Remember our many Play-Doh sets?

You always loved Play-Doh when a preschooler. What kid doesn't, though? As an adult, its aroma is the scent of childhood, in an instant can flood the head with a thousand wonderful memories of its innocence.

You had four wonderful Play-Doh sets that I purchased for you - one to make hamburgers, a second to make Star Wars figures, another to make ice cream cones, and a fourth to make Transformers characters. You loved each one in turn and could spend up to an hour rolling the Play-Doh through your tiny hands and squishing it into the casts that came with each set.

We also had lots of Play-Doh colors and implements that I purchased separately for you. With them, we could make penguins and sharks and turtles as well as spell out your name. You always liked the orange plastic scissors and would cut up the Play-Doh slabs into smaller pieces.

As you grew older, you'd make me Happy Meals with the hamburger set, create an army of Transformers to battle one another, and pretend you were one of the Beatles making ice cream for another of his band mates. I think we had more fun playing with your Play-Doh creations than you did making them!

Our hike into an extinct volcano

As I promote my new hiking book, I find myself thinking a lot about all of the great hikes we've gone over the years. One of my favorites is at Amboy Crater, an extinct volcano in California's Mojave Desert, that we hiked in spring 2009. I've got a photo album of it at my Facebook site.

I carried you on my back in a child carrier to and from the volcano (in the photo at upper right, you can see the cone on the right side of the horizon), but once we got inside the cinder cone, I let you out. You had a blast running around the crater floor, which was covered in soft clay and hard black basalt. You'd pick up the basalt rocks and throw them and look at every bug that moved around.

It was quite a neat thought to think our playground for the afternoon was the center of a volcano that a few thousand years ago had spewed lava for miles around!

Your favorite CD as a preschooler

Whenever we drove someone, we invariably listed to a Beatles CD (Unless you were napping, then I might slip in something else.). The one CD of theirs you always asked for was "Please Please Me." It was the Beatles' very first record, and the melodies are fairly uncomplicated but certainly memorable.
Oftentimes you'd sing along to the CD, and once or twice I caught you humming one of the melodies.

You actually had memorized what number was what song, so if you asked to hear a specific title, and I fiddled around trying to find it, you'd say something like "It's No. 8"!

Your favorite tracks changed through the couple of years we had the CD and were together, but through it all you preferred No. 5 the most - "Boys" sung by Ringo. Here are the lyrics:

I been told when a boy kiss a girl
Take a trip around the world
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey, (Bop shuop) yeah, she say ya do (Bop shuop)

My girl says when I kiss her lips
Gets a thrill through her fingertips
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey, (Bop shuop) yeah, she say ya do (Bop shuop)

Well, I talk about boys
Don't ya know I mean boys
Well, I talk about boys, now
Aaahhh, boys
Well, I talk about boys, now
What a bundle of joy!
[Alright, George!]

My girl says when I kiss her lips
Gets a thrill through her fingertips
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey (Bop shuop, m'bop bop shuop)
Hey, hey, (Bop shuop) yeah, she say ya do (Bop shuop)

Well, I talk about boys
Don't ya know I mean boys
Well, I talk about boys, now
Aaahhh, boys
Well, I talk about boys, now
What a bundle of joy!

Oh, oh, ah yeah boys
Don't ya know I mean boys?
Ooh, boys
Ah ha
Well I talk about boys now

Can't wait until we're together again to listen to the CD again!

New book has your picture on its cover

Wish we together today, Kieran, so we could go out and celebrate: Your picture is on the cover on my latest book, "Hikes with Tykes: Games and Activities," which was released yesterday (Friday, July 20, 2012). The picture was taken in April 2011 when you were just barely 4 years old during a hike we took to Vasquez Rocks (which you called the "Kirk Rocks") near Agua Dulce, Calif. There are lots of pictures of our hikes there in my Facebook photo albums.

Anyway, the new book lists all kinds of games and activities parents can so with their children before, during and after a hike. In fact, if you read the book, you'd probably recognize most of the games in them - mainly because we tested almost every one of them in the car and or when out in the wilds!

During the enxt few weeks as I promote the book, your picture probably will appear on lots of different newspapers and on plenty of websites. I'll be sure to save copies of them for you to look at later in life and will note them on this blog for you.

Your favorite: 'The Book That Eats People'

"The Book That Eats People" by John Perry had to be your favorite book growing up. You liked the one we checked out from library so much that I had to buy it for you.

The book is apparently a monster that likes to eat people - and the story tells of all the kids it ate and how it was captured. It's full of warnings about what you should do to remain safe whenever with the book.

You loved the safety tip that says we should grind up the page's book in your "daddy's coffee grinder." You were only 3 or barely 4 when you told me "We should do that, Daddy!"

Another part of the book tells how it swapped covers with the book "All About Dolphins." I once checked out a book about dolphins at the library (when you 3 or barely 4), and you got scared because you thought hidden under the cover it might be the real book that ate people!

The last line of the book was "Because this is a book that eats people!" and whenever I finished reading it, I'd snap the book at you like it was going to bite. You'd jump back and roll in laughter and ask me to read the book again.

Can't wait to read the book to you again - and to give the copy of the book to you to keep forever!

Do you remember going to the beach?

Ventura city beach, Feb. 2012

One of your favorite places to go when you were little was to the beach. There were a couple of ocean beaches in particular that we uusally went to - the Ventura city beach next to the pier in Ventura, Calif., and Moonlight Beach in Encinitas, Calif.

We spent a lot of time building sand castles - which you then always liked to knock down in some large imaginary battle! You'd usually help me build a couple of turrets, play with the sand toy vehicles for a bit (Sometimes you'd bury the vehicles in the sand and ask me to find them!), and then ask me when I'd be done with the castle so that you could knock it down! Sometimes you;d let me bury you in the sand, too.

Next we'd head down to the water, where we'd play chase and avoid the waves. You loved to get wet and splash in the water. Sometimes I think you were pretending it was a great monster trying to capture you.

Both beaches also had playgrounds, and we'd usually spend a little time there to warm up after going into the cold water. If we were lucky, there usually was an open food stand nearby so that we could enjoy a snack!

I'm afraid the water bodies here in the Midwest aren't quite as exciting as the Pacific Ocean, but there are some neat beaches on the St. Croix River that I can't wait to take you to.

Your picture is on another online article!

My article “Hiking with Kids – Avoiding Common Summer Injuries” appears in the latest edition of Seattle Backpackers Magazine - and pictures of you from hikes we've taken together appear with it!

The article examines how to avoid and treat sunburn, heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Seattle Backpackers Magazine is an online magazine focusing on backpacking, hiking, climbing and camping.

The top picture is of you enjoying water during a rest break we took before entering Nightmare Gulch at Red Rocks State Park north of Mojave, Calif.

The next photo down is of you at the southern edge of the Mojave Nature Preserve in Southern California, just off the I-40. I believe the Providence Mountains are in the background. It was taken in March 2011.

The bottom photo is of you playing with my trekking pole on Ritter Ranch Preserve near Acton, Calif. You're standing on rock that's half a billion years old!

There are photo albums of all of these hikes/travels on my Facbeook site.

I can't wait to go hiking with you again - there are some great trails in northwestern Wisconsin for us to hike!