More Snow

It snowed pretty much all day today. However, as it actually warms up tonight it's supposed to turn to rain, making tomorrow a very slushy, yucky day. We think that the snow, though, is actually quite pretty. Check out the picture of our house tonight, with all of the snow. Can you tell which car didn't get driven today? :-)

They are saying that this month is the second-snowiest December in Boise on record. Driving in it is somewhat of a pain, and the truck even got stuck in the snow tonight and had to be dug out. My MDX is the only car in the family with four-wheel drive (as part of its automatic traction control system, or manually locked on 4WD), and it sure comes in handy!

As you can see from the pictures (especially the one at the right, driving south on Five Mile just below Chinden), sometimes it's just plain hard to see where the roads are. However, the city usually does a good job of clearing the biggest streets. Fellow Boise residents whom have been here for a long time tell us this is the worst they can remember. So it's usually not this bad. Even if it is, we're finding it completely tolerable, and the kids have A LOT of fun playing in it!!! But... so much for the "mild" winters we were promised! :-)

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas, everyone. Santa was super nice and brought us a very white Christmas!!! We got quite a bit of snow overnight. Oh... and he also brought our family a ping pong table. How did he ever fit that in his sleigh?! To the left here are the five Goodale kids (still at home) checking out their Santa stockings, which he left on the ping pong table. Brianna has a really confused look on her face; I'm not sure what's stumping her puzzler.

To the right here is a picture of Shadow out by our pool. Check out all the snow there on the diving board! There are 18 more present-opening and white Christmas shots posted here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.

Merry Christmas!!! According to the weather map below, we're certainly not alone in having a white Christmas!!!

Let It Snow!!!

So... the other day Michelle was out driving in our snow-laden Boise (it has been snowing A LOT!!!), and I asked her how her drive was. When she replied that her van fishtailed only once, my initial thought was, "Oh... I'm sorry it wasn't more!" :-)

Horrible example to my children that I am, I've found it quite fun to drive around in the snow and slide all around. Admittedly, though, the traction control system and the ABS on my MDX actually make if difficult to go too crazy.

But all of this has gotten me thinking about the harsh winter the entire country is experiencing. I love the icicles that appeared just out our back door (see pics herein; click to see larger versions), as snow melting from our room ran down the branches of this bush. While my friends in California who say that 50 degrees is "freezing," I'm sure that my friends in Minneapolis are thinking that 25 here in Boise is tee-shirt weather! So I guess all things are relative.

Our third winter in Boise, though, and I'm still loving it. I find the snow to be peaceful and beautiful, and I get excited every time it snows! :-)

Back Yard Snow Camping

Three years ago, hailing from sunny southern California, we couldn't have imagined this! But check this out. In order to prepare for next month's "Klondike" Boy Scout overnighter in the deep Cascades snow, Andrew and Mark decided to camp outside tonight in our back yard. At Klondike, the boys (and myself, if I'm in town) will be camping in snow probably 6-8 feet deep; many of the boys hollow out caves in the snow, and sleep in those.

We've had quite a bit of snow this weekend here in Boise, and it's forecast to continue snowing every day through Christmas. We will have a very White Christmas, and we're looking forward to that!

The tent you see here is pitched in the corner of our back yard, right by the patio deck and the pool. A corner of the pool is visible in the upper left corner. The day's snowfall has been cleared off in their apparent snowball fight, but the pool is completely frozen over. I should have taken pictures, but earlier today you could see Shadow's footprints in the fresh powder snow. Shadow is about 80 pounds, so the pool is pretty solidly frozen! Care for a swim, anyone??? :-)

Goodale Kids with Santa

We recently received a Christmas card from Larry Waugh, the best high school teacher ever (and the only one that I keep in touch with)!!! In his card he guilt trips me and says, "We enjoyed your 2007 newsletter and are looking forward to the 2008 edition." I think that in the past eight-or-so years, we've done only three (I think) Christmas newsletters, yet some have considered it a tradition. We're not doing so well with that tradition this year (I still need to pen this year's edition)...

However, there is one Christmas tradition that we NEVER miss, although this year it was changed a bit. Without fail, we do a picture of the kids visiting Santa. This year was no exception; however, for the first time ever, we're missing one of our children. We visited Santa on December 9th (Brianna's 16th birthday!!!), and Justin is not in the picture as he is serving a mission in Tulsa Oklahoma. Hopefully his ward in Clarksville, Arkansas did a ward Christmas party, and there will eventually be a photo of Elder Goodale from that (but I won't hold my breath). :-)

My pressing question, as perhaps is yours, is where did Steven's lips go??? His trademark smile is really cute, but his lips seem to have disappeared. :-)

Enjoy this year's photo, but more importantly, HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

John and Michelle in Europe

Michelle and I certainly had a GREAT time in Europe together (Michelle and I at the right, on the Ferris wheel at the Concorde Square in Paris)!!! And as I write this post, I'm stuck in Minneapolis. Severe winter weather in both Paris and in the midwest caused me to get only two-thirds the way home. Michelle left Tuesday morning from Boise, via L.A. back to Boise. She made it home last night. I had a business meeting Tuesday morning, so I left in the afternoon, from Paris through Detroit and Minneapolis. My flight from Paris was delayed for two hours due to fog. That would have made me miss my Detroit connection, but flights out of there were late, too, so I actually made my flight there. But by the time my flight landed in Minneapolis, my connecting flight to Boise had already taken off. So here I sit in Minneapolis, not able to get a return flight until this evening.

But what a GREAT time Michelle and I had. After I had some good business meetings in Paris and in Frankfurt (I have some great opportunities there, which I will undoubtedly follow up on in the future), I picked Michelle up at the airport in Frankfurt, she just having arrived from Boise via L.A. and London.

On Saturday, we drove from Frankfurt to Paris, stopping in Heidelburg, Germany and Strassbourg, France along the way. The Heidelburg Castle was incredible (Michelle at the castle pictured here on the left)!!! It's amazing to think that at some point that was somebody's home! It would be a nice-sized home for our family, but man... I can only imagine how cold it gets in those big stone castles. Strassbourg was a very cute city, but a bit of a disappointment. We wanted to see the cathedral there, but it's right downtown, and Christmas shoppers flooded the streets so that many of them were blocked off, and we couldn't find parking anywhere! We were a bit pressed for time to get to Paris, so we ended up not stopping there, and just drove through the city a bit.

On Sunday, we attended church in Paris. Went to all three hours, and Michelle was in heaven!! It reminded her so much of her mission there, and she really enjoyed it. I'll have to talk more about the diversity of Paris, and how it makes things so interesting.

After church on Sunday, we walked through the Louvre. Sure it was artsy fartsy, but I actually really enjoyed it! It was cool seeing all those old relics; kind of like a family reunion! Just kidding! They have 35,000 works of art there, from obscure stuff to the Mona Lisa. After the Louvre, we walked down the Champs Des Eleysees. I'm sure I'm butchering spelling, so I'll have Michelle correct me later. :-)

On Monday, we went all over, including seeing the St. Germain, the Notre Dame (Michelle pictured herein at the Notre Dame cathedral), and others. We also took a Seine River boat cruise, and saw quite a bit of the city that way. Without the guide book, sitting here in my Days Inn room in Minneapolis, I'm afraid I cannot put in too much detail. Perhaps I'll add some later.

Enjoy the pictures herein; I have also posted all 175 photos on Flickr; please click here. Since Facebook albums cannot hold more than 60 photos, you'll find the photos on Facebook in three different albums: Pics from Paris (#1), Germany, and Pics from Paris (#2).

But, as a MasterCard commercial might say, "Two tickets to Europe: 140,000 miles. Hotel rooms paid mostly by clients: nearly free. 20 Paris Metro tickets: about $20. A weekend in Paris together with no kids: Priceless." We had a GREAT time, and fortunately, it was very cheap (it had to be)!!! :-)

Pictures from Paris

Tonight I took the Metro from my hotel to the Concorde station, right near the Concorde monument. It's also at the one end of the Avenue des Champs Eleysees. I walked from the Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe (the length of my walk pictured here, at the right). What a beautiful walk! It's pretty all lit up for Christmas. My guess is that it was somewhere between 32 and 35 degrees (F) out - somewhat chilly. But there were a lot of people out, and I enjoyed the walk. Posted here are 4 of the 10 pictures I've put online, these and the others are posted here on Facebook or here on Flickr. Enjoy.

A view down the Avenue des Champs Eleysees. Notice the people eating at the brasserie, sitting OUTSIDE. This is what you do in France, so that you can people watch, even when it's freezing (literally) outside!!! :-)

Me standing in some funky sculpture on the Avenue des Champs Eleysees. I set my camera on my tiny travel tripod, set the self-timer, then jumped in the picture. A couple was walking by, and the woman looked at me standing there, looked at my camera going off by itself (I used the flash), and said to her companion, "tres intelligent." I returned the compliment by taking a picture of the two of them, with their camera, standing in this same sculpture.

I love the architecture in France. I thought this shot was cool, because I could see the architecture, with the French flag waving on top of the building, and the moon in clouds in the background. This building, on the Avenue des Champs Eleysees, was the forger Embassy for Thailand ("former" because in front there was a sign announcing their new address).

Observations from Paris

Whenever I travel, even though my wife accuses me of not being very observant, I at least TRY to notice things that are different wherever I'm at, and then point them out to my family, so they can sort of "travel with me." I have two observations tonight, one completely useless trivia, and one gross, hence no photos in this posting. Here goes:

1. Opening the Subway Door. I've ridden subways (Metros, tubes, chikatetsu... whatever you want to call them) in Tokyo, Nagoya, Seoul, Shanghai, Hong Kong, France, London, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, Daegu, New York City, once in L.A., and even in Atlanta (MARTA). There's one thing totally unique to the Parisian Metro. Can anybody think of what it is? OK... I'll tell you. In my experience, ONLY in France do you have to open the car door to get on of off the Metro, by pushing a green button on the door. In every country I've ever been in, each door on the subway cars just open automatically. Here in Paris, though, for every single door or every single car of every single train on the Metro, you have to open the door to get on (or off). Push the button. I guess this is actually a pretty efficient way of doing things. I also imagine that it would stop some people from trying to dive in to the car as the doors are closing (I've seen people get injured doing that in other cities!). I have noticed, though, that the doors, upon pushing the botton, will start opening even before complete stop. Yikes!
2. Nobody Pukes Like Europeans. OK, now this is just weird and gross. Last night as I was crossing the street (in a busy crosswalk), this man coming the other way started puking. And just kept walking (while bending over slightly and inserting his stomach contents on to the ground), like nothing ever happened. "Oh geesh... puke... I guess I better just keep walking!" I've now witnessed this in England, Germany, and France. And every time it's like nothing ever happened! They just keep going. Now... when I start puking, I feel awful and want to go lay down! I must hand it to the Europeans, that they really know how to puke and keep right on going!!!
   

Sunsets & Our Life

We love the sunsets we get here in Boise. They are a nightly occurrence, and they're awesome. In spite of the fact that they're predictable, both nights this week that I ran out to take pictures of them, they were nearly gone, and not as bright and pretty as they had been, even 10 minutes earlier. The one on the right, here, is taken from our front porch, and the others here are taken from various points in our neighborhood.

Something funny happened at dinner the other night, too. You'll see this as one of the chapters in my book, if I ever get it published, but we put a high priority on everybody gathering for dinner each night. As part of this, we'll often go around the table and each person will share what the best part of his/her day was, or conversely, the worst part of their day. With both Michelle and I, we each stated that the best part of our day was going out and shopping with each other earlier in the day. Christopher's reaction was, "That's it? That was the best part of your day? You guys need a life!"

But that's my life, and I can't imagine being any happier any other way! :-)

Speaking of being happy, enjoy also the picture of Andrew using Shadow as a pillow. Shadow seems to enjoy this, as do the kids. Christmas stockings hung over the living room fireplace (fake logs there, but we have a real fireplace in our family room).

Merry Thanksgiving!!!

Being a non-alcohol household, this past weekend for Thanksgiving we went all out and bought four bottles of Martineli's Sparkling Cider. Non-alcoholic, of course. Saturday, Steven polished off the last of the leftover bottle of cider, and since it was the last drop, we just let him drink it straight from the bottle. Brianna took this picture with her phone. I just thought it was really funny; he totally looks like a wino! :-)

Goodale Family Pictures

Back on October 22nd, we had some family photos taken. Our first family photos since moving to Idaho. Becky Phillips took the photos, and she did a great job! She's a girl after my own heart, and still loves her trusty dusty plain-ol'-regular-film SLR (Single Lens Reflex) camera. She took a bunch with her digital SLR, as well, and they all look great, in spite of the subjects she was shooting! :-)

We had the photos shot at a place in Eagle, Idaho, only about five minutes from our home. The Fall leaves made for a very nice backdrop, as well as did the grass, the river, and all the beauty that is in Idaho, right in our back yard, practically!

Posted here are a few of the photos, and you will find more on Facebook or on Flickr.

A cute shot of the kids sitting on a log.

Sorry Steven is sort of hidden in this shot, but as you can tell, we had a lot of fun during the photo shoot! :-)

Isn't it nice that Brianna's brothers are so supportive?!?!

Ahhh... even got several shots of Mom & Dad.

We used to do these "Stack-'O-Kids" shots when the kids were younger. These shots were so much easier several years ago!!!

Singing National Anthem

Back on November 20th, Brianna and her friend, Danielle Despres, sang the national anthem before a Boise State University basketball game. They do this sort of thing quite a bit, with several engagements in December, including another BSU game tonight (I'm planning on going to this one - I've been out of town when they've done it previously). They are doing some Steelheads hockey games in December, as well. It reminds me of the phrase, "I went to a fight once, and a hockey game broke out." :-)

The video is embedded from YouTube, below, plus can be found here on Facebook.