Past birthday celebrations

Feb. 1, 2013

With yesterday (Feb. 23, 2014) being your birthday, here are some photos from your past birthdays:
>>2014 (7 years old)
>>2013 (6 years old)
>>2012 (5 years old)
>>2011 (4 years old)
>>2010 (3 years old)
>>2009 (2 years old)
>>2008 (1 year old)

Four years ago today: Saddleback Butte SP

Feb. 15, 2010

Four years ago today we hiked Saddleback Butte State Park in the Antelope Valley, California! The park was about 15 miles east of our house.

The butte has a large number of Joshua trees that sit on the desert floor beneath a large rocky hill. We hiked to the top of a smaller butte/rocky hill at the park's norhwest corner and then through the Joshue Tree forest below it.

The hike was quite brief in terms of mileage - only about 0.75 to 1 mile long, but you were at the point in your life in which you wanted to walk the trails rather than be taken in the child carrier, and that was about all the distance you could handle!

I also remember the day being fairly warm, in the high 60s.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our adventure!

Four years ago: Aboard the Queen Mary!

Queen Mary sun deck, Feb. 14, 2010

Four years ago today we toured the Queen Mary and attended the Scottish festival in Long Beach, Calif.!

After the long drive there, we enjoyed lunch aboard a sit-down restaurant on the former ocean liner. Some of the parts of the ship we toured were the engine room, the officer's quarters, and the bridge, the latter two of which you treated as a playground!

At the festival, we listened to bag pipes and then went back inside the ocean liner to look at the vendor's displays, which included some swords. I remember that I forgot to bring my camera with me, so I bought a disposable one at the Queen Mary gift store!

Here's a bunch of photos from our adventure!

Four years ago: Hiking Ripley State Park

Feb. 12, 2010

Four years ago today we hiked the Ripley Desert Woodland State Park - one of the last virgin stands of Joshua trees in the Antelope Valley, which is where our homes in Lancaster and Palmdale, California were located.

The park was located way out in the desert, about 15 miles from our house. It was very easy to get to but had no facilities to speak of.

You most enjoyed the numbered markers posted along the trail! The numbers corresponded with a brochure that told about Joshua trees and the local ecosystem. You had great fun searching them out and making sure you got the next number in the sequence!

Here's a bunch of photos from our adventure!

Four years ago today: In Disneyland!

Feb. 7, 2010

Four years today, we went to Disneyland! The rain had been horrible on Friday (Feb. 5, 2010) when we went there, so we spent Saturday (Feb. 6, 2010) in Palm Springs. The rain was only slightly better on Saturday, though, and had let up a little (but not much) on Sunday (Feb. 7, 2010), so after packing up the truck, we went back to Disneyland!

To keep out of the rain and cold, I shuffled up our usual activities. We started the morning with a character breakfast at the Plaza Inn just off of Main Street USA. You got to me Tigger, Goofy's son, and Chip and Dale.

Later we did a variety of rides in Fantasyland. we drove back to Lancaster that evening.

Here's a whole bunch of photos from our adventure!

Four years ago today: Palm Springs, Baby!

Feb. 6, 2010, Palm Springs Air Museum

Four years ago today, we went to the air museum in Palm Springs, Calif.! The weather was extremely wet and cold, and I didn't want us to suffer through it again at Disneyland, like we did the day before. So I came up with the bright idea of driving from Pomona (where we were staying) to Palm Springs, where I thought its separation from the L.A. basin would make the weather there fairly nice (at least that was my experience inthe past when I lived in Palm Springs!).

The weather was warmer in Palm Springs - but ran still fell, though it was a little lighter.

We started the day having lunch at Ruby's Diner in downtown Palm Springs. Then we spent a couple of hours at the air museum. We both were getting a little tired and had a long drive back, so we drove on the I-10 into the L.A. metro area, stopping at Toys R Us in Ontario, where we bought a toy (Though I can't seem to remember what it was - I think it was a tree house explorer kit with animals) and then went back to the hotel.

Here are a bunch of pictures from our time at the air museum!

Four years ago today: At Disneyland!

Feb. 5, 2010

Four years ago today, we were at Disneyland! I remember the weather being very rainy, which was a mixed blessing: We were able to get on lots of rides as very few people visited the park, but it also meant we had to fight the dampness!

Because of the rain and cold, I altered our usual itinerary and the kinds of rides we we went on. We began the day with a character breakfast at the Storybook Cafe in the Californian hotel off of Downtown Disney. You had a lot of fun meeting the Disney gorillas, chipmunks and bears!

You were a little scared, though, when we went over to the Jedi Academy. You had to participate in your first academy, and with the rain they had a character meet-and-greet. You got to meet Darth Vader (who you found frightening) but then lightened up when we got to the jedi, who treated you a like a little padawan. When they asked you who your favorite jedi was, you told them "Luke Skywalker," and they were very impressed!

Here are a bunch of photos from our adventure!

Four years ago today: Mountain snow II

The view from where we went sledding.

Four years ago today we went back to the mountains to enjoy an afternoon in the snow!

The afternoon before (Jan. 23, 2010), we drove up into the San Gabriels to explore what was up there. I was so excited to find a winter wonderland that on the way back we stopped off at a sporting goods store and picked up a sled with rope and some other sundries for cold weather fun.

The following morning, we drove back up into the mountains. We went sledding down a very small hillside and tossed snowballs at one another!

Here's a couple of photos from our adventure together!

Remember going to the snowy mountains?

Dec. 28, 2010

Three years ago today, we drove up into the back range of the San Gabriel Mountains and enjoyed some snow!

While temperatures on the desert floor were comfortable in the 40s and 50s (At the time, we lived in the green house in Lancaster, Calif.), a mile up on the mountain tops, snow fell rather than rain. So when the weather cleared up there, we drove up to find several feet of snow, blue skies, and temps in the 20s!

I had bought a blue sled for us, and we went sliding down the Pacific Crest trail near Big Pine, Calif. What is funny is we went hiking there just a few months before!

Here are some photos from our adventure!

Photos from Christmases past

Merry Christmas, Kieran! I am looking forward to spending the day with you and making great memories that will last the rest of our lives!

Here are pictures from our previous Christmases together:
>>2012
>>2011
>>2010
>>2009
>>2008
>>2007

Dragon Happy Meal toys

Do you remember all of your plastic dragon toys? They were picked up at McDonalds in Happy Meals, distributed during the movie "How to Train Your Dragon" in April 2010.

We had most of them - there were a couple that for whatever reason we never got - and in a few cases (especially Night Fury and R.D.) we had multiples of them! We seemed to use the dragons in quite a lot of our play. Most often they were part of our knights and castle play, but sometimes they were bad guys in our adventures with Star Wars or superhero action figures.

I thought of the dragon toys because a sequel to the movie is coming out next summer. I wonder if Mcdonalds will release another set of them for us to collect?

Remember hiking Piute Butte?

Three years ago today we hiked Piute Butte east of Lancaster, Calif.! It was the site of ancient Indian villages and the Antelope Valley Indian Museum.

We began with a hike around the grounds through some interesting rock formations. You really liked the loop because there were numbered markers identifying key sights, and you liked finding the next number! The picture at right is of you showing disbelief because somehow you'd missed marker No. 8!

Afterward, we went into the museum, which was this neat building literally built over rock on the side of the butte. You enjoyed looking at all of the pottery and Indian artifacts.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our adventure!

Remember our hike in Nightmare Gulch?

Three years today we hiked Nightmare Gulch!

The canyon is deep in Red Rock Canyon State Park and absolutely otherwordly. Walls of volcanic ash rise up to 20 stories above the canyon floor and virtually no plants grow there.

You walked part of the way, but we went quite deep into the canyon, so I carried you on out in the child carrier. You had a lot of fun playing with the few mud puddles we found along the way!

Here's a whole bunch pictures from our adventure!

Remember your Thomas the Train PJs?

Do you remember your Thomas the Train PJs? You had two sets of them - one red and the other blue - that you absolutley loved to wear!

The PJs certainly must have been comfortable and warm; the material had an almost felt-like feel. But I think you really liked to wear them because you loved Thomas the Train!

We had tons of Thomas the Train toys and Thomas the Trian DVDs. We went through a period when you were two or three years old of when treated to a toy you always wanted a Thomas the Train engine or car!

Above is a picture of you wearing the red PJ set on Christmas morning 2010!

Going to your first concert - 'The Beatles'!

Three years ago tonight you went to your first music concert - by a Beatles tribute band at the park in Palmdale, Calif.!

You always loved the Beatles (One of the many, many loves we share!), so going to the concert was a no-brainer.

The first half-hour was spent waiting for them to come on stage and goofing around with one another. Then they came on, and you tried to guess the song titles (You were fairly accurate, by the way!).

We left at intermission, after they'd played the Beatles hits through about 1965/66. By that time, it was getting way past your bedtime, and you were about to fall asleep in my arms!

Here are some photos from the concert!

Recall our hike along Lake Piru?

Watching a bug cross the road near Lake Piru,
Calif., on April 28, 2010.

Three years ago today we took a hike along Lake Piru, a reservoir near Santa Clarita, Calif. The water is held in a canyon, so the mountains rise straight out of the water in a really cool effect!

For me, the highlight of the hike was seeing a condor fly overhead. We spotted one searching for food near the lake; even at 500 feet above us, its wings dwarfed those of the raven that sat on the road just 20 feet away.

For you, though, the highlight was watching this huge bug cross the road in front of us (see picture at above right)! You must have spent close to a half-hour following it and were so disappointed when it finally disappeared into the grass!

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our adventure!

Hiking the Waterfall Trail

Three years ago today we hiked to a waterfall on the Waterfall Trail in Placerita Canyon near Santa Clarita, Calif.

I was so very impressed by you - you walked the entire way to the waterfalls and back, which was about two miles! For the previous year or so, I'd mainly carried you on my back in a child carrier during our hikes. But you were having lots of fun exploring and didn't mind walking at all!

We had tried to reach the waterfall twice before but were stopped first by rain and then by me making the mistake of taking the long route, which was too far your little legs. But this time we took the "best" route.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our hike! The picture at above left is of you hiking down the trail alongside Placerita Creek.

Remember hiking the poppy reserve?

Three years today, we hiked the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve! The poppy is California's state flower, and at one time fields of it covered whole swaths of the state. But as the state become more populous and more houses and businesses and farms were placed on the land, the poppy fields began to vanish. One place where a large field was preserved was west of where we lived in Lancaster.

In late March and early April of every year, the poppies bloom, turning the landscape orange with blossoms. It's an awesome sight, and I always tried to take you there to enjoy it.

You were just a little over over 3 years old when we took this hike! And yes, there was a visitor center at the park, where I'm certain you got a little something!

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our hike!

Remembering Easters past

 You ate the ears off your chocolate
bunny first at Easter 2010!

Happy Easter, Kieran! I hope you are enjoying the day. Today I've included some pictures of past Easters we've spent together.

I remember our first Easter very well. It was in 2007, and we were living in Crescent City, Calif., where I was the newspaper's managing editor. You were just a wee baby of only two months! Still, we got you a  Easter basket that included a baby's book about Peter Cottaintail and a stuffie bunny rabbit.

In 2011, you and I made Easter sugar cookies together! You helped me roll out the dough, stamp the shapes, and frost the cookies! One of the cookies that you really liked was of a baby duck, which we frosted yellow (except for the bill, which we frosted orange) and gave a dollop of black for its eye.

Here's are a whole bunch of pictures from Easter 2010, which was on April 4 that year!

My email to you for March 30, 2013

Your Easter basket, 2012

Here is my email to you sent on March 30, 2012, in case you don’t receive it.

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing? I love and miss you very much. I am not certain why our visit planned for yesterday was cancelled, but I want you to know that I had nothing to do with it. I wanted to spend time with you because you are the most important person in the world to me. You always have been and always will be. Hopefully our cancelled visit soon will be rescheduled.

Tomorrow is Easter, so I thought I would share a few memories I have of the holiday with you.

Our very first Easter was in 2007! You received a small basket with a tiny stuffie bunny rabbit and a little book about Peter Cottontail. We lived in Crescent City, Calif., at the time, and though the weather there usually was rainy, that Easter was nicely sunny. We went out to eat for Easter dinner, and you sat in your child carrier on the table and you slept through the whole meal! A lot of people stopped by to look at you because you were so darn cute!

In 2010, when you were three years old, you didn’t get an Easter basket. You got an Easter bucket! It was a Star Wars sandbox pail that we filled with all kinds of goodies. One of the items was a chocolate bunny rabbit. You ate the bunny rabbit’s ears first!

In 2011, when you were four years old, you and I made Easter sugar cookies together! You helped me roll out the dough, stamp the shapes, and frost the cookies! One of the cookies that you really liked was of a baby duck, which we frosted yellow (except for the bill, which we frosted orange) and gave a dollop of black for its eye. We also went to the Easter Egg hunt at Lancaster, Calif., City Park.

Last year, when you were five years old, we were living in the condo in Palmdale, Calif., and we had spent all day Saturday together. When you woke up Sunday morning, I mentioned that the Easter Bunny had left something for you at the front door! The Easter basket was a good mix of toys, candies and clothes I had picked up for you just the week before on our drive from Wisconsin to California.

After a little breakfast, we went to the Easter Egg hunt and festivities at City Park in Lancaster. At the end of the egg hunt, one child had just a couple of Easter eggs in his basket and was afraid that he wouldn't receive a reward for turning in the eggs (All the children received some candy and a little toy for turning in the eggs.), so all on your own you offered to share some of your eggs with him! I was so very proud of you for being so kind and generous.

I will miss you tomorrow during Easter. I hope you have a good day, though, and that the Easter Beagle brings you everything you wish for! We are next scheduled to get together on April 26, but hopefully we will see one another once before that date as well.

Love,

Dad