Here’s to dad, all three of them!

This year’s InMaricopa.com Father of the Year contest was an exciting one, with three dads emerging victorious after a weekend of voting.

Thirty one-year-old Bradley Kraay won the top prize – a new Weber Genesis Grill and an Orbit Lounge, valued at $1,150 courtesy of Maricopa Ace Hardware.

Nominated by his father, Kraay is the father of two girls, 6-year-old Xylia and Lyla, 3. Kraay is a director at Everest College and has traveled around the world. He is close to getting his MBA from Indiana University.

But his most important accomplishment, he said, is becoming a parent.

“It’s a really cool feeling,” Kraay said. “Everything that I get my hands into, being a dad to my girls is what I really care about.”

Kraay, currently in Beijing for a conference, said he plans to use his prize for hosting a barbecue party for his fellow graduates.

Seventy-five dads were nominated by readers. A selection committee of last year’s Father of the Year Grady Root, this year’s Mother of the Year Julianne Hoopes, this year’s second-place winner Ginger Barrett, Mike Richey, owner of Maricopa Ace Hardware, and Adam Saks, general manager of UltraStar Multi-tainment Center narrowed the group to 10 finalists. Then readers voted for the winners.

Rob Shanahan, 39, of Santa Rosa Springs came in second. Having grown up in Cape Cod, Mass., Shanahan joined the Marine Corps and served in Twentynine Palms, Calif. in the ‘90s.

Shanahan came to Arizona in 2006 and married his wife Lauria in 2007. Their identical twin daughters, Kenzie and Tyler, were born in October 2011.

“My wife told me when she nominated me, it wasn’t really that big of a deal actually,” Shanahan said. “It gradually got more serious as time progressed and it was so touching to see all of these people go out of their way for me.”

Recently, Shanahan was laid-off from his job and he and his wife decided it would be best if he became a stay-at-home dad. Lauria works from home a few days of the week and they make sure their children get as much interaction and love as they can get.

“(Being a stay-at-home dad) is crazy, it’s something I never thought I’d be doing, but now that I am in it, it’s an experience I’d never pass up either,” Shanahan said.

“I get to be there for my kids and that’s just awesome.”

The second-place prize is a Craftsman Quiet Glide tool box with a complete set of tools, valued at $600, which is perfect for Shanahan who said he has many home projects but limited equipment to complete them.

“I’m always running around screaming, ‘I can’t work with these tools,’ because I have this little bag of tools that never do the trick,” he said.

Forty-year-old David Vargas of Maricopa Meadows came in third.

Vargas was born in Tennessee, but grew up in California. He moved to Maricopa in 2006. He has three children: Caitlyn, 18, Tyler, 15, and 11-year-old Alexandra.

Vargas’s wife Carrie nominated her husband because he is “the best father I know.”

Vargas spends time teaching his son, who is taking classes online and helps to cook and clean as much as possible.

“There are so many things to being a father,” Vargas said. “You’ve got to be a teacher, a role model, a guide, a shoulder to cry on, and be the provider and protector of the family.

“There is so much that goes into it and it is so rewarding.”