Recall going on the aircraft carrier?

Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011: Manning the control center.

One year ago today we went to downtown San Diego and visited the USS Midway aircraft carrier. We'd gone there several times before, and by this time you were starting to really know your way around that old naval vessel! Among your favorite parts of the ship were:
g Conning tower - The two big areas here that you liked were the operations room where war operations were tracked (and where you liked to pretend you were a naval officer ordering the jets and other ships) and the captain's office, where a mannequin of the captain talked to you!
g Flight deck - Kids could sit in the cockpit of several jet planes and pretend to be flying them!
g Helicopters - On top of the carrier where the planes would take off were static displays of several aircraft; you always loved the helicopters because you could inside them and have pretend adventures.

There were lots of other sections we went to, including engineering, the brig, the store, and the deck for lunch.

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

I would love to see your drawings

One of your favorite things to do when we were together was to show me your drawings - often we'd even draw or paint or color together. Seeing your artwork also was one of my favorite things to do! I remember how you liked to draw pictures of "Star Trek" characters and Army soldiers when you were four and five; I've kept many of them.

I mention this now because your cousin, Rebekah, likes to color pictures and show them to me. Last night, she drew a whole bunch of pictures and aksed me to come up with a story about them! It made me lonely for your drawings and for you.

What kinds of things to draw and color now? I'd like to see them!

Your picture graces covers of two books!

I'm proud to say, Kieran, that your picture graces the bookshelves of many homes and bookstores across the North American continent and even overseas. As you may know, I write (as well as edit) books for a living, and inspired by our many great hikes we took before you began going to school, I wrote a couple of hiking books about our journeys. Both of those books, Hikes with Tykes: A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Kids and Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities, include a picture of you on the cover.

The photo on Hikes with Tykes: A Practical Guide to Day Hiking with Kids was taken in the Angeles National Forest on the Manzanita Trail, just off of State Hwy. 2. It's a neat area, the site of an old faultline. You can see wher the faultline used to ran because one side of the trail is red, the location of old clay deposits only a few tens of thousands of years old, while the the other side of the trail is white, the location of old granite that is at least 70 million years old!

The photo on Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities was taken when you were four years old at Vasquez Rocks in Southern California. You used to call it the "Kirk Rocks" because the "Star Trek" episode in which Captain Kirk fought the Gorn was filmed there. In fact, "Gorn Rock" is behind you in the photo.

I mention this because earlier this week Seattle Backpackers Magazine ran a nice review of Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities, and I was remined how you played such an important role in helping me create those books - mainly by giving me the experiences to write them. I've dedicated both boths to you as well!

Our Trip to Legoland one year ago today

A year ago yesterday (Dec. 17, 2011), we spent the day at Legoland in Carlsbad, Calif. This would be one of the last times we visited Legoland. In another month, I'd move back to Palmdale/Lancaster so that I could be closer to you.

We began the morning with our usual breakfast at Denny's in Encinitas and then went to Moonlight Beach. The day at Legoland was spent doing our usual activities: building Bioncles together, several rides on the Aquazone, running through the Medieval play castle, and some time spent at the Legoland town playground!

Among the highlights was going on the DuneRiders slide. I was so proud of you as you overcame your fear of going down the tall and high slide and went on it for the first time! Once you realized how fun it was, you wanted to go on it over and over and over again!

There's a whole bunch of pictures of us enjoying the day together!

My birthday wish

Today is my birthday, and I have only one wish: That I could see you. Even a phone call or an email would be okay. Unfortunatley, several people who have very sick minds have prevented us from being together today or even being able to communicate with one another. I do not feel angry toward these people, though, and I hope you do not either, for the sickness of their minds prevents them from knowing right or wrong, prevents them from understanding the deep hurt they have caused. In any case, we shall prevail, and should dedicate our energies today to realizing our wish for the day that did not come true.

Last year on this day, we drove to San Diego together to pick up some of my belongings at my trailer. I had moved earlier that week back to Lancaster/Palmdale so that I could be closer to you. After we filled my car full of totes, we spent a few hours at Legoland and then on our drive back, stopped at Chuck E Cheese's in a suburb north of San Diego - I think it was Vista - where we had a great time playing games and eating pizza. I even have a picture of us taken where you sit in a booth and a machine draws us.

For me, the past 12 months truly lived up to Charles Dickens' oft-quoted words, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." But I hold a strong belief that during the year ahead we will be reunited, and then it truly will be a time "of wisdom...a season of Light...the spring of hope" in which we have "...everything before us."

Don't call other people bad names!

It’s about this time in life, Kieran, that you may run into the problem of name-calling. This is when someone calls you a name that is hurtful or perhaps you call someone a name that makes him or her feel bad. They might call you a “slowpoke” or a made-up word like a “dweeb”. Or you might hear other children telling a classmate that she’s “fat” or “stupid.”

People call each other names because they are hurting inside. They don’t feel good about themselves, and the only way they can feel “better” is by make others feel bad.

And while they may feel better for a little while, they are not a “better” person. No one who hurts another person is a “good” person.

I don’t believe you’re the kind of boy who would call other kids names, for I always taught you as a child to respect others’ differences. Still, sometimes as young people, we get caught up in what our friends are doing and so we fall into a bad habit of calling others names. Sometimes, we see important adults around us calling others names and so we think it’s all right.

It’s never all right to call another person a name. If we have done so, we should tell them we’re sorry and promise not to do it again. Then we should keep that promise. And if we hear others calling people names, we should find a way to get them to stop; at the very least, we should not participate.

If you are ever called a name, do not let it bother you (though I know it does hurt!). When others call people names, they really show how immature and mean they are. Their words only can hurt you if you let them hurt you – and it’s only in your own mind that you think their words are of any value.

OK, enough of my lecture. Go have some fun!

My email sent to you on Dec. 15, 2012

Sledding in the Angeles National Forest,
December 2010.

Here is the email I sent to you on Dec. 15, 2012, just in case you do not receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing? I’m doing well though I miss you quite a lot and every day. I am very concerned, though, that I haven’t received an email responding to any of my three previous emails. Please confirm that you received this one with a response and have your mother send the previous emails as they have not arrived.

I am very excited because I get to see you next Friday on Dec. 21! We should have lots of fun playing games and playing with toys as well as reading a book or two, and just plain catching up on all that you’ve been doing. I’ll also be bringing lots of Christmas presents from me, Grandma and Grandpa, your Uncle Chris and Susie, and one or two that Santa left at my house for you!
 

Have you enjoyed all the new snowfall? It’s great for building snowmen and snow forts. When I was a little boy, we’d go sledding during winter. My school had a big hill behind it that we could take sleds up and slide down. I bet you remember the times we drove up into the mountains and went sledding together – my schoolmates and I used sleds just like the one we used.

What do you plan to do for Christmas vacation? While getting an extra day or two off of school was fun, I always missed my friends when I wasn’t in class and so wished for vacation to end! What do your friends plan to do during vacation?

Are you having a big Christmas party at school? I always liked the Christmas parties when I went to school because we exchanged presents, and everyone brought in fun foods that their mother’s or father’s made. It was neat to taste cookies and bars and other sweets other kids’ parents baked!

Have you read any good books lately? I bet you have, knowing how much you like to read and have stories read to you. This past week I read “Reindeer Christmas” by Mark Kimball Moulton. In the book, two young children and their grandmother find a hungry and lost baby deer in the woods. So they take in the fawn, feeding and nursing it back to health. Except when the deer grows up, they find it’s not exactly a deer! Can you guess what the baby deer grew up to be?

That is all for now. I love you and miss you very much and can’t wait to see you on Friday – and to get those missing emails!

Love,

Dad