Photos: Barbara Jean Wilcox Goodale

Back in a November entry "Tribute: Barbara Jean Wilcox Goodale" I paid tribute to my mom on the third anniversary of her death. At the time, I promised to post some pictures of my mom. Well... I've finally gotten a chance to do that. At the risk of having my sisters cry as I did as I was going through these, enjoy the photos below, and 160 archived photos posted on Flickr; please click here.

Ahhh... such a cute little baby!!!

Man... was Mom a hottie, or what?!?!?!

Barbara and all of us kids in about 1976. Man... I simply GOTTA find a suit like this again!!! :-)

Michelle and I on our wedding day, March 26, 1988, with both of our moms.

Barbara and all four of her wonderful children in Junction City, Oregon, in about 2000 (perhaps my sisters here can help me with the exact date of this photo).

Sledding!!!

We spent Christmas Eve day sledding in the hills near Idaho City (about a one-hour drive from home). We went with our friends, the Ashbys. Below are some links to videos I shot of the kids sledding over a jump they made in the snow, as well as several photos from the day. For a link to all the photos I posted, please click here.

• Video of Mark sledding over the jump.
• Video of Andrew sledding over the jump.
• Video of Christopher sledding over the jump (1).
• Video of Christopher sledding over the jump (2).
• Video of Justin sledding over the jump (1).
• Video of Justin sledding over the jump (2).

Steven sledding down the hill!!!

Justin catching some serious air over the jump! It doesn't look like his landing will be too comfortable!!!

Christopher catching air over the jump while doing a 180 from stomach to back!!!

Andrew with his trademark silly face while catching air on a jump!!!

Look at the nice sons standing by laughing at Mom going over a jump!!!

Silly Brianna going over a jump!!!

Andrew catching some big air over a jump!!!

Swimming, Anyone???

Below is a picture of our (closed-for-the-season) pool this morning, after a night of snow. By the time I took this photo, the kids and the dog had already been out there playing, trampling down all the snow, but you still get the idea. Anyone for a nice cool dip, anyone? Contrast that with the two photos below, taken at Justin's graduation party we had at our pool back on May 25th.

Forget swim trunks... ice skates, anyone???

John's BBQ chicken was the hit of all of our pool parties this summer!

Nice dive, A.J.!!!

Birthday Tradition

Another tradition that we have in our family is that for each person's birthday, that person picks a restaurant, and we all go do dinner. Well... even though Brianna and Michelle had birthdays earlier this month, because December is so hectic, we just finally got around to doing that tonight. Brianna chose Olive Garden. Here's a picture from dinner; silly faces abound (where DO the kids get that from???!!!). While we were at dinner, it started snowing outside, and by the time we drove home, it was snowing quite hard. It was gorgeous, but it sure made driving tricky!

Christmas Programs

OK... in the spirit of keeping grandparents, especially, up to date, below are videos shot from Mark's and Steven's elementary school Christmas programs this past week. Enjoy.

Train Tensions

Howdy from LAX. Even though I'm not home yet, I'm close! This morning on the train in Tokyo, though, something interesting happened. It was rush hour, trains were packed, and Tokyo was its typical bustling self. I was on the train with my colleague, Takumi Shimizu, from our Tokyo office. Standing right by us was a young man and a young woman, probably both early 20s. She apparently lost her balance on the train, and stepped on his foot. Wow did this ever set him off in a rage. He started yelling at her (all in Japanese, of course), "Why did you step on my foot, you idiot; that hurt!" She countered with "I didn't do it on purpose, you idiot!"This guy was REALLY hot. Fortunately, he never took his hands out of his pants pockets; otherwise I fear he would have started hitting her. Shimizu-san, who is a big guy, especially for a Japanese person, put his arm in between them and all he did was say a soft but forceful, "Anata!" ("You!") to each one in turn as they wanted to keep the shouting match going. Each "Anata!" backed them off, though, and eventually it just became a silent stalemate. Way to go, Shimizu-san!!!

I think my colleague, our local Sales Manager, in Tokyo is a pschrink in disguise. He handled the situation very nicely.

Visiting Family in California

This past weekend Michelle and I were down in SoCal for a company holiday party, and took advantage of the opportunity to visit family. It was great to see Michelle's mom and sister and her family, as well as Michelle's dad and his wife. We had a really nice time.

Michelle with her mom and sister.

Michelle's mom and her sister and family.

Visit with Santa

Ahhh... fun family traditions. Each Christmas we go visit Santa at the mall, and then go to a Hallmark store (typically) and each child picks out a dated Christmas ornament. That way, each child will have a collection or ornaments when he/she leaves home. Justin's now sort of regretting the Michael Vick ornament he chose a couple of years ago, but dog-gone-it, at least that ornament will come with a good story!!! I was in Japan Monday night when the family went out to do this, but I look forward to seeing 2007's ornaments when I get home! Picture with Santa, below. Does Steven look excited for Christmas, or what?! :-)

Christmas Piano Duet

This Sunday in church, Brianna will be playing a Christmas hymn piano medley duet with a friend of ours. Below is a video of one of their practice sessions. Pardon our friend's son running in, Brianna having to reach up and stop her cell phone from vibrating, and other distractions. I think it's a pretty cool medley.

I'm an Alien!!!

Greetings from Tokyo! My family has always suspected it, but know we all know it's true: I'm an alien!!! Among other things, I'm in Tokyo this week setting up my alien registration in Japan. I had the LOVELY pleasure of spending time with government folks and attorneys today, and all of a sudden not only am I an alien, but I feel like I actually have a personality!!!
(was that a slam on government officials and attorneys??? - I wouldn't dream of it!!!)
Anyway... I thought the view of the sunset from my hotel room was quite pretty, so I snapped a picture and here it is.

Signed... your favorite (now registered) alien (I'm now keeping an eye out for the Men in Black)

Orchestra Gig

Last week, Justin was in a paid orchestra gig - saweet!!! Justin is a member of the Idaho Choral Symphony Orchestra, a professional orchestra made up of musicians from the Boise area. Their Christmas concert was Wednesday night, and they sounded great! One of their pieces was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. What a moving piece of music! Anyway... here is a shot of part of the horn section.

Heart Attack!!!

OK... sorry... that was an unfair Title to give to this blog entry. Worry not... nobody here has had a heart attack or anything.

It seems to be a tradition here that you "heart attack" your (girl)friends on their birthday. We woke up the other morning to discover this (see photo) on our front door. "I love you" hearts and messages strewn all over our door. Brianna has been heart attacked.

Andrew is a Star!

The other night in a Boy Scout Court of Honor, Andrew was awarded BSA's "Star" rank advancement. Only two more to go now until Eagle, and he can join his older brothers in the Eagle's Nest.

In this picture, Andrew is pinning the Star Mother's Pin on Michelle. Rest assured... no mothers were harmed in the production of this photo (but a kid pinning something on his mom is always dangerous). :-)

Angels We Have Heard On High

Last night at her voice teacher's recital and again tonight at our church Christmas party, Brianna sang "Angels We Have Heard On High." You can check out the video from tonight's party, below.

Wii Sure are Silly!!!

Teenage girls, who normally wouldn't play videogames otherwise, can sure get silly playing tennis on Wii Sports!!! Brianna and her friend Ashley playin' tennis and trash talkin' and bein' silly, and little brother telling them to be quiet. Silly girls!