Recall your parking ramp toy?

Do you remember your cool parking ramp toy we had at the grene house in Lancaster? It was the Fast Lane Street Linx Parking Garage, and we got it one afternoon at Toys R Us. It ook me about any hour to put together, but we got plenty of hours of fun afterward from it!

The elevator on it didn't work too well, but we had lots of great adventures driving cars around on it. Probably the most exciting part of it, though, was the cool spiral ramp that we'd let cars sail down to see how far they'd go when they cleared the bottom floor.

This was one of two parking ramps you had. The other fell apart (Though we kept the blacktop roads that went with it for our construction toys), so we got this as a replacement!

Sledding in Hudson at the SnowPark

On Saturday, Jan. 11, we went sledding (or more accurately snowtubing) at Badlands SnowPark in Hudson, Wis. The snowpark was a series of hills on which we could slide down with intertubes!

I bought you a bunch of new winter clothes for you for the adventure, including boots and snowpants. You loved the cool skull stocking cap I got and wore it over your Angry Birds stocking cap! You also wore your sunglasses - the same ones you had in California!

We did the bunny hill, which still was quite "fun but scary," as you said. You even rode your own intertube down the hill. There also was a rope that you grabbed onto it, and it automaticlaly pulled you up the hill!

Unfortunatley, my camera batteries went dead in the cold, so I was unable to take any pictures of us...

Your NFL jerseys through the years

In your Phillip Rivers
jersey, 2011.

This past weekend when we were together, you mentioned that you don't recall ever having a Philip Rivers jersey. Probably not - you were just a preschooler when you had it! So I thought today I'd list all of the NFL jerseys you've owned (so far!):
>>Brett Favre (Minnesota Vikings) - We got the purple jersey at the mall in Palmdale, Calif., in 2010, the season that Favre had his big year with the Vikings and they went to the conference championship.
>>Philip Rivers (San Diego Chargers) - We bought this in Encinitas, Calif., in fall 2011. It was the navy blue jersey.
>>Matt Flynn (Oakland Raiders) - Though he as traded to the Green Bay Packers, I got the black jersey for you for Christmas 2013.

Three years ago today: Carpenteria Beach

Zen meditation on Carpenteria Beach

Three years ago today we went to the beach in Carpenteria, Calif.! The beach is north of Ventura along Hwy. 1 on the way to Santa Barbara.

The temperature was a perfect 71 degrees with clear, sunny skies and a gentle breeze off the Pacific Ocean. You had fun frolicking around in the sand, and I'm certain you enjoyed the weather, as the High Desert where we lived was a little cool.

We didn't spend much time on the beach, as we were on our way to Solvang for the day. On the way back, we stopped off in Ojai!

Here are some photos from our time at the beach!

Berenstein Bears' 'The Ghost of the Forest'

Do you remember your Berenstein Bears' book "The Ghost of the Forest"? It was one of your favorites when a preschooler.

In the book, Papa Bear takes the Bear Scouts on an overnight hike and campout. He secretly stashes a ghost costume in his backpack, though, so he can scare the Bear Scouts after telling them ghost stories around the campfire!

Except Mama Bear sneaks out into the woods in her our frightening costume and scares Papa Bear!

I got the book for you because it has hiking and camping in it - but you like the book for hte ghosts and scary scenes!

Our day together sledding and playing

Playing Beyblade

I had so much with you on Saturday, Kieran! Our few hours together went by so fast!

We started the day snow tubing on the bunny hill at Badlands Snow Park near Hudson, Wis. You might recall they had these all ropes you could use to ride up the hill. After that, we went inside the warming house and played foosball.

Then we went to Target and picked up some Beyblade materials and basketball cards. We disccovered during lunch at Culvers that the basketball cards cube we got was a rip-off, so we went back to pick up a big pack!

We spent the afternoon at Grandma and Grandpa Bignell's and played games, went through our NBA cards and NFL stickers, enjoyed a Star Trek phaser adventure on a derelict alien ship, and opened up a pack of Star Wars action figures (the making of Darth Vader set).

I can;t wait to get back together with you!

Kiddie songs from your preschool days

Earlier this week while going through my computer looking for files to delete - having less stuff on your computer helps it run faster, as it frees up memory - I came across some memories of us: a collection of children's songs that we often listened to when living in the green house in Lancaster.

Among the songs were "B-I-N-G-O," the Chipmunks doing Beatles hits, "If You're Happy and You Know It," and "I'm a Little Tea Pot." I collected them by copying DVDs from the library.

You really liked listening to the Chipmunks songs and some of the railroad songs, especially "I've Been Working on the Railroad." Sometimes, though, you'd ask me to play more adult music, like the pop and rock hits from the Sixties. You had grown-up tastes in music even as a preschooler!

Though you probably wouldn't listen to those kiddie songs now, I refrained from deleting them. Maybe one day you'll want to hear them just for old time's sake...