 30, 2018.)

Learn more about the Dr. Scholl’s NIKOLA Sneaker here.

ZENNI Glasses

You’ve got to see this. Zenni believes everyone should have access to high-quality, affordable eyewear, and that means dads too. Best of all, with prices starting at $6.95 for single-vision prescription glasses, you don’t have to limit gift-buying to just one pair.

Zenni offers a variety of styles of prescription glasses and sunglasses to make sure your dad’s eyewear fashion fits their personality. In particular, Blokz blue blockers are blue-light blocking lenses designed for all-day wear and protection from blue light. They can be worn like regular glasses to protect your eyes from harmful blue light emitted from any digital device, as well as artificial fluorescent and LED light exposure.

Learn more about ZENNI Glasses here.

Ties.com

Perhaps the most classic gift for a dad is a tie. Ties.com was founded to make finding high-quality, wallet-friendly menswear easy. I have the Charcoal Seagoville Tie, which instantly adds a preppy touch to your look with its diagonal black and white stripes contrasted against a charcoal background. From now until December 31, 2018, you can also get 15% off at Ties.com by using the discount code TIESXBB.

Learn more about Ties.com here.

**Thanks to Hanes for sponsoring this post.**

When my kids were toddlers, if you asked them what city, state or country they were from, they would have answered Florida to all three questions. Right or wrong, it was a cute answer because they obviously didn’t understand the difference between cities, states and countries. Florida was more of a state of mind than one of the 50 states in the U.S.

If you ask me where I’m from, I’m not much better at answering the question than a toddler. It’s certainly much less cute when I answer. I’ve moved around so much that I don’t know if I’m supposed to say where I was born, where I currently live or where I’ve lived the longest.

The truth is that the best answer I can give is similar to a toddler’s answer. Since I’m from many different places, I’m from more of a state of mind than a state on a map. It’s like the saying, ‘home is where the heart is.’ My heart is in different places simultaneously. That’s just not easy to explain during small talk at a party.

I haven’t lived in Tennessee since I was in first grade, but it’s the place that resonates the strongest as home in my ‘state of mind.’ I was born there and I’ve visited cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents there nearly every year since my family moved away.

When I return to Tennessee, there are always new neighborhoods, stores and road construction projects. But the protected parks stay the same, just as I remember them as a child. It’s why I like to go back to the parks and see the world not only as I saw it as a child, but as generations of families before ours saw the world. It connects me to my roots somehow.

The sustained beauty of Tennessee is best experienced in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. So last week, that’s where I took my kids from “Florida” to see, touch, hear and smell, but thankfully not taste, the place of their roots.

When you visit the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, it’s always tricky to know what to wear. The weather fluctuates from morning to night and it gets much cooler at the top of the mountains. Thankfully, Hanes dressed my family in comfortable clothes for the trip, from Nano T® V-Neck T-Shirts to colorful Nano-T® T-Shirts and Comfortblend® EcoSmart® Full-Zip Hoodies for the kids, and a graphic tee from their new apparel collection in partnership with the National Park Foundation for me. Luckily, nobody fell in a stream, so we didn’t need to change.

The one time I was tempted to add more clothing was when we got out of our minivan to start our climb to the top of Clingmans Dome, which is the highest point in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the highest point in Tennessee, and the third highest mountain east of the Mississippi. The air was very cool, even downright cold for a midsummer day, but it would quickly be appreciated. The light 100% cotton Hanes t-shirt was all the comfort I needed once we got started.

When we arrived at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, we stopped at the Visitor’s Center to ask which sites we absolutely needed to see. Clingmans Dome was at the top of the park ranger’s list, as I thought it would be. But she warned me, it’s a steep climb to the top. I told her I brought a stroller for our four-year-old, and she just laughed. They didn’t ban strollers from the path, but they strongly recommended against them. An hour later I would find out why.

 

When our family started the climb, people walking down the mountain laughed at me in the same way the park ranger did. They knew I was going to have a tough push to the top, because it’s already a hard walk without a stroller. Thank goodness the summer weather at the top of the mountain was cool or I would have had a stream of sweat running down me with a stronger current than some of the streams in the park.

After a few stops to sit down and catch our breath, we finally made it to the top. Victory! Perhaps the most amazing part was the kids didn’t complain on the way up. Granted, the youngest one was sitting comfortably in a stroller. But usually at least one of the kids finds something to complain about.

I think the beauty of the mountains was more than they expected. Every step we took was a step closer to the clouds. And when we reached the top, we were in the clouds. The visibility wasn’t great if you wanted to see long distances, but our kids were enjoying what was right in front of them.  I think they thought it was even more awesome that we were walking in the clouds.

When somebody asks my kids now where they are from, they can tell you our exact address, at least the oldest two kids can. Our four-year-old would be a mailman’s worst nightmare. But after our experience in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, I know they’ll always share another home with me that can’t be placed on a map. And that’s because it’s in their hearts and literally in the clouds.

Someday, I hope my kids will take their kids to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, as well as other national parks. It’s comforting to know that because the parks are protected, they will always be just as beautiful as the first time they saw them, I saw them or even early American frontiersmen and the Native Americans before them saw the land.

Thanks to Hanes for sponsoring this post. It’s so cool that the National Park Foundation and Hanesbrands are partnering to inspire people from all backgrounds to connect with, celebrate, and support America’s national parks and community-based programs. As one of the newest National Park Foundation partners of the Find Your Park/Encuentra Tu Parque movement, Hanesbrands is helping to protect America’s national parks. Learn more about the partnership here.