Major American cities you've been to

Train Town in Los Angeles, Calif. in 2009.

I've previously written about the states you've been to. Perhaps you'd also like to hear about all of the cities you've been to, too! Here's a list of the most populous cities that you've been to so far in your life:
>>Los Angeles
>>San Francisco
>>Long Beach
>>Minneapolis/St. Paul
>>San Diego
>>Denver
>>Sacramento
>>Las Vegas
>>Albuquerque
>>Omaha
>>Des Moines
>>Santa Barbara
>>Lincoln, Neb.

I have photos of you in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Diego, Albuquerque, and Santa Barbara.

Remember Barnes and Noble Blondies?

Here's something that should make you hungry!

Did you know that one of your favorite snacks when we were out and about was to stop at Barnes and Noble cafe and enjoy a Blondie bar? It was like a regular yellow pan bar but had M&M's in it!

We'd first grab a couple of magazines - you a Star Wars one and me a Star Trek one - and then I'd get the Blondie for us, usually with milk for you and a cofee for me.

Sometimes you'd go get us a seat so we had a place to sit, and if the table was missing a chair, you'd get all concerned and shout to me, "Oh no! Dad, there aren't enough chairs!" Usually someone would give up their chair for you because you were so dang cute.

We'd then enjoy our magazines, showing each other pictures in them, and splitting the Blondie!

Our telephone call and this weekend

I'm glad we were able to finally talk by telephone last night, Kieran! Hearing your voice again was so wonderful!

I am very proud of you for doing so well on your math test. You've always been very good at math - when you were only three years old, you could count close to a hundred and then by fives up to a hundred! That was better than most kindergartners!

This weekend we will go to the Minnesota Zoo in Apple Valley. The weather will be rainy and cold, so I needed to find something for us to do inside. We can have lunch at the zoo and then see the tropics and the Minnesota animals section, which are indoors. We also might be able to do the monorail. We might also do an IMAX movie, but the only one showing is "Space Junk 3D."

I love you very much and can;t wait to see you this weekend - and to talk to you again next Tuesday!

Recall your Lone Ranger Lego set?

Do you remember the Lone Ranger Lego Comanche camp that we put together this past summer? It contained a teepee, two Indians, and of course, the Lone Ranger.

The Lego set came out with the Disney movie "The Lone Ranger," which was panned by the critics. But you always enjoyed the Lone Ranger, putting him your stories of Sheriff Jack and the Deputy. So I thought you'd enjoy the Lego set.

And you did! You put together the people while I constructed the teepee. We played a little with the guys in the set. I think you really liked the canoe!

Remember your Fisher Price barn toy?

Your barn toy

When you were just 1 year-old, you received for Christmas a Fisher Price barn toy. It was a neat playset with animals that when placed on certain spots in the barn or attached silo, made their sounds; for example, the pig would go "oink oink" when set in the pig pen.

My barn toy!

The predecessor to this toy was one of my favorites to play with when I was preschooler! Back then, though, the barn was smaller and didn't make any noises. It also came with wooden people and a plastic tractor. Sometimes I'd stretch out the cow's legs, have him fly through the air, and call him "Supercow"! I love playing with people and took them on all kinds of adventures, just like you enjoyed playing wiht your action figures.

Probably because you didn't grow up on a farm, after a while the barn toy wasn't as exciting as the firehouse or other playsets you had. But sometimes we would take it out and with other farm toys we had set up a small farm with animals. We used a small foldable doll house as the farmer's house!

Remember your hospital room playset?

Do you remember your Playmobil hospital room set? It was a collection of cool stuff a patient might have if in a hospital rom - a bed, a food tray, an IV, and so on.

The hospital room set ended up in a tote of your "doctor toys," which included a doctor's kit and a doctor's costume. But we typically used it when playing with your firemen toys - the girl who was a patient somehow lost her hair so she always was someone injured in a fire and put into the ambulances! We also used the IV stand and blood bag to treat the "injured" at the fire.

You've never had to stay a night in the hospital! You've gone to the emergency room a couple of times, for a broken arm and for an asthma attack but you always were released within a couple of hours. You're a very lucky boy - by the time I was your age, I'd been in the hospital two or three times for multiple day stays each time!

Your fave Star Trek character: Chekov

When you were a preschooler, your favorite "Star Trek" character was Ensign Chekov. You often asked to watch "Chekov episodes" on our "Star Trek" DVDs, and liked to play with that action figure - or when we didn't have that action figure, you'd just pretend another one was Chekov!

Did you know that Chekov wasn't in the first season of "Star Trek"? His character joined the crew in the second season, and he's not in every episode of the second and third seasons. He's not in any of the cartoons but is in all of the movies.

I'm not sure why you liked Chekov so much. I suspect it's because he was the youngest of the Enterprise crew and a bit boyish compared to the rest, so you probably related most to him.

Here's a website page about Chekov!