Memories of my childhood football game

With your love of football, I've been looking for a great football game that we could play together. Most of them are fairly complicated, but I'm confident I'll find one that's just right for us!

Still, the games I have found definitely are better than the ones I grew up with! In the late 1970s, I got an "electronic" football game that consisted of a metal tray, painted to look like a football field, and then vibrated when plugged in and turned on. This caused the "players" (see picture at above right) to move. Each player sat on a plastic piece whose bottom could be adjusted to determine which way they moved when the board vibrated.

Of course, the game was impossible to play! Setting each player was extremely time consuming. In addition, any small dent in the board, or if the game wasn't sitting on an absolutely flat surface, meant the players didn't "vibrate" where they were supposed to!

Still, the games was kind of cool just to look at. My version of the game had the Denver Broncos playing the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XII.

Princess Leia action figure

Among your favorite toys growing up were Star Wars action figures. We easily collected close to a hundred (if not more) of them. In fact, it got to the point that we had purchased all of the ones available for sale at Wal-Mart/Target and so were reading up on what new ones were coming out and then looking through comic book stores for old ones "no longer available" for sale!

I was only able to bring a few of them with me when moving from California in 2012, so I tried to take the ones that you enjoyed the most. One of those I grabbed was Princess Leia from the planet Hoth scenes in "The Empire Strikes Back." I'm not sure why I took that one; perhaps because it was the best of the Princess Leia's that you had. I do recall, though, that we often set up the rebel base on Hoth and that this Princess Leia usually was in the command center (which the Bat Cave playset nicely doubled as!).

Two years ago today we were at Legoland!

In front of a Bioncle, Nov. 19, 2011

Two years ago today we spent the day at Legoland in Carlsbad, California!

We started our day with a trip to Moonlight Beach in Encinitas and from there headed on over to Legoland. I'm not sure why we went to the beach first, as we usually saved that for Sunday mornings. Perhaps Legoland wasn't quite opened yet or I wanted to save Sunday for another activity that required us to drive.

We spent a good hour or so doing the Aquazone ride over and over at Legoland! You also bravely went down the tall slide in the park's Egyptian section!

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

Recall your football action figures?

Do you remember your football action figures? We had quite a few of them, including Peyton Manning (as a Colt), Jay Cutler, Adrian Peterson, Drew Brees, and Larry Fitzgerald.

We always had fun pretending to play a football game with them, usually three-on-three. Sometimes a Star Wars action figure would sub in the game!

The action figures were great because they 20 movable parts, but they'd fall apart because of it, especially with how roughly we played with them! I remember putting them back together (only for them to fall apart), taping them up to keep a leg or arm from falling apart, and then just plain buying a new one to replace a broken one!

We also would print then cut out and paste onto blocks pictures of action figures we didn't have!

Remember the Disneyland candy store?

Do you remember the candy store Marceline's Confectionery in Downtown Disney? It usually was our last stop before leaving Disneyland!

The candy store was conveniently located directly across from the bathrooms and an exit we could take to a sidewalk that led to the parking ramp. When you were in a stroller, I'd usually push you along in it, rather than take a tram, from the tram to Disney.

The store carried water and milk, a necessity for our drive back home. Sometimes we'd also pick up some treat for the ride back. You liked the Minnie Mouse cookies, and I usually got a pretzel stick with some caramel/chocolate/nut candy wrapped around it!

Our time together on Saturday, Nov. 16

At Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's,
Nov. 16, 2013

I had so much fun with you today, Kieran, as did the rest of the family. Everybody was so happy to see you again after all of this time. I thought I would take this entry to recap our day together.

We started with Uncle Chris and me picking you up at Caribou Coffee in Woodbury. Then we stopped in Hudson, Wis., where we went downtown to the bookstore. There you got some "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" notebooks and a football book. After that, we went to KFC and picked up lunch.

Following that, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's farm, where you got to meet the entire family and where we had lunch. We spent the afternoon playing games with your cousins Bryan and Rebekah and coloring. After they left, we played with Hot Wheels cars while listening to the Beatles and wrapped up the afternoon with dinner while playing Battleship.

From there, we traveled back to Woodbury and while waiting for Grandma Deb to pick you up put stickers in your NFL sticker book!

Found photo of you from summer 2008

I found some more photos of you while you stayed with Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's farm during the first half of 2008! I've been scanning them into my computer so that you'll have them later in life.

Here's one of them - you sitting on a swing in their backyard. You're only a year old in this photo! The grass is green, so it must have been taken during the summer. You definitely look sleepy!

Tomorrow (Saturday, Nov. 16), you'll finally get to go back to Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's farm and see where you spent the early days of your life and to re-meet them. Everyone is so looking forward to seeing you again!