Remember Abby Cadabby?

You never were much of a Seasame Street fan growing up, though there certainly were parts of the show that you loved - Elmo when you were two and later when you turned three, Abby Cadabby.

In particular, you especially like her segment, "Abby's Flying Fairy School". You'd stop whatever you were doing and watch it from start to finish! It was all about Abby learning how to be a fairy.

Abby always was trying to learn new things and usually messed them up at first - par for the course for three years old! But she was determined to received her fairy godmother wings!
I think you loved the adventures she went on and the fact that she was three years old. You always were able to identify with the characters who were the same age as you - Elmo at two, Abby at three, and Caillou at four.

My dinosaur memories with you

I received your email on Monday, and you mentioned going to the science musuem in St. Paul to see the dinosaur skeletons. I bet that was a lot of fun!

I have lots of "dinosaur" memoires with you.

When you were a preschooler, we had a whole bunch of plastic dinosaur toys. We'd play with them on plastic mats that showed jungle and volcano scenes.

We also went to see life-sized models of dinosaurs when we could. There were some at the Museum of Natural History in Los Angeles, at the Los Angeles County Fair, and at a roadside attraction called Charlie Brown's Farms in Little Rock, Calif.

You also had a great book called "Ten Little Dinosaurs." The cover had a dino with googly eyes on it, so when you shook the bok, his eyeballs spun!

Remember Moonlight Beach?

Two years ago today we went to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, Calif.! I lived outside of San Diego at the time, and we often went to the beach that was about a mile from my house.

You always loved to play a game with the waves of avoid being caught by them. As the waves receded, you'd follow them, then as they came roaring back in, you'd run away from them! It was so wonderful to see you laugh! We'd also build sand castles and sometimes bury each other in the sand!

The ocean water was a bit cold in June, and so you did get a little chilled that morning. But after burying you in the sand heated by the sun, you quickly warmed back up!

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

At Disneyland two years ago today

Our perspective for the June 11, 2011, Jedi Academy.

Two years ago today we were at Disneyland together, Kieran!

Perhaps the highlight of the day was that we watched the Jedi Academy just a little offstage. You hadn't participated yet in the show, and we were checking it out so that you could see how it all worked.

About midway during the show, Darth Vader came back by us and slapped his light saber on the railing right next to where you were, and you jumped back!

When Darth Vader walked away, you turned to me and said, "I don't like that Darth Vader!"

Here are a whole bunch of photos from our adventure!

Remember your cool Lego RV toy?

Do you remember your Lego RV that we out together together when living in the green house in Lancaster? Since you liked both Legos and RVs, it felt like the perfect toy to have!

You were fairly young so only helped me put together part of it. You sure liked playing with it, though!

After a couple of days, though, you started taking it apart. I think you were interested in how it all was put together and kind of wanted to do that again.

That didn't bother me, as I sure could relate to such a desire. When I was about the same age, my dad built this great model railroad set for me. I  had so much fun helping him do it (Though he did most of the work!) that I tore it all apart so we could put it together again!

The downside of taking apart the Lego RV, though, was that parts would get lost so that I couldn't put it back together! The instructions also couldn't be easily followed because the parts taken off didn't match the order in which they were put on!

Your favorite 'Star Trek' cartoon

One of your favorite "Star Trek" cartoons to watch on DVD was the episode "Yesteryear." The story was about Mr. Spock as a seven-year-old, undergoing a major test...which an older Mr. Spock who's traveled into the past must help him with.

While it was a well-written episode, as a preschooler I doubt you liked it for the finer points of its plot and character construction! I suspect you enjoyed it because the main character was a little boy, just like you, and you could identify with that character!

You also like the first "Star Wars" movie, "The Phantom Menace" a lot because it was about a little boy, a young Anakin Skywalker. And Jonny Quest - the story of a young boy and his faithful friend, Hadji - also were your faves to watch!

I'd love to hear your memories of what "Yesteryear" was about - your favorite scenes, the memorable images from it! Here is some more about the episode.

My email to you for June 8, 2013

Here is my email sent to you on June 8, 2013, in case you do not receive it:

Hi Kieran,

How are you doing today? I’m doing fine, though I miss you more than anything! I am looking forward to seeing you in just two weeks, on June 21. We also should be able to start seeing each other every other week after that.

How has your first two weeks of summer school gone? What stuff is the teacher covering in our classes? Have you read any interesting books in class? Are many of your friends back in summer school, too? Do you have new classmates for summer school? So many questions, I know! But you are the most important person in the world to me, so I want to know everything about you!

I purchased some new fun “Star Trek” stuff for us to play with when we get together. Some of them are the Lego characters. Another is a set of models of the spaceships from the show. The models snap together, and we should have a lot of fun building and playing with them. Have you seen the new “Star Trek” movie yet?

There are a whole bunch of great movies coming out this summer that I’d bet you love to see. “Monsters University” (the follow-up to “Monsters Inc.” – remember when we used to go on that ride at California Adventure?) comes out on June 21. “The Lone Ranger” (Remember when we used to play Sheriff Jack and the Deputy?) comes out on July 3. Finally, “Disney’s Planes” (It’s like “Cars” except the main characters are airplanes!) comes out on August 9. Hopefully, you will get to go to each of these movies, as they all sound like lots of fun.

Now that’s summer here, I bet you’re enjoying spending time outdoors! I didn’t receive a response to the email I sent to you last week, so I will have to ask again how the bicycle riding is coming along? I bet you’ve got it down already! If not, don’t worry – you’ll get better with practice. Be sure to wear a helmet when you go bicycle riding, though; if the bike crashes, and you don’t have a helmet on, you could get hurt!

I will be outdoors a lot as well this summer, hiking trails in the Northwoods. My latest hiking book is doing well, so I’ve decided to write a follow-up to it. There are some neat trails that go over ancient volcanic rock, to waterfalls, and past beautiful lakes and rivers in the Northwoods. I always liked going hiking with you in the Angeles National Forest when we were together and sure wish we were allowed to be together this summer to explore all the neat places Minnesota and Wisconsin have to offer.

I found a new book you might like to get from the library! It’s called “Interrupting Chicken” by David Ezra Stein. It’s all about this young chicken who keeps interrupting everybody! Do you know of anyone who interrupts someone? It’s not very nice of them, is it?

Well, that is all for now. I miss and love you very much and can’t wait to see you on June 21!

Love,

Dad