Your love for Smokey the Bear

Just finished editing a children's book called "The Best Bear Hug Ever" and that got me thinking about how much you liked Smokey the Bear as a preschooler!

You first learned about Smokey the Bear when we hiked the Angeles National Forest in California. We went to a fire lookout tower, and the "prize" for children who make it to the fire tower was a Smokey the Bear comic book and button.

You couldn't read, of course, so I told you the life story of Smokey the Bear. You were so concerned that Smokey might not escape the forest fire and were so relieved when the rangers rescued him and nursed him back to health.

You asked me to tell you the story over and over! You also wanted to know if one day we could go see Smokey the Bear's grave in New Mexico (One time when we did drive through New Mexico, though, I got you a Smokey the Bear stuffie.)!

We haven't yet gone to the forest where Smokey lived, but perhaps one day soon we will.

Our last morning together...

One year ago today I took you to school on a Monday morning as you'd spent the weekend with Jane and me at our condo in Palmdale. It was the last morning we spent together for a year now...

While I got breakfast ready for us, you played with your toys in the living room and saw that one of the DVDs I had were the cartoon "Return to the Planet of the Apes". You got all excited and asked if you could watch it, so I put it in - It was one of my favorite cartoons as a little boy!

You were mesmerized by the opening scene and couldn't stop watching it! When Jane joined us for breakfast, I put the DVD on pause so we eat together as a family, and you told her all about the cartoon!

Afterward, I drove you to preschool where we played a little with some of the dinosaur toys there! They had some of the dinosaur play action sets that we did.

Our last weekend together

A year ago today was the last full day and weekend that we've spent together. On that Sunday, we went in the morning to the Kirk Rocks (Vasquez Rocks County Park) where we hiked and played cowboys near the Friday's Child Rocks. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of that last adventure; they were on Jane's camera, and I never got them downloaded onto my computer before we separated.

After hiking the rocks, we went over to the country store in Agua Dulce and enjoyed some ice cream cones. I remember that you had mint chocolate chip, your favorite!

We also picked a roadside flower that we brought back to Jane, who was sleeping in that Sunday morning. You presented it to her when we got back to the condo, and the two of you put it in a glass of water. I recall thinking about where we would take Jane for Mother's Day brunch and deciding a restaurant we found in Agua Dulce would be fun.

The rest of the day is a bit hazy in my memory, though I do recall us tossing the football around to one another that afternoon. It ended up in the neighbor's balcony, and fortunately she got it for us!

You also spent the night at the condo, with me bringing you to school Monday morning.

You having fun with Grandma Bignell

You might remember that I earlier wrote that Grandma Bignell gave me a whole bunch of pictures of when you spent the winter and summer with them during 2007-2008. You also might remember that I couldn't find any pictures of you and Grandma (probably because she was the one behind the camera).

Well, I found one! It was buried behind another picture in the photo album. So I've posted it here!

I'm not certain when it was taken, but it would have been between mid-December 2007 and early September 2008. That's when Grandma and Grandpa Bignell raised you at their farmhouse in Wisconsin.

I'm not sure what you two were doing, but you sure looked to be having fun!

My email to you for May 4, 2013

Here is my email sent to you May 4, 2013, in case you do not receive it:

Dear Kieran,

How are you doing? I’m doing fine, though I miss you very much. There’s not an hour in the day that goes by that I don’t think of you!

Hopefully, we will be able to get together on Friday (May 10). Our visitation for April 26 still has yet to be made up, and the Family Center said that next Friday will work for us to get together. We also are scheduled to get together the afternoon of May 24. We will be able to see each other a couple of times this month!

How is school going? What recent books have you read? Are you still studying the oceans or have you moved on to a different topic in science class? How did the spring concert go? I can’t wait to see you again so that you can fill me in on all that you’re doing in school!

Did you know that Sunday is a special day for many Americans? It is Cinco de Mayo. Many Americans celebrate it as a day of pride of Mexican heritage and culture, much like we celebrate the Irish on St. Patrick’s Day. The day originally celebrated a major battle in which the Mexican Army defeated the French Army, which invaded Mexico in the 1860s. Mexico is the country south of the United States; when we lived in California, we were very close to Mexico (especially when we lived in San Diego!). Did you celebrate or learn about Cinco de Mayo in school? Maybe you will go to some Cinco de Mayo events on Sunday in the Twin Cities.

Another big day coming up this week is Tuesday (May 7) – It’s National Teacher Day! When I was a teacher, I received a great card from one student on Teacher Day. I taught language arts and grammar to kids, and her card was full of spelling errors and said “Thanx 4 beeing a grate teecher - U lern us stoodents reel goode!” I think I still have that card somewhere and will have to show it to you someday. Be sure to bring an apple to your teacher that day and wish her “Happy Teacher Day”!

I bet you were surprised by all of the snow we received Thursday! Minnesota and Wisconsin usually don’t get snow in May – and if we do, we don’t that much! It should melt very quickly, though, and then we can enjoy the green grass, warm breezes, and sunny skies of spring. I hope to get back out on the trail and do some hiking once spring returns – this weekend, though, I am going to take down my snowshoes and go walking through the woods on them!

Have you read any good books lately? I have. It was called “No Jumping on the Bed” by Tedd Arnold. Despite being told by his parents to not jump on his bed, a naughty little boy named Walter ignores them and keeps seeing how high he can go. He keeps ignoring his parents and keeps going higher and higher. Guess what happens to Walter? You’ll have to read the book and find out! If you’re school library doesn’t have the book, I bet you can get it at the city library when your mother takes you there.

Well, that is all for now. I love and miss you very much! I can’t wait to see you in the week ahead!

Love,

Dad

Our Star Trek movie action figures

With the new "Star Trek" movie coming out in a few more days, thought I'd share with you some memories of the action figures we had from the last movie. You had all of them!

You liked the Uhura and the Captian Kirk action figures the most for some reason. The pony tail broke off our first Uhura, and it took a while for me to find a replacement one, but we did! Then I think our Sulu or Captain Kirk broke, but I was able to tape him back together.

The belts never stayed on them, but we the phasers did a fairly good job of being in their cupped hands. Sometimes we taped them in place to keep them there!

There were both tall and short ones, so we had two of each character! Usually we played with the small ones, though, because they fit with the transporter and the bridge play action action we had. They also were closer in size to our Star Wars action figures, so we were able to have the two interact.

I think the above picture is of the tall ones, because Chekov is missing, and he wasn't in the tall set.

We had lots of other Star Trek movie tie-in toys, too, and I'll have to bring them up in future entries!

Enjoying real maple syrup

I had pancakes with real maple syrup for breakfast today, and it brought back memories of how you liked real maple syrup, too!

Having grown up on a farm eating only real maple syrup, I never liked the imitation stuff, such as Aunt Jemima Syrup, which has a maple flavoring but doesn't come from maple trees at all (It mainly comes from corn syrup!). So when we went grocery shopping together, I always bought real Vermont maple syrup, even though it was quite expensive.

So you also grew up having real maple syrup on your French toast sticks and waffles.

One day while at Denny's, you got pancakes, but they served you fake maple syrup. When you took a bite of it, you made a face and exclaimed they didn't give you maple syrup!

Like father, like son!