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...

Books from the library for car rides

One of my favorite things to do is to find library books for you that you can look at in the car as we travel from place to place. We live in a fantastic world with many great people and places, and I want you to learn about and experience as much of it as possible.

Having said that, it's always a challenge for me to find children's books at the library that will match your interests and that you can read!

In the past, I've checked out books on pirates, Star Wars, ancient Egypt, army soldiers, and the Old West, to name a few topics. One book that you REALLY liked was a Pirates of the Caribbean picture book from the Encinitas, Calif., library.

This weekend, I have books for you about football (specifically the AFC West with Philip Rivers on the cover), California, the Los Angeles Lakers, and a book of jokes!

Remember going on Astro Blasters?

Do you remember our many rides on the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Disneyland? It usually was our first ride when we arrived at the park as it was near the entrance and lines would get long quickly, so I was keen on getting on it as soon as possible!

After going through a queue in which Buzz gives us our orders, we board little carts/spaceships and go off to fight Emperor Zurg's evil robot minions and alien friends.

While in the moving carts/spaceships, we'd fire blasters (We had a toy one to play with!) at red lights on the robots and aliens. Sometimes the ride would stop moving due to a mechanical or a loading problem, and that was an opportunity to rack up megapoints as we could keep shooting at the same targets over and over!

The last scene is a gigantic battle with the Emperor Zurg himself!

After the ride, we were deposited in the store full of Toy Story toys, which we usually looked at, but after quickly growing bored with that, we'd scrambled across the way to Star Traders, which was the big Star Wars store!

Your NBA sticker album in 2013-14

Today's entry is less a memory than a marking of where you are today - because later in life it will be a memory!

One of your favorite activities this winter is collecting stickers of sportstars in sticker albums. I've already written about the NFL sticker album. Now that the football season is winding down, though, you're getting interested in basketball - and so you've been collecting NBA stickers!

You have the "2013-14 Official Panini NBA Sticker Collection Sticker Album". I mention the official name because I know that years later remembering the title of something, even of a really important book in one's life, can be difficult.

You've also told me that your favorite teams are the Los Angeles Lakers, the Los Angeles Clippers, and the Oklahoma Tornado!