Three years ago today: SpaceShipTwo

Feb. 19, 2011, with WhiteKnightTwo and
SpaceShipTwo behind you.

Three years ago today you got to see the first non-government spaceship at the Mojave Air and Spaceport's monthly fly-in.

The spaceship was Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo! The WhiteKnight is the mothership that carries SpaceShipTwo high into the atmosphere where the gravity is lower. It then drops the SpaceShip, which fires its rockets and zooms into low Earth orbit!

The day was extremely cold, though - only in the mid 40s - so we stayed there just long enough to walk around the ship and take a few pictures. You told me it was a "pretty cool spaceship"!

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

Remember our gem hunt in Opal Canyon?

Opal Canyon, Jan. 18, 2011.

Three years today we went hiking in Opal Canyon at Red Rock Canyon State Park north of Mojave, California! It is a gem trail on which we searched and dug for opal and other cool rocks.

Our hike began with a drive down a desert jeep trail to the edge of an dry wash. We then hiked up the arroyo to various fossil sites.

Once at the sites, you helped me chip away at the rock with my geologist's hammer. We found some great gems, and I still have them in a box, all labled for you (I will show them to you one day!)!

Here's a bunch of pictures from our adventure!

Our last visit to the Mojave air show

A year ago today, we attended our last air show at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif. We usually went to it every month, though sometimes we'd skip the ones during the hottest months of summer and coldest months of winter.

This show was neat because they hosted a robot competition in which college students built robots to do tricks. You enjoyed watching them! You also got to sit in a lightweight experimental aircraft and to see the first privately owned spaceships!

I always enjoyed going to the air shows with you. We had a lot of fun at them learning about airplanes and spaceships and even got to meet some interesting people, like the actor who played Worf on "Star Trek."

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

Our hike of Red Rock Canyon State Park

I bet you don't remember this hike - you were barely two years old at the time! It's the first big hike we took after moving to Lancaster, Calif., and we did it four years ago today.

It was to Red Rock Canyon State Park, north of Mojave, Calif. We walked through some areas where the canyon walls were made of pure black lava rock - it was quite a sight!

During a rest stop, I let you out of the child carrier that I had on my back, and you sat on a boulder of lava that is about 13 million years old. That's what the photo at left is of. The cool dinosaur T-shirt I bought for you in Green River, Utah, a few months before. I still have your hiking hat shown in the picture!

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

Remember seeing SpaceShipTwo?

Standing on front of SpaceShip Two,
"a pretty cool spaceship" as you described it.

Two years ago today you got to see what probably will be the first privately owned spaceship to take people into space!

Virgin Galactic's WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo was on display at the Mojave Air and Space Show in Mojave, Calif. This event was a monthly air show and fly-in that we usually tried to attend.

It was a very cold day, though! We didn't stay very long because we both were freezing (as the picture above shows).

Still, I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to see such a historic craft. SpaceShip One became the first prviately owned spaceship to carry people into space and was laucnhed from this air and space port several years ago.

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

'Star Trek' book makes me think of you!

This past week I've been reading a most wonderful book about a mother and her two sons who all became "Star Trek" fans and the lessons in life they learned from the TV show. They discovered a lot about themselves, their love for one another, and the world around them as they watched the show together and went to places like "Star Trek" conventions to enjoy their newfound common interest. The book was called "Love Letters to Star Trek."

In many ways, their adventures reminded me of stuff we had done together. For example, we'd go to Vasquez Rocks (which you called the "Kirk Rocks") and climb around where the Gorn and Captain Kirk fought or where our intrepid captain fought the Klingons. Another time we went to the air show in Mojave and met the actor who played Worf (He signed your Worf action figure!).

And of course we played and played "Star Trek," taking our action figures on adventures, sometimes playing "monster" that attacked our crew members, other times having them explore strange new worlds.

I can;t wait until you're a little older so we can discuss the finer points of "Star Trek" and go on even more adventures together!

Two years today we went to fly-in

Two years ago today we attended the Mojave Air Show and Fly-In in Mojave, Calif. I tried to take us to the monthly event every month, though sometimes the weather was too hot or too cold because of its location in the desert.

The air show always had a good mix of airplanes and space stuff, as a lot of private rocket and spaceship companies had facilities at or near the airport. In fact, it was at the Mojave Air and Space Port that the first privately owned spaceship went into space during the early 2000s!

Another fun thing at the air show was the tram ride. You always were keen to go on that. It took us around the airport so we could see various airplanes, and sometimes it would stop and let us off so we could walk into hangars and see all kinds of goodies, such as airplane props used in movies.

Here are a whole bunch of photos about our adventure!