Your 'Hikes with Tykes' hoodie?

Do you remember your cool "Hikes with Tykes" hoodie? When I lived in Encinitas, I published my first book, "Hikes with Tykes" (with a picture of you on the cover) and got some clothes made up to promote the book!

One of them was an ash gray hoodie for you. It had front pockets to place your hands in when they got cold and a hood to keep out the wind. The words Hikes with Tykes were in black over the left breask pocket.

For myself, I got a matching black T-shirt and black sweatshirt. Sometimes we'd wear our Hikes with Tykes sweatshirts when we went places together!

Recall your 'Hikes with Tykes' hoodie?

Wearing your Hikes with Tykes hoodie.

Remember your cool Hikes with Tykes hoodie? In summer 2011, I published my first book, called "Hikes with Tykes," which was a guide to hiking with children. To help promote the book, I had some shirts made up with the book's title over the left breast.

I had a black T-shirt and sweatshirt. For you, I got a gray hoodie.

It was a perfect little item to keep you warm - it had pockets in the front that you could tuck your hands into and a hood that you could throw up over your ears in case there was wind.

I shall have to order a new hoodie or some other shirts with my book title or cover on it for you to wear!

Your name and photo appear on blog!

The blog Indirect Observations gave a positive review to my latest book, “Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities” on Monday day. In doing so, it ran a picture of the book's cover, which has you on it, and some background information about us and all of the hikes we've done over the years.

The blog also ran a picture of the author's son, a little boy who looks to be your age and dressed in his wildnerness explorer hat even looked a bit like you. The author wrote a very nice paragraph about how she and her son tried one of the games in the book and with great results! I guess the fun we had together is something other parents and their children also love to do!

Hopefully in another week or so I'll have all of this court stuff resolved so we can be together once again - and then have all kinds of fun once more!

Your name and picture are in another article - again!

Your name and picture are onlien again! Wisconsin Outdoor Fun ran an article about my latest book, “Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities” on Monday, Aug. 20. The article includes an excerpt from Chapter 3 of the book, listing nature-oriented games that can be played on the trail with children.

Wisconsin Outdoor Fun is owned by Gannett, which operates several newspapers in central and eastern Wisconsin, including Green Bay, Appleton, Wausau, Sheboygan, Oshkosh, Fond du Lac, Manitowoc, Wisconsin Rapids, Stevens Point, Marshfield and Door County. It covers a range of outdoor news from ATVing and boating to hunting and fishing, from cycling and skiing to hiking and camping. I should note that I worked as news editor for three years at the Manitowoc paper during the early 2000s - I'll have to tell you all about he places I worked in a future entry.

New book has your picture on its cover

Wish we together today, Kieran, so we could go out and celebrate: Your picture is on the cover on my latest book, "Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities," which was released yesterday (Friday, July 20, 2012). The picture was taken in April 2011 when you were just barely 4 years old during a hike we took to Vasquez Rocks (which you called the "Kirk Rocks") near Agua Dulce, Calif. There are lots of pictures of our hikes there in my Facebook photo albums.

Anyway, the new book lists all kinds of games and activities parents can so with their children before, during and after a hike. In fact, if you read the book, you'd probably recognize most of the games in them - mainly because we tested almost every one of them in the car and or when out in the wilds!

During the enxt few weeks as I promote the book, your picture probably will appear on lots of different newspapers and on plenty of websites. I'll be sure to save copies of them for you to look at later in life and will note them on this blog for you.

Your photo is online again, Kieran!

A picture of you appeared online today, Kieran - a pic of you on the cover of my first book "Hikes with Tykes: A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Kids" in an article about that book for a Canadian magazine. The book cover photo is of you all ready to go on a hike at the head of the Manzanita Trail high in the San Gabriel Mountains of the Angeles National Forest. The trail starts at the location of an old fault line that's no longer active. On one side of the fault line is red, sedimentary soil (like what you're standing on), and on the other side is white granitic rock that is tens of millions of year old. It made for a great pic, especially with your terrific smile!

All of the anecdotes in the interview are about you. I'm specifically describing a hike you and I took through the redwoods in northern California (the diaper stuff) and one we took alongside Lake Piru (the bug crossing the road stuff). Photo albums of both hikes on on my Facebook page.

I remember well the telephone interview for this article. Jane and I had just spent the day before in Anaheim and were heading to Palmdale on the Pearblossom Highway. We were to pick you up that night for the weekend, and she was so excited to meet you for the first time! The sun shined brilliantly in the blue sky with the San Gabriels to our left ... the very same mountain range where this picture of you had been taken. The future held so much promise. It is a day I never will forget.