How you got your name

Do you know how you got your name?

Your mother and I came up with four names - two for girls and two for boys (just  in case we had twins). The first name had to be Celtic in honor of our ancestry (She's opart Scottish, and I'm part of English). The middle name had to be that of a British king or queen - though the middle name of our favorite boy's name also was the name of your great-grandfather on your mother's side (or her grandfather). Actually, we started with her grandfather's name and because it also was the name of a British king, decided all of the other names also had to be of British kings or queens.

We mainly picked the first name because we liked its sound. But in your case, the name did have a special meaning - Kieran means "dark" and my first name means "bright." I thought that our names having the opposite meanings was kind of neat.

Your middle name, Edward, means "wealthy guardian," by the way.

What were the four names we selected? They were:
Boy
1. Kieran Edward
2. Keegan Arthur
Girl
1. Kelsey Elizabeth
2. Kenzie Anne

So if youwould have been a girl, we would have named you Kelsey Elizabeth!

'The Clone Wars' going off the air

I read yesterday that the Cartoon Network plans to take "The Clone Wars" off the air at the end of this season. It's been on for five years, and our time together certainly has touched upon that series a lot.

We began watching it together on Friday nights during the second season. Then we began collecting all of the action figures and assorted toys associated with the series - and boy, were there a lot of toys! Soon, though, we had virtually every action figure, and so we started looking online togther at when new ones would be released during the months ahead!

You even had a blue clone wars bedspread and sheets in your room at the green house! There's a picture of it at left.

We also caught up with the first season by buying it on DVD. Hopefully you still have it and the second season. If not, do not worry; I shall repurchase it andthe other four seasons for us to enjoy one day.

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 an 'ugly car'?

When you were just a year old, I started teaching you colors. One of the ways I did that was to point out the colors of cars in parking lots when we passed them. You learned the colors pretty quickly that way.

Sometimes, though, you'd see a rare color that I hadn't taught and then would point at the car to ask me what it was. I'd say something like "That's a beige car" or "That's a turquoise car." You'd then repeat the color aloud to me.

Once you pointed at a PT Cruiser (see picture at above right), and in an attempt to be snarky, I responded "That's an ugly  car." So you said back to me, "Ugly!"

After that, everytime we saw a PT Cruiser, you'd say, "Look Dad, an ugly car!"

Remember going to Bugstock?

At Bugstock, March 25, 2012

One year ago today, we drove all the way to the fairgrounds in Orange County to see Bugstock! This was an event to celebrate all things "Beatles".

There were a bunch of fun blow-up playground jumpers and slides that you played on, a VW bug car show, and of course, a Beatles tribute band performing. We listened to a few of the Beatles' early songs. As watching the performance, you asked me "Which one is which?" That got a few chuckles from some of the people surrounding us, who were a little older and probably were teenagers when the Beatles had their first hits - no doubt they heard the same question from their own parents!

After that day, we went about 10 days without seeing one another, as I flew out to Wisconsin a couple of days later to bring Jane cross country to our condo in Palmdale. Boy, were you ever excited to see me and Jane that Wednesday night when I picked you up! We were so excited to finally seeyou again, too!

Here's a whole bunch of photos from our adventure at Bugstock.

My email to you for March 16, 2013

Here is my email to you for March 16, 2013, just in case you don’t receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you today? I hope you’re doing well. I’d doing fine, though I miss you very much.

How is school going? I did not receive your email to me last week, so I did not get to hear from you how you are doing in kindergarten. Please have your mother resend the email to me so I can catch up on your schooling.

Tomorrow (Sunday, March 17), you will have to make sure you wear green. Why? Because it’s St. Patrick’s Day! It is a very important day for people who are Irish. Though we’re not Irish, we still celebrate the holiday out of respect to those who are and because it’s a lot of fun!

Do you get spring break at your school? The school where your cousins Rebekah and Bryan go has spring break in just another week. During spring break, they get the whole week off from school! Schools often have spring break so that parents can take their children on vacation, and then the kids don’t have to miss any school.

If you could go on vacation, where would you go? Some people travel to lots of fun places like Disneyworld in Florida (We used to go to Disneyland in California.). Other families travel to scenic or historical places where they can enjoy nature or learn about our past. Places like that include a national park, such as the Grand Canyon in Arizona, or Washington, D.C., our nation’s capital. Other families don’t travel at all but spend their vacation in their own house, enjoying their time together playing games and watching movies and maybe going to fun places that are nearby, like a mall.

After St. Patrick’s Day and spring break comes Easter on March 31. Do you have big plans for Easter, like going to an egg hunt or maybe out to eat for Easter dinner? I am going to Grandma and Grandpa Bignell’s for Easter. Your Uncle Chris, Aunt Suzie, cousins Bryan and Rebekah, Aunt Sandy and Uncle Mark all will be there. We are having ham and prime rib for dinner. All of us wish you could be there with us for Easter sinenr.

There sure is a lot of snow on the ground – much more than we had in California! Do you like playing in the snow? Have you made a snowman or snow angels yet? Have you gone sledding? When I was a little boy your age, I always liked to go sledding down snow-covered hills and then have hot chocolate afterward. You might remember that we went up into the mountains near our house in Lancaster and went sledding and had hot chocolate afterward – it was the first time you ever had hot chocolate, and you loved it! You had so much fun going up and down and down the hills and drank so much hot chocolate that you slept the whole drive back to our house.

Once the snow starts to melt in a couple of weeks, the wind will start to pick up as spring arrives. That makes for great kite-flying weather. Would you like to fly a kite?

Well, that is all for now. I love and miss you very much and can’t wait to see you again on March 29!

Love,

Dad

Your favorite Disneyland play areas

Redwood Creek Challenge Trail: Sept. 3, 2011

Besides rides and shows, we spent a lot of our time when at Disneyland in two really cool play areas: Tom Sawyer's Island in Disneyland and the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail in California Adventure.

To reach Tom Sawyer's Island, we had to a raft across a river. The island had a cool tree house, some neat dock challenges (like pumping water to get to the treasure chest, and a wrecked pirate ship that had been trapped in the sand.

You loved the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (which you called "the bear place") and often pretended to be a Jedi knight trying to find lost clone troopers. There was a fallen hollow sequoia tree that we would play this game in over and over; I'd be an injured clone trooper that you rescued. A picture of it is at above right.

What memories do you have of your favorite Disneyland play areas?