Dear Kieran,
How are you doing today? I am doing fine, though I am sad
that we were unable to get together on Friday as planned. I want you to know
that I was not the one who cancelled our visit and that I was looking very
forward to seeing you. I miss you every day, and there’s not an hour that goes
by in which I don’t think about you. The good news is that we are scheduled to
get together again on Friday, May 26, and that we will see one another again
before then, though the exact day has not been worked out yet.
How is school coming along? Have you finished your unit on
oceans? What new things are you learning in math? What interesting books are
you reading? You are almost done with kindergarten – that must be exciting,
knowing that you’ll be in first grade next year! I saw a children’s book at the
book store called “First Grade, Here I Come!”, and I think I will pick it up
for you so we can read it at one of our visitations during the next month.
The weather finally has turned nice, and I bet the last thing
on your mind the past couple of days has been sitting in a classroom. There are
lots of exciting outdoor places to go in the Twin Cities that mom and your
grandpa and grandma can take you now that the weather is nice. I bet you can’t wait
to go back to Como Park Zoo with the penguins. Although I bet the penguins don’t
like the warm weather!
Now that the days are warm, I plan to do a lot of hiking,
just like we used to do when we were together. I am writing books about the
places I’ve hiked. There are many interesting places near the Twin Cities to
hike. At one of them, you can walk across basalt (lava rocks) that are 1.1
billion years old! At another one of them, you see an interesting rock formation
that looks like an old man’s face. Another park has a waterfall that is 168
feet high! So far, I’ve written four hiking books and three books about being a
writer. Each of them are dedicated to you, and you are on the cover of two of
the hiking books!
Since the snow is still melting in some spots, I probably
will run into mud during my hikes. In fact, I recently read a great book about
mud, which I bet you would like as well. The book was called “Mud” (What else
would it be called?) by Mary Lyn Ray. It has lots of colorful pictures of
people walking through mud. Each of them must avoid stepping on the blades of
green grass that increasingly pop up in the mud with each turn of the page. I
bet you can find the book at your school or city library.
I am getting very excited not just about hiking but the new “Star
Trek’ movie. It comes out May 15. No one knows who the villain is in the movie,
but there will be Klingons in it. Of course, with a new “Star Trek” movie means
there will be new “Star Trek” toys! I can’t wait to go to Toys ‘R Us and see
what the new toys are for us to play with.
Well, that is all for now. I love and miss you very much! I
hope to see you within a few days.
Love,
Dad
