Visiting the Santa Barbara Zoo

Three years ago today we visited the zoo in beautiful Santa Barbara, Calif.!

Though a small zoo, it was very pretty and had some great animals. The highlight for you probably was getting to feed a giraffe. You held leaves up to it, which it stuck its tongue and took from your little hands!

I like the condors a lot - they have been my favorite bird since I was a little boy! We also got to see gorillas, took a train ride around the zoo, fed goats, and went to the play area for fun!

Here are a bunch of pictures from our adventure!

My email to you from June 15, 2013

Here is my letter to you from June 15, 2013, in case you do not receive it.

Hi Kieran,

How are you today? I am doing fine, though I miss you very much! It was so nice to receive your email on Monday and catch up on what you were doing.

I’m glad to hear that you’re enjoying summer school. Does it go through August? Do you get some time off from school to enjoy summer vacation? Which of your friends are going to summer school with you?

I bet seeing the dinosaurs was a lot of fun! The science museum in St. Paul has a good collection of them. Which dinosaur was your favorite? My favorite dinosaur is the Troodon. It walked on two legs like a bird and had the biggest brain of all of the dinosaurs – and that still was only as large as a chicken’s brain! Some scientists think the Troodon may have had feathers.

The Twins game sounds fun as well! What team did they play? Who won (Hopefully yours!)? My two favorite baseball teams are not doing very well this season – the Dodgers are in last place and the Brewers are in fourth place! Maybe they’ll get things turned around, but usually by the end of June if a team isn’t in second or first place, the odds are against them going to the playoffs. Hopefully next year they’ll do better!

 

I’m so proud that you’ve learned to ride a bicycle! What color is your bike? When I was a little boy, we used to put playing cards in the spokes of our bicycle wheel so that when we cruised down the street it made this neat thwap, thwap, thwap! sound. Maybe you could send a picture of you on your bike.

I bet you had lots of fun at the farm. Did you get to feed any animals? Where was the farm at? Grandma and Grandpa Bignell no longer have animals on their farm, but when they did, there were cows, pigs and chickens. And of course, they had dogs and lots and lots of cats.

Tomorrow is a big day – it’s Father’s Day! This year to celebrate Father’s Day, I am reading essays at a book store in Stillwater about fatherhood and what a great son you are! What will you be doing for Father’s Day this year? Friday (yesterday) also was a holiday – Flag Day, in which we honor an important symbol of our country and all that it stands for. Did you notice a lot of American flags out yesterday? Traditionally people hang flags from their house on Flag Day. Did you hang one from your house?

Next Friday is the first day of summer – and also the 21^st when we get to see one another again! That’s just six days away! I can’t wait to see you then!

Be good in summer school, and I’ll see you on Friday! I definitely will brings the “Star Trek” stuff! I miss and love you very much!

Love,

Dad

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!