Recall your Imaginext helicopter?

Do you remember your red Imaginext helicopter toy? We had hours of fun playing with it when you were a preschooler!

It came with two guys who had the letter "R" on their shirts. Though it stood for "Rescue", you thought it meant "Robin" of Batman fame because Robin had an "R" in a circle on his shirt just like our helicopter pilots! So you always claled it "Robin's helicopter"!

The neat thing about the helicopter was that it had a string on a winch that could hang from the door and attach to a gurney. When one of our characters was injured in a "fire," we could place that person on the gurney, pull them into the helicopter, and then take off to the hospital! Usually this character was a girl from a Playmobil set whose hair we lost, so she looked like she had a head injury!

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!

Recall the Peter Pan book reading?

A year ago today, we went to Disneyland together. Since we'd gone so many times before, we both were in the mood to find something different to do. And we did!

For the first time ever, we went to the robot show which was near the House of Tomorrow. Then we went to the house of Tomorrow itself and played some video games we'd never done before.

But then we fell back on some old standbys., most notably participating in the Peter Pan show. Do you remember playing with the cannon on the ship-shaped bed they had in the Peter Pan room (see the picture at right)? We'd gone so many times to the show that you virtually had it memorized!

And, of course, you participated in the Jedi Academy training and got to battle Darth Vader! That was such a constant of our Disneyland visits that often the rides and shows we went to revolved our the Jedi Academy show schedule.

Here's a whole bunch of pictures from our visit that day!

Recall your Mystery Machine toy?

Since you loved Scooby Doo so much (You always asked to watch the DVDs!), I tried to find toys from the series for you to play with. One of them that we had was the Mystery Machine!

The action figures we had from Scooby Doo (I still have them, btw!) fit into the Mystery Machine. We usually would have it roll up in front of the haunted house and then have the gang disembark from the van and explore the creepy old house, where they'd run into all kinds of problems and hijinks!

The back of the van opened up and had a net in it to capture monsters and ghosts. It didn't work very well, though, so we often dispensed with that.

Another thing we did with Scooby Doo was print out monsters from the series and tape them to blocks so that our gang had baddies to battle! 

Remember your yellow submarine?

Do you recall your Imaginext yellow submarine? We had lots of fun playing with it when you were a preschooler. It was yellow jst like the submarine in the Beatles song!

The submarine shot "missiles" and had a sliding door so we could put people inside it. Putting your hand inside the sub to set people, though, was a little difficult because the door was so small.

We often used the submarine as a "spaceship" when playing, mainly because there really was no way to get it to "underwater" when pretending.

The submarine was one of many "sea toys" you had. You also had a fishing boat and lots of ocean animals. The guys and their diving gear from the submarine were great for playing with our our "sea toys"!

My email sent to you Feb. 2, 2013

Oct. 4, 2011, San Diego, Calif.

Here is my email sent to you on Feb. 2, 2013, in case you do not receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing today? I had so much fun with you on Friday! It was great making the animal puppets, sharing some of Grandma’s baked goods, and playing with all of the toys. I am sorry that I did not bring any of the card games with me, but I will do so next time we get together, which is scheduled for March 1.

One way we can keep in touch until then is through email. As we discussed on Friday, you have the right to email me each week. I look forward to your response to this email. In that email, please send me a copy of your report card. It is very important that both of your parents know how you are doing in school.

Wacky Week at school sounded like a lot of fun! My elementary school didn’t have dress up days, though we got to do them when in junior high school (That’s when I was 12!). One of my favorite days was “Twin Days” when you and a friend dressed in the same kinds of clothes so you both looked alike! Believe it or not, coordinating all of that with a friend was very complicated. It sounds like the costumes and fun hats you and your friends wore took some creative thought, too!

I’m glad you liked the new stickers and play mats of the family’s house. I shall bring that back the next time we meet. We’ll have to come up with some names for the family members. Playing with our old cowboy gang of Sheriff Jack, his horse Luke, the Deputy, Calamitous Jane, and Baby Kieran (Whaa!) was a good time, too.

Do you remember the Russian submarine that we used to go into at San Diego? It was the one where people called each other “comrade” when talking to one another in it (I’ve attached a picture of you standing next to the sub). Anyway, I am editing a book now about the submarine. In the story, the submarine’s former captain decides he wants his old ship all to himself rather than allowing others to visit it, so he and a few mean guys steal it! I can’t wait to find out how the good guys get the submarine back.

Have you read any good books lately? I have. It was called “One Zillion Valentines” by Frank Modell. It’s about two friends who decide to make a valentine card for everybody in their neighborhood in hopes that people will send them back a valentine. Their goal is to receive one zillion valentines! I bet your school or city library has the book if you want to check it out.

Are you enjoying Minnesota’s snow? I understand that we are supposed to get some more this week. I bet you’ve gone sledding, maybe at school? Where I went to elementary school, we had a sledding hill behind our building and went sliding every recess during winter – except climbing the hill took a lot of energy, so we were all tired when we went back to class!

Well, that is all for now. I love you and miss you very much. I look forward to reading your email to me this week!

Love,

Dad

Foreign countries I've visited

West Germany, January 1986

One of the things I've not done as much as I would like to as an adult is to travel to other countries. There are many great sights to see and experiences to be had across the world. In addition, I'd like to visit the places our ancestors lived and visit locations that have greatly influenced our thinking.

I hope you will have the chance to travel to other countries when you are older, and I encourage you to do so when you have the opportunity to in college.

What countries would I like to visit? Just about every one! But topping the list are England, France, Italy, Greece and Australia. Spain and Canada would be cool, too.

Here's a list of the countries I have been to. All were with the Army in January-February 1986 except for Mexico, which I visited in 1992-94 and then again in 2006:
>>Azores (Portugal)
>>Belgium
>>West Germany (got to see the East German border, though!)