Do you remember 'Bob the Builder'?

When you were a preschooler, one of your favorite shows to watch was "Bob the Builder" on Sprout and PBS. The claymation program featured trucks and construction equipment that talked and had personalities like people.

I once got you a dump truck for a sand toy, and it came with a person who sat in the drivers seat. You called the person "Bob the Builder"!

You may also recall there was a Bob the Builder ride at the Toys 'R Us in Lancaster, Calif., that you sometimes got to ride when we went to the store. Usually you were too excited about playing with your new toy to want to go on the ride when we left the store, though!

Remember Ventura beach playground?

Four years ago today we went to the beach in Ventura!

We spent much of the time enjoying the playground, which had ocean-themed play equipment. For example, the slide looked like a waterfall, and an obstacle course had nets like what fishermen would use.

The stop at the beach was just part of our day in Ventura. We also went to the Scottish festival at the county fairgrounds!

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our adventure at the beach playground!

Recall Johnny Rockets in Santa Clarita?

Johnny Rockets in Santa Clarita, Calif.

After enjoying Johnny Rockets with you on Saturday at the Mall of America, I began to think about all of the times we've been to one. I think the one you probably remember most is in Santa Clarita, Calif., though we've both been to the one in Rancho Mirage, Calif., too.

The Santa Clarita restaurant was near the Borders bookstore in the Valencia Town Center. We'd go there every couple of months to enjoy a hamburger, fries and a malt.

You always liked that they made a smiling face with the ketchup in a little cardboard container. Sometimes the staff also would break out into song and a small dance when certain songs came on; the one that I remember that the Santa Clarita staff did that to was Donna Summer's "Last Dance."

Hiking Rainbow Basin in 2009

Four years ago today we hiked through Rainbow National Natural Landmark near Barstow, Calif.

I remember the trip being a long drive for you - we probably spent an hour and 15 minutes in the Jeep before arriving. But arrive we did - and what an impressive site!

Wind and rain over a virtually plant-less terrain carved Rainbow Basin's mudstone and other sediment layers into a variety of odd and fantastic shapes. It's a little known national park unit.

I also remember that you brought your little yellow sand shovels along. Perhaps because I had brought a geological hammer, you felt like you should have some tools as well!

Here are a collection of pictures from our adventure!

Geordi's rocket and the Borg cube

"Borg cube"

Do you remember "Geordi's rocket" and "the Borg cube"? When you were four years old, and I lived in Encinitas, we'd sometimes (okay, alot of times) drive from Disneyland back to San Diego via I-5, which took us past the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana.

"Geordi's rocket"

One of the science center's icons was a large black cube - which looked like a Borg cube from "Star Trek." Another was a giant white rocket. Both easily could be seen from the freeway on our drive back.

After you'd seen the movie "Star Trek: First Contact," you started calling the science center's rocket "Geordi's rocket" because it looked like the Phoenix spaceship that Engineer Geordi LaForge helped build in the movie. The movie also had a Borg cube, so we started calling the center's cube "the Borg cube"!

Everytime we'd go past the science center on our drive, I'd say, "Look, there's the Borg cube" and you'd say, "And there's Geordi's rocket!"

Remember Borders in Santa Clarita?

Entry to Borders in Santa Clarita

One of the many places you enjoyed going to when we lived in California was Borders bookstore in Santa Clarita. Sometimes you'd even ask if we could go to Santa Clarita, which meant going to the mall and Borders!

Outside of Borders was this great water fountain that you loved to watch. Water spewed out of balls positioned along the fountain's sides toward the central geyser, and sometimes you'd hold your hand over the nozzles in the balls to keep the water from coming out!

Borders had a great childrens section on its second floor. Part of it were raised, carpeted steps where we could sit and read children's books together.

They also had an elevator that you loved to go up and down in! You especially enjoyed pressing the buttons to get us to the right floor!

Unfortunatley, the Borders in Santa Clarita - like all of the Borders nationwide went out of business. That was too bad; I have great memories of the Borders there, in Rancho Mirage, Calif., and many other cities.

Recall our Peter Pan playset?

Do you remember our Peter Pan playset? It consisted of figurines of the major characters from the movie and some other cool accessories.

We purchased the playset during one of our many visits to Disneyland. It formed the core of our box of "pirate toys."

Often we used the figures and accessories when playing with our "ocean" toys - especially the rowboat and gazebo. We usually played with them on the glass coffee table, which served as the "water surface" of many ocean and island adventures, at the green house in Lancaster.

Theonly real downside to the figures is that they didn't move like our many other action figures!

Your first 'Star Wars' action figure!

Do you remember what your first "Star Wars" action figure was? It was Grand Moff Tarkin, the evil general who ran the Death Star in "Star Wars IV: A New Hope."

We never purchased Grand Moff Tarkin. Instead, we found him the flower bed at the green house in Lancaster. I washed him up, and viola! we had a new action figure.

At the time, you were more into the "Star Trek" action figures I had squirreled away in the garage. Once we started watching "The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars" rerun marathons, though, you got quite interested in "Star Wars" action figures, and our collection took off!

You really liked to collect clone troopers - but I'll save that for another entry!

Your Matchbox Car Wash Mini Playset

Do you remember your Matchbox Car Wash Mini Playset? It was one of many Matchbox car playsets that you had.

This one was neat, though, because it folded up into a box that you could carry around! We kept it in an end table between the sofa and the wall in the green house we lived in at Lancaster, Calif., along with all of the other Matchbox and Hot Wheel sets.

I think you were more of a collector than a player with the Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars, though. You'd play a little with them each day, but you were more into your action figures.

The two purple guys who came with the car wash got put in with our airport toys, if I remember correctly. I think we used the guy carrying the rag as an airplane mechanic at the airport hangar!

Remember your basketball set?

Do you remember your Little Tikes basketball hoop? It was a basketball hoop with backboard on a short stand that I bought you when a preschooler while we lived in the green house in Lancaster.

You had a soft Nerf basketball that you could use to make buckets. We kept it inside until the weather got warm then moved it outside onto the side of the house by the grill.

Generally you preferred to play football or hit the baseball off a t-ball stand rather than "shoot buckets." Still, you played with it just about every time we went outside, usually by tossing the ball at it a couple of times.

Remember that big St. Bernard stuffy?

When we lived in the grene house in Lancaster, you might recall that I had a couple of big pillows a large fluffy St. Bernard dog stacked next to the television in the living room.

Sometimes you way lay on the pillows and dog while watching television. Other times you'd play tackle the dog!
When we did football, "tackle drills," I'd place the the pillow beneath my knees so I'd beyour height for you to ram into.

The dog was a stuffy I got for your mother before you were born. She liked St. Bernards, and for a while we were putting together a mystery novel about a nurse whose St. Bernard solves murders that the nurse gets entangled in!

Our hike along the Sierra Alta Trail

Sierra Alta Trail, Aug. 25, 2010

Three years ago today we hiked the Sierra Alta Trail in the Angeles National Forest!

The trail was about 6800 feet above sea level so nicely overlooked some canyons yet was shrouded by higher mountain peaks.

The trail was surrounded by greenery and very comfortable in temperature, a nice respite from the sandy, hot desert where we lived!

You got your own trekking pole for this hike. It was a brief enough trail that I let you walk it by yourself. You had a blast, though I had to keep telling you to wait up as you wanted to run ahead out of my sight!

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

Remember going to maritime museum?

Taking the helm of a sailing vessel
we took out into San Diego Bay.

One of your favorite places to go when I lived in Encinitas, Calif., was the San Diego Maritime Museum - and we were there two years ago today!

I think you called it the "pirate ships" because so many of the boats there were from the 1800s and used sails, just like the pirate ships of old. The museum also had submarines there that you always enjoyed exploring.

I remembered that one time we visited dancers were performing on one boat, showing the popular moves of the time that the ship sailed. You asked if we could stay and watch them, and we did. You were enamored by their moves!

Here's a bunch of pictures from our trip two years ago today to the maritime museum!

Recall visiting Silver City Ghost Town?

Silver City Ghost Town, Aug. 19, 2010

Four years ago today we explored the Silver City Ghost Town in the Sierra Nevada Mountains! It was a collection of buildings brought there to make up this roadside tourism attraction.

Along the way, we drove through the mountains and saw some neat country scenes! During one stretch, cattle weren;t fenced in, and we drove by thema s they stood on the road!

Twenty-one buildings in all preserved at the ghost town. The town was supposedly "haunted," but that probably was just made up to help bring people in. It also has appeared as a backdrop in a number of film and video shoots.

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

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!

Our hike along the Traverse Ranges

Atop the Transverse Ranges
at 4,995 feet elevation

One of the many interesting places that we hiked when living in California was Ritter Ranch Park. It's not much a "park" but more of an area preserved and set aside so that it can't be developed. Anyway, we hiked it three years ago today!

I remember having a difficult time figuring out to get there when planning our expedition. But eventually I found the right roads, and we drove them through Acton and then up a steep, winding mountainside.

We hiked the eastern-most ridgeline of the Transverse Ranges. The ranges are among the fastest rising pieces of earth - and the rocks we stepped across were more than half a billion years old.

You loved it up there, playing with a hiking stick as we walked about the road! I'm not sure why - maybe it was the view or just a sense that this was a wonderful place for a great adventure.

Here's a bunch of pictures from our adventure!

Our visit to Moonlight Beach

Aug. 7, 2011

Two years ago today, we spent the morning at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas.
You had a blast letting the waves of the Pacific Ocean splash over your feet! Then we made sand castles, which you enjoyed "destroying" in an imaginary battle in the end! Being all wet from the ocean water, the sand sure stuck to you!

Usually we went out for breakfast to Denny's in Encinitas then drove down to the beach, parking on the vista above the beach. Then we'd have to take a long walk down a path to the beach. I always was worried that you'd trip and fall on the steep path, but you never did. You didn't enjoy walking back up it, though! From there, we'd drive back to Palmdale.

Here's some pictures from our time at the beach!

Remember your room's Star Wars poster?

When we lived at the green house in Lancaster, Calif. your room was decorated with Star Wars stuff, such as the bedspread and posters. One poster that hung over your bed was a collage of famous characters and scenes from the fourth through the sixth Star Wars movies.

Sometimes I'd tease you about the characters saying "Oh look, you have a Sesame Street poster!" Then pointing to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, I'd say "There's Ernie and Bert!" Then pointing at another character, I'd go "And there's Cookie Monster!"

At first you'd take me seriously and go, "No, no, that's not Sesame Street, it's Star Wars." Eventually you caught on that I was just foolingwith  you and would get exasperated. So then I'd stop.

At upper right is a picture of the poster. I may still have it, actually, in a tote of your stuff.

Our adventure in Lake Arrowhead

On a playground at Lake Arrowhead.

Three years today we drove up to Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains in California. The area is a big resort community where a lot of people go to escape the heat during the hot California summers.

When we first arrived, we went to a famous observatory that sits at top and edge of a mountain. After that, we drove into Lake Arrowhead and walked around the village.

In the village, you fed ducks in the lake. Then we found a playground and some kiddie carnival rides in the park. Then we spent some time a toy and book store where you got a sticker book about the DC comic superheroes.

We wrapped up the day at a 1950s-style cafe with hamburgers, fries and a chocolate malt!

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

Remember reading 'Hi! Fly Guy'?

Your cousin Rebekah this week got from the library a great book that instantly made me think of you - mainly because we'd read it together long ago!

The book was called "Hi! Fly Guy," by Tedd Arnold. It's about a boy who wants a pet - but the animal he can catch is a fly! The stories tell about the adventures of the boy and the fly, usually as the boy tries to pass off the fly as his pet!

We checked out the book from the Lancaster library in Lancaster, Calif. Are there other books from the library that you remember us reading together?

Maybe you can find the book again at your local library and read it on your own!