Goodale Family Musings

Japan with Brianna and Andrew

2011-07-02T22:11:00.001-06:00

Earlier this year (March 24 to April 3) we continued the Goodale family tradition of Dad taking each kid to Japan for their 16th birthday. Though it was two year late for Brianna and a few months early for Andrew, I took two kids with me this time. Man oh man did we have a great time and create a lot of memories.

The two of them going together I think made it a lot of fun for them, too. Brianna and Andrew are really close, and they had a great time traveling together with me. Probably one of the funniest moments was when we were in a subway car pulling in to a station in Tokyo. Just as the subway was coming to a stop, Brianna gave Andrew a play slap (as they tend to do), only it landed much harder than she intended. Well... there were some high-school-age girls standing on the platform (outside the subway car) who saw and probably heard this exchange. At first, the girls got this horrified look on their faces, but then when they saw both Brianna and Andrew laughing hysterically at the whole thing, they start laughing hysterically, too.

Not funny was what was going on in Japan at the time. We arrived just a couple of weeks after the devastating earthquake/tsunami of March 11th in northeastern Japan. Due to radiation scares, etc. there was much debate beforehand whether or not we should even complete the trip, but having planned it for months in advance, we decided to go, and we're sure glad we did. Most of our time was spent in western Japan, anyway, far away from any possible radiation effects. We spent just a couple of days in Tokyo, where the biggest thing we noticed was that stores closed early, and many lights were off throughout the city, due to electricity shortages due to the Fukushima nuclear power plant being out.

We started in Nagoya, where we traveled to Toyota to attend church on Sunday morning, March 27th. I served in Toyota for 10 months of my mission (nearly 25 years ago!), so it's always fun to go back there. Then after tooling around Nagoya, we headed down to Kyoto.

We used Kyoto as a basis to explore Nara, where we went to Kasuga Taisha, saw the Great Buddah (60+ foot statue), crawled through Buddah's nostril (well... Brianna and Andrew made it, ensuring their passage to heaven), and played with the deer ("shika!") at Nara Park. Oh my goodness the deer could be terrifyingly aggressive!

Of course, we spent a day seeing the awesome cultural shrines, etc. at Kyoto: the Golden Pavilion, Kiyomizu-dera, Toji; as well as Nijo Castle. Both Brianna and Andrew discovered that they dug tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets) while in Kyoto. We went and saw this funky cultural presentation, too, with a traditional tea ceremony, some geisha dancing, a weird puppet show, and so on. But we also got to see Kiyomizu-dera "light-up" where for just a couple weeks a year it's open at night and the hillsides, temples, trees (cherry blossoms!!!) are all brilliantly lit up.

According to Brianna and Andrew, probably the most fun part of the trip was the day we went to Miyajima. We had a ton of fun just exploring the island for a full day. If you ever make it to Japan, DO make an effort to spend a day on Miyajima. It's a small island (probably 3 miles by 5 miles long, rising up to a peak of about 1,700 feet) just off the coast from Hiroshima. We just LOVE this awesome photo of Brianna and Andrew holding up the famous floating red Shinto gate with their bare hands!

Then we did one thing I had never done before on these trips: explored the Peace Parks at both Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the same day. Though I had noticed the extreme contrasts of both parks, it was particularly poignant (I've always wanted to use those two words together) seeing them both in the same day. The positive (yet realistic) uplifting presentation at Hiroshima, versus the dark, depressing memorial that is Nagasaki. It was a lot to accomplish in just one day, and we just barely made it back to the Nagasaki train station for the last train back to Hiroshima (where we were staying in a hotel) that night.

Two major disappointments on the trip, though, so I guess we'll have to go back again some day! First of all, there is this awesome monkey park at Mt. Misen on Miyajima (accessible only via ropeway), where when I've been there before we've seen hundreds of monkeys. But on this trip, not a monkey was seen. Brianna, in particular, was quite sad. I don't know where all the monkeys were. The second disappointment was that due to the earthquake/tsunami, Tokyo Disneyland was still closed the entire time we were there.

In spite of that, we had fun in Tokyo, too. When I was 16 years old, we had a home stay student from Japan live with us for three weeks during the summer of 1982, and I'm still very good friends with him. We spent a day with he and his two daughters exploring Tokyo together. We went to Asakusa and Kaminarimon, we took a water bus tour down the Sumida River, we explored the Odaiba area, and we wrapped up the day going to Tokyo Tower. While we were waiting in line to take the elevators up to the top, they ceased operations briefly to inspect the tower. We hadn't felt it while waiting there at ground level, but they announced that there had been an aftershock, and needed to do a minor inspection of the tower before continuing. But continue they did, and we all got high together in Tokyo.

We had an amazing time, and I am so grateful to have some awesome kids!!! To view all the pics/videos from the trip, you can go to the Flickr site here. I also have a 10-page, 6,820-word, 78-point daily report compilation if you're interested in that, too.

Hanoi Happenings

2011-03-17T05:23:00.000-06:00

I really do tire of all the business travel that I do, but occasionally I get to visit somewhere I've never been to before, and I get to check out more of the great planet we live on. This week is just such an occurrence.

I have been in Seoul for the past couple of days, a place I've been to... what... maybe 30 times? Have spent lots of time there, and I do like Seoul, but this morning I was excited to fly off to my first-ever trip to Vietnam today for a Unity seminar we're giving here tomorrow, sponsored by the Vietnam chapter of the IGDA (International Game Developers Association). Now... perhaps I've seen too many Vietnam War movies that have influenced this, but whenever I've thought of Vietnam, I've thought of rice patties. In my window seat in one of the smallest economy class seats I've ever been in (on Vietnam Airlines), the view on approach to the Hanoi airport didn't disappoint: rice patties... and lots of them! Check out the photo here.

Now... the organizers of this event booked the hotel for us (I have a colleague joining me here tomorrow morning). Sort of a brave step leaving hotel bookings to the locals, but in this case, it worked - sort of. It's actually a cute little quaint, family-operated hotel. And the room is nice, and large. I'm just not sure about the section of town we're in. After checking in, I went out on a walk for a couple of hours. In that couple of hours I walked probably two miles, and didn't see a single other foreigner. In fact, most everybody on the street stared at me like I was some sort of freakish anomaly (though I've been called worse).

Maybe it's like that in all of Hanoi? In all of Vietnam? I dunno... I just felt really out of place - and that's sort of unusual for me, with all the foreign travel I do. This second picture here is from my walkabout (you see it's rainy and dreary out) - I am learning that the Vietnamese certainly like bright colors! This is a Dept. of Labor building, painted bright yellow. Notice the French influence in architecture, too?

This last picture here is of what I think is a night club. I'm not sure what sort of cowboy look they're going for, but the place is called "Seventeen Cowboys" and through the cracked-open front door, it looked like a band was setting up in there. Maybe I should go check it out tonight! Then again... I'm liking my nice little cozy hotel and think I'll just turn in early. Such a party animal am I!!!

Anyway... I've posted 22 photos from today to my Flickr account (the set; the slideshow). Facebook seems to be blocked here, so I cannot post the pics there yet. But head on over to my Flickr account and check out all the pics. In the picture descriptions I mention the Backstreet Boys, heart attacks, stinky gutters, mopeds, electrical fires, and so on.

National Guard Gains Another Goodale

2011-01-08T09:32:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Justin was officially sworn in to the National Guard. Already-in-the-Guard brother, Christopher, was at the ceremony, as were Michelle, myself, and Grandma Cotter (Michelle's Mom), who took this picture on the right.

Justin's MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) will be 35F, Military Intelligence. He'll report for Basic Training on March 22nd, which will be followed by his 16-week AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.

But... what's REALLY cool is that Justin has been assigned to do Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood in St. Robert, Missouri. That's where Justin served for more than seven months of his mission, and he's SUPER excited to go back to that part of the country. Michelle and I hope to be able to go back for his Basic Training graduation when he's done, and during family day there it will be fun to have him show us around the area, meeting with his friends and such.

Below is the video of Justin's swearing-in, or you can also view it by clicking here. To see all ten pics from the swearing in ceremony, you can click here for Flickr, or click here for Facebook.

Thanksgiving at the Goodales

2011-01-03T14:15:00.000-07:00

Wow... am I ever behind on posting to the blog!!! We had a wonderfully quiet Thanksgiving at home some six weeks ago. My mother-in-law joined us for dinner, and we were supposed to have some guests from the Congo, as well, but as it turned out they could not make it at the last minute. It sure is wonderful meeting a lot of people from different cultures through the work that Michelle does with the International Refugee Center here in Boise. We are SO grateful for all of the many wonderful blessings we enjoy, and I may even be thankful enough that here it is January and I haven't had time to post on Thanksgiving, much less the wonderful Christmas we just enjoyed! :-)

Embedded below is a video taken at the Thanksgiving dinner table (or you can click here to view on YouTube). Note the huge ham in the foreground. We also had turkey; it's just hidden behind that big salad bowl. As for the audio in that video, you'll hear the phrase "Michael-sized bite" - check with me separately for the story that goes behind that phrase. :-)

Justin's Homecoming Weekend

2010-11-29T17:41:00.000-07:00

We had a really wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, as it was really our official homecoming weekend for Justin after his two-year missionary service (see his mission blog here). He gave his homecoming address in our church meeting on Sunday, and it was great because he had a full 35 minutes to talk about some of the incredible experiences he had... stories about the lives God was able touch through his efforts, and about how he also grew personally.

We also had an open house for him at our home on Sunday evening, where many friends and family members came to visit Justin and catch up with him. The following (below) is a video that I put together, that we showed at the open house. Man... over 200 pictures and a video in this embedded video below, nearly every one of them being associated with some story or another. We had so much fun Saturday night (up until about 1am) going through this with Justin, with him relating all the stories to us. It really was wonderful! Enjoy the video embedded below, or linked here.

Elder Justin Goodale Returns

2010-11-21T10:05:00.000-07:00

Our son Justin served in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from November 13, 2008 to November 19, 2010 (his mission blog here), and it was SOOOOOO good to see him when he came home Friday night. The video below, at the airport of Justin coming out of the terminal and hugging Mom, says it all.

To the left here is a picture of all eight of us, together again for the first time in two years.

We've had a great weekend catching up with Justin and learning so much about his past two years. Hearing of all his stories and experiences, triumphs and discouragements... of all the friends he's made and of the areas he lived in.

Thanks to all the family and friends who came to the Boise airport Friday night to welcome Justin home. We probably had about 30 people there, and we appreciate you all coming out.

Michelle and I know from experience how hard it is to readjust to "normal" life, but Justin is doing great. Now it's time to start submitting job applications, getting ready to go back to school, and so on.

You can see all of the pics we took from Friday night here on Flickr.

Robert Gale Goodale

2010-11-13T19:25:00.002-07:00

My father passed away at age 85 on October 31st, and I delivered the eulogy at his memorial services on November 8th. You will find two videos from those services below:

Video of the chapel services portion of his memorial services linked here.
Video of the graveside services portion of his memorial services linked here.

Services were held at Melrose Abbey in Anaheim, California, where Dad's remains are interred, next to his father's remains.

There are also several photos from the memorial services, linked here. There is one photo, linked here, where Rob and I are throwing a shovel full of dirt in to Dad's grave. In looking at this, we probably look entirely too happy and jovial about this. However, that's what Dad would have wanted! Thanks to my brother Rob for the EXCELLENT arrangements he made for Dad's services, while I was hurrying to wrap up some business in Tokyo to get home to try to help out.

And many thanks to those, too, who in one way or another have made this 9-day-business-trip-turned-in-to-19 more tolerable for me; it has been draining both physically and emotionally, and I appreciate everybody's kind words, thoughts and deeds. I travel home tomorrow finally! :-)

Below is the text of Dad's eulogy, mixed in with some hyperlinks and some scanned photos (the photos don't necessarily match up with the paragraph where they're placed) that I happen to have of Dad.

--------------------

Robert Gale Goodale
Eulogy given by John Goodale
November 8, 2010

I am John Goodale, the fourth of five children of Robert Gale Goodale, and the oldest son. As such, it is my privilege to offer some details of the life of our father, and to do offer some of the thoughts of the family on this sad, yet happy day.

Six years ago this month, I was on a business trip to Tokyo and learned of the passing of my mother. So it was with great irony that again I found myself on yet another business trip to Tokyo, and learned of the passing of my father. It must have been in the fog of jetlag that I mentioned to my siblings in an e-mail that if we all agreed, I would be happy to deliver a eulogy for Dad. Well… no response ever came to that e-mail, so it was with a degree of relief that I thought, “Wow… I guess my siblings all thought it was such a bad idea that they laughed it off and didn’t bother responding.” But here I stand, so I obviously misread their silence.

However, it truly is with honor and humility that I face this difficult task. I hope I deliver remarks that 1) make Dad proud, 2) cause you to learn more about Dad, 3) stir up memories of some of the great things about Dad, and 4) encourage you to always do your best when things don’t always go as you envision them.

Robert Gale Goodale was born on October 13, 1925 to Ralph Goodale and Bernice Smith Goodale, in Redfield, South Dakota. In going through Dad’s things this week, I actually learned a lot about Dad’s parents, Ralph and Bernice, and really developed a lot of love and respect for them. I had met and remember “Grandpa Ralph” and got to know him a little bit before he passed away when I was a young boy. However, I never had the opportunity to meet Bernice; in fact, Dad himself, did not remember her, either. Dad’s mother died when Dad was just two-and-a-half years old, of complications from appendicitis during a subsequent pregnancy.

However, before we travel down that painful road, I want to talk about something that Dad really LOVED all throughout his life. All of you who know Dad knew that he is a very intelligent man, and that he loved numbers. So let me throw out a few numbers associated with Dad.

9
22
5
17
6
13
705
..and finally, 31,064

So now back to Dad’s upbringing. Shortly after his mother’s death…
Oh wait a minute. I guess I should explain those numbers:

9. Dad weighed nine pounds at birth.
22. Dad was 22 inches long at birth.
(I think that with those numbers, some of you are probably questioning what it was that really killed his mom!)
5. Dad has 5 children.
17. Dad has 17 grand-children.
6. Dad has 6 great-grand-children.
13. Dad had a dog that had for 13 years. He adored that dog and the feeling was mutual; Dad recounts that the dog would even sing with him. 13 years that had that dog… a dog named “Lucky.” 13 years with Lucky. Ironic.
705. The number of days that Dad served in the U.S. Naval Reserves, trained as a pilot.
31,064. The number of days Dad lived in this earthly life. Dad would be proud because I’ve accounted for leap years in there and this is an accurate figure. I’m not as good at math as Dad is, but Microsoft Excel spreadsheets never lie!

After his mother’s death, my dad and his dad moved in to the home of his maternal grandmother, Olive Smith. According to Dad’s autobiographical account, he grew up feeling incredibly lonely and sad without a mother. However, he also talks very fondly of the care and nurturing his grandmother provided. Especially as his dad was a very successful traveling salesman, Grandma Smith largely raised him through these formative years.

However, as Dad was entering the 5th grade, his father remarried to a woman named Lucielle Johnson. Dad wrote that he was thrilled to finally have a mother; however, it also tore him apart. Dad wrote, and I quote,

Dad was taking me away from my grandmother. She was my security for the past five years, my source of nurturing. She was there when I needed someone to run to, when the outside world would be threatening and unfriendly. The old disquieting feeling crept back, my sense of loss.

Thus, Dad had some pretty dark days in his early, formative years. I often wonder how much different his life would have been… how different HE might have been, if he had had more of a “normal” upbringing.

And though Dad wondered these things, I don’t believe he dwelt on them. In fact, at the outset of these remarks, I mentioned that the fourth point I hoped to offer here is encouragement, to do our best when things don’t quite turn out how we envision them. In this regard, I wish to quote from Dad again, as it is instructive for all of us. He wrote,

Life is seldom ever as we wished it and thankfully so. Because we would not be where we are today if we had been given our choices and wishes instead of those visited upon us by fate.

What great words of wisdom and comfort those are! I know that I will try to be grateful that life is seldom what we expect it to be.

Dad was in his youth and teenage years when our great country even went through its own bit of things not quite turning out as intended: the Great Depression, and the great Dust Bowl or “Dirty Thirties” when the Midwest was hit particularly hard by severe drought and nearly-destroyed agricultural output. As Dad’s dad was a flour salesman and his livelihood was destroyed, they left South Dakota to try to find work in Houston, where Dad’s step-mother Lucielle had some relatives. After only about a year in Houston, they moved out to California, again where Lucielle had some relatives. Here they found relative success, and California became Dad’s permanent home.

During the remainder of Dad’s youth, however, he would spend summers traveling by train – alone – back to South Dakota to be with his beloved Grandma Smith. He loved those trips; he called them his “salvation” growing up. Dad once stated, “All little boys should have a grandmother like mine.” However, one part that he dreaded was sitting alone at the food counter at train stations on the trip back to South Dakota. Dad remarked to that this day he hates eating alone.

Dad entered Huntington Park High School in 1939, took college-prep courses, and played the cornet in the orchestra and band. After school, he did odd jobs around the neighborhood, and even had some permanent factory jobs that he worked at.

Dad’s entire high school experience was during World War 2. What an amazing and terrifying time that must have been! I think that the times were certainly reflected in his high school graduation ceremony in 1943. Going through some of his things this week, we found the printed commencement program from that event. The program’s theme was “The Four Freedoms” and featured four student speeches entitled, “Freedom of Speech,” “Freedom of Worship,” “Freedom from Fear,” and “Freedom from Want.”

Immediately after high school, Dad joined the Naval Reserves as an aviation cadet and was training as a pilot. Shortly after the atomic bombing of Japan, all cadets were offered the chance to go home. Just five weeks short of finishing the complete aviation program, he did opt out and was given an honorable discharge in October of 1945. He immediately enrolled at USC to study engineering.

Over these last few days as some of us siblings have spent time together, we have laughed and joked about the many ways that we’re like each other: the same laughs, the same mannerisms, the same way of speaking, and so on. So it’s probably no surprise to anyone that we are in many ways just like Dad. One of the similarities Dad and I share is that we both worked mostly as independent contractors during the course of our careers. Dad mentions just about four years of working as an employee for one company or another, and that’s about the same amount of time I have worked as an employee. Dad helped clients build things through his contracted civil engineering and architectural design services; I help clients build businesses in Asia. And ironically, Dad spent some time in Asia, and he always spoke fondly of the times he has traveled there.

Dad met my mother, Barbara Jean Wilcox, and they married on January 1st, 1950. They bought a home in Whittier, California, which is the home I grew up in and have so many great memories of. They had Kristin, Barbara, Susan, and myself, John. My sisters and I remain very close to this day, and I am glad that Kristin could be here today. My parents divorced in 1967.

Dad married Joan Marylin Briggs in June of 1969, and they had a home together in La Mirada, California. Together then had a son, Robert. Though Rob and I did not spend a lot of time together growing up, we are amazed at how much he and I are alike as brothers. When you see us here together today, please try not to laugh at how we look alike, talk alike, and laugh alike. Our similarities are really amazing, something we attribute not only to our Dad, but to our amazing mothers.

Dad and Joan were divorced in 1973, and Dad married Flora Mae McKnight DeMark in 1974. Dad and Flora had one stillborn child from their marriage, the baby named Aaron Burtis. Dad and Flora had 30 great years together before their divorce a few years ago. Indeed, they traveled the world together, and talked often of their trips to Europe, the Orient, and the Holy Land. They loved to travel in Dad’s camper-truck, and the explored much of our great United States that way.

Dad spent most of the last 6-7 years at the senior living community Sunnycrest Chalet in Fullerton, California. Dad made many dear friends there, and really enjoyed his time there. We truly appreciate the help the Sunnycrest staff gave Dad there.

Dad passed away quietly last Sunday, October 31st. In July of this year, Dad had promised me that he would live to see the election on November 2nd. He didn’t make it, but I’m confident he was viewing from the other side of the veil. Yesterday going through Dad’s things we found his unmailed absentee ballot, so nobody needs to worry about counting the votes of the deceased – at least in Dad’s case.

So that offers just a snapshot of Dad’s mortal probation on Earth. Now I would like to share some attributes of Dad, as well as some personal thoughts and stories on Dad as we reflect upon his life.

Dad had a deep and abiding faith in Jesus Christ, and he always enjoyed going to church, and attended congregations wherever he lived, even from a small boy. I believe it was partly attributable to this faith that he hung on to life and fought so hard until the very end.

One of the things that I remember my mother saying is what an outstanding dancer Dad was. I believe that he quite literally swept Mom off her feet. Unfortunately, he didn’t pass this attribute on to me, as I merely trip over the many left feet that he apparently DID give to me.

One of the things that I remember fondly about Dad was that he is an excellent singer, and I’m sure he’s thrilled to contribute his gorgeous bass voice to the choirs in Heaven. This IS something he passed along to me, and I really enjoy singing as well. For years, Dad was a member of the “Whittier Choralaires,” a non-profit barbershop singing group that raised money for mute children. As mentioned earlier, Dad’s part-shepherd, part-Seymour dog “Lucky” would often “sing” with Dad during his practicing.

Our sister Barbara recounts the following story about Dad’s singing:

Dad always had a very beautiful and powerful singing voice. I was a very little girl when dad's church hosted a night of singing and talent. Dad signed up to solo a very difficult number, "Soliloquy," I think from the musical "Carousel." It was very long with MANY lyrics and I was dad's practice audience out on our backyard patio (a very artistic patio, which he constructed). I very much enjoyed listening to dad practice and sing so beautifully... and in the process I also learned ALL the many words of the song. Dad performed magnificently the night of the performance at his church and I sat on one of the front rows. Somewhere mid-song dad forgot the words and faltered. I knew all the words and earnestly mouthed the words to him so that he could continue singing, which he did after a few moments. I choose to remember this when I reflect on growing up with Dad, but I was not quite sure I remembered this accurately. So, in July 2009 while visiting dad in Fullerton, I asked him about my memory and he verified my memory with gratitude that his very little daughter helped him to continue singing.

Dad was also physically very active, and enjoyed sports. I believe his old baseball glove is here on display today. Our sister Susan, an extremely accomplished softball pitcher in high school, recounts the following story:

Dad used to take me bowling at the bowling alley not far from his house. I always LOVED that. He taught me how to bowl and it seemed like I was pretty good. At least I felt like I was a good bowler anyway. Who knows, maybe that's why I was such a good softball pitcher? The sling shot style, which is how I started pitching, is based on the same principle as bowling. Between Mom telling me that I could do anything I wanted to, and dad teaching me the basics of pitching through bowling, maybe that's why I could pitch the way I did.

Our sister Kristin also talks about Dad taking her deep-sea fishing out of Newport Beach as a child. He also took our brother Rob deep-sea fishing out of L.A. Harbor, as well. Kristin speaks of Dad, always the efficient one, taking home the guts and other parts of the caught fish home to use as fertilizer in the flower bed. Maybe it could be said that Dad’s gardens really stank. ?

Now, Dad may have lacked some good parental examples in his life, and this along with other challenges he faced often made it difficult to express his love to his children. But I take this line from Dad’s very writings:

I am very proud of all my children and I love them far more than they will ever know.

Dad wanted to be a good parent, and there is no doubt that he truly did, and indeed still does, love us.

Dad’s life was filled with a fair amount of pain. I recount the following from Dad’s own writings:

I looked out and the world was dark and full of fears and uncertainties. My view was obstructed by the pounding that was a familiar part of me. The pounding was a headache again. It was not an unknown intruder into my life but an old familiar one. It dares me to look at the world and my life with rosy views.

Dad went on to write of a different kind of pain:

A rosy view you say? How can I look at the world with a rosy view when all I can see and feel is pain? My earliest memory is of pain. Not a headache but pain of another type. The pain of losing my mother... The pain of being separated and taken from my grandmother...

Speaking further of his physical pain, he wrote in his declining years:

Walking is difficult. The feet do not want to pick up and dance as in youth. Those feet that once skipped down the sidewalk will barely carry their burden across the living room carpeted floor or through the house. They seem to search out obstacles to stumble over. My eyes have lost their sparkle because of being dulled with the ever present pain of headaches. My hands, so steady in youth, are now thick with years of work and gnarled with calluses from hours of work.

Despite all this, I really admire Dad’s view of his world. He wrote the following:

The familiar pounding will come back and the world will look hazy and not as rosy as I would like it to look. But this is my world, this is my challenge, and this is my life. I will face it bravely every day and do the best I can with whatever resources I am granted and be thankful that I have been chosen to take this path of life and not the easier one that I view over the fence.

More than 11 years ago I gave the eulogy at the funeral of our sister Barbara’s husband, Steve. He, too, suffered a great deal in life. My sisters and I like to consider ourselves fairly devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, more commonly referred to as Mormons. We believe in modern-day revelation, and while this comes from one of our church leaders and a man we believe to be a prophet of God, I believe these remarks may offer comfort to all:

I have heard a great many tell about what they have suffered for Christ’s sake. I am happy to say I never had occasion to. I have enjoyed a great deal, but so far as suffering goes I have compared it a great many times, in my feelings and before congregations, to a man wearing an old, worn-out, tattered and dirty coat, and somebody comes along and gives him one that is new, whole and beautiful. This is the comparison I draw when I think of what I have suffered for the Gospel's sake – I have thrown away an old coat and have put on a new one. - Brigham Young

Dad has thrown away an old coat, and has put on a new one. Let’s be happy for him. And let’s be happy in the fact that, as Paul states in the Book of Romans, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18).

Dad was not a perfect man. But who amongst us is? I find great comfort knowing that Jesus Christ is our Savior, pleading our cause for us. In modern-day revelation we are told:

Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—
Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified;
Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.
(Doctrine and Covenants 45:3-5)

I hope that through my remarks here I have accomplished my previously-mentioned goals. I hope that I have made Dad proud. I hope that you have learned more about Dad. I hope you’ve had occasion to remember some of the great things about Dad. But most of all, I pray that you have found encouragement to do the best you can, no matter what life throws you. I offer that prayer and do so in the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Camping with the 11-year-old Scouts

2010-10-11T17:06:00.000-06:00

This past weekend our Boy Scout troop's 11-year-old Scouts and their Dads went camping. As you can tell from this extremely serious picture on the right, we had a good time! :-)

But seriously, we DID have a great time, and we even got a lot of scouting done. A couple of the younger Scouts got fires lit and helped cook for the troop, we did some orienteering stuff, we reviewed maps, we identified indigenous plants and wildlife (for the record, I was NOT identified as part of the wildlife), and we went over and passed off many rank advancement requirements. It was a very fun, productive campout.

As for where we camped, we just drove north on the 55 for about an hour and turned off toward Sage Hen Reservoir. Just picked a nice little spot at the side of the road up near Cascade. It turned out to be a great spot! Not very big for a Capture-The-Flag game, but with only four Scouts, we would have had a tough time doing that, anyway. And it was small enough to keep our little bundles of energy contained! :-)

We got no rain while we were up there, but MAN it was sure damp. Everything was absolutely soaked in the morning. As you can tell from this pic on the left (three of the Dads, plus Scoutmaster Christensen), we bundled up overnight. We didn't actually check the temp, but we believe it got down to 36-38 overnight. Nice and cozy!!! :-)

I have uploaded 29 pictures from camping; check them out here on Flickr, or here on Facebook. Enjoy.

Homecoming

2010-09-25T14:47:00.001-06:00

Last night was Centennial High School's Homecoming football game, and Brianna was on the Homecoming Court. She was escorted by her big brother, U.S. Army RNG PFC Christopher Goodale, all decked out in his Class A uniform. Don't they look sharp together?

By the way, how did Daddy's Little Princess end up a senior in high school??? Man time flies!!! It's so awesome to have kids that are so close, though! Brother and sister look really good here, and they had a great time.

You can see all the pictures I took at the halftime festivities here on our Flickr account. Not just of Christopher and Brianna, but of Bill and Hannah Whiting, some friends of ours. Later this weekend, I'll probably be adding some Homecoming Dance (held tonight) pics up in that album, as well.

The pics are also available here on Facebook.

Cuddly Toy: The Tradition Continues

2010-09-15T19:06:00.000-06:00

The trip to Seoul has been pretty successful this week. For my client, I successful negotiated distribution partnership agreements (pending approval by corporate) for Korea and China. And I was grateful that the Chinese visited me here in Korea, as I didn't have time to hop on over to Beijing for meetings there.

But... it's fun to know that some things never change. It's a very long-standing tradition in the family that the kids give me a "cuddly toy" to take with me on trips. That way, if I get lonely, I can cuddle the toy. I often take pics of the cuddly toy wherever I'm at, too. So here is the little Coke plush toy that I brought with me on this trip. He has enjoyed Seoul (or at least sitting on the inside window ledge of my 33rd floor hotel room). :-)

And I'm definitely looking forward to heading home today!!! :-)

Summer Staycation

2010-08-16T23:09:00.000-06:00

This summer we enjoyed a nice "staycation" in Idaho, hopping to various spots in southern Idaho while family was visiting. Michelle's sister, husband, and their two kids from California arrived last Wednesday night (August 11th), and we've had a great time together!

On Thursday we took a day trip up to Redfish Lake in the Sawtooth Mountains (this first pic here). We rented paddleboats and road around on the lake. We played football and frisbee on the lawn in front of the lawn. And of course we got some yummy soft serve ice cream with flavor twists.

Here is a picture of the cousins as they sat on a log in front of the lodge there. We did NOT pose them for this, but they just happened to end up in age order. We couldn't have planned any better how they just lined up naturally.

On the way home we ate at a nice little Italian restaurant in Ketchum, Idaho. What a cute little town! We ate at a really good Italian restaurant there, Rico's Pizza & Pasta. I think I should start keeping a log of great Italian restaurants worldwide. Discovered a great one in Hiroshima, Japan, found and awful one in Seoul, Korea that will not make the list, and now we discovered a jewel in Ketchum. But I digress...

On Friday we went white water rafting on the main part of the Payette River. We even took grandma with us and the sons-in-law tried tipping the raft guide extra to flip her in to the river, but it never happened. :-) Sorry, but no pics from the rafting. The rafting company seems to have every group's rafting pictures but ours; I don't know what happened to their photographer's shots of us. :-(

After the rafting, though, we went on the old Thunder Mountain Railroad scenic train ride. It was originally an old steam train line serving the mining and timber industries back in 1914. We boarded at Horseshoe Bend and departed on a three-hour-tour (did the "Giligan's Island" theme song just pop in to your head?) to Banks and back. They surely traveled slowly in those days, but we still enjoyed the ride. To the right here is a cute picture that I got of the cousins leaning over the rail of the open car we were in.

Here I must mention the Corner Cafe Bar & Grill in Horseshoe Bend. We only had about 45 minutes in between rafting and the train ride, and they miraculously served our party of 12 and got us in and out of there quickly. The food was actually very good, and we've determined that we must go back there again when we have some more time to enjoy it.

On Saturday morning we all went out shooting. We went out to the same place that we went to last week, and had a lot of fun time blowing large holes in objects in violent fashion. :-) We even got grandma pulling the trigger on the .22, and I rediscovered that I always want to keep my wife happy, as she knows how to fire a shotgun. :-) My niece and nephew are also great shots! Here is a "serious" pose of our posse.

After shooting we had a fun BBQ and pool party back at our house, with our California family, plus some of our Boise-area cousins joining us, as well. It's funny how before we moved to Idaho, I never BBQ'd. But now it seems I do it A LOT.

The most fun part of the BBQ/pool party was when us older cousins/siblings/friends, etc. just sat near the side/end of the pool (pic here on right) after dinner and told stories until our SIDES WERE SPLITTING from laughing so hard. It really was crazy. I don't think we've laughed that hard in a long time (if ever)!!! Our good friend Andrew Clark seemed to be the butt of a lot of our jokes, but hey... he practically invited it. What a great sport, though. We love you, Andrew!!! And Sarah... you always crack us up; you're so funny. We love you, too!!! (and hope you're recovering from your Mountain Dew chugging hangover)

I've posted nearly 200 pictures from those three days, including this INCREDIBLY embarrassing/disgusting shot of me posing in a VERY silly manner jumping in to the pool (at left). You can check out all the pics here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.

Nice Shootin' Tex!!!

2010-08-07T15:18:00.000-06:00

This morning Christopher, Andrew, Mark, Steven and I went shooting. We just went out to some public lands near Gowen Field just outside the Boise city limits (shooting as such not being legal in city limits). This first picture here is our "serious pose" group shot. The posse is rounded up and ready to go!!! :-)

We took Christopher's shotgun, the boys' .22, and a friend's 30-.06 with us. Christopher just got a new slug barrel for his shotgun, so we took it and only slug rounds for that weapon. We shot at phone books strapped together, empty plastic containers, and some cans. We shot most of them from a range of 50 yards, but some we shot close up just for fun. The .22, of course, is fun to shoot because it has almost no kick and the rounds are really cheap, so we probably fired off 300 rounds. We shot 15 slug rounds from the shotgun, and maybe 20 from the 30-.06.

Christopher fired off the first round of the morning, and hilarity(???) ensued. Christopher has fired shotguns many times, but always with a standard target (BB) load, and without a scope. He's also fired M-16s, M-4s, M-240Bs, M-249s, M-203s, and M-2s in the military. And none of those with a scope! He learned with one pull of the trigger this morning that a shotgun with a slug round with a scope is very different than anything he's ever fired before!!! He didn't bother with earplugs (a single shot from a normal shotgun isn't a big noisy deal, right?), nor did he bother with his BCGs ("Basic Combat Glasses," which are hideous looking and nicknamed "Birth Control Goggles"). The recoil sent the scope right between his eyes and Christopher became "that guy" - the apparent newbee with a powerful gun. Man did he get his bell rung!!! Then to cap off the day he fired his final three shotgun slug rounds all loaded in to the gun's magazine at the same time. With the second relatively rapid fired round, he got "scoped" again. He wasn't even sure it hit him, but it tapped his BCGs, breaking open the cut he got earlier in the morning. The BCGs made for a nice little couple of blood rings around his eyes, but as you can tell from his smile, he was no worse for the wear. :-)

We had a great time. Enjoy the photos herein and below, and check out all 46 posted pics from this morning, here on Facebook, or here on Flickr.


Some nice muzzle flash. For all you photo geeks out there (you know who you are), I took this with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi SLR camera, at ISO 400, at 1/640th of a second a f13. The camera shoots about 4fps in burst mode and I just happened to catch this at the right time.


Steven in a crouching position with the .22.


Mark with the Tide bottle he proudly killed.

Andrew focusing in on a stack of phone books. Who ever knew he had such a thing against phone books??? :-)

Summer of Scouting

2010-07-29T23:34:00.000-06:00

Scouting, of course, continues to be a strong tradition in our family. Justin and Christopher earned their Eagle awards, Andrew is "this close" (thumb and pointer finger about 2mm apart) to earning his Eagle, and Mark is also well on his way, being "this close" (again with the thumb and pointer finger thing) to being a "Life" scout (requirements done, just awaiting the time necessary between advancements) - one away from Eagle.

Mark has had fun with Boy Scouts this summer, starting with the week-long Boy Scout Camp at the end of June. Our troop camped at our local Ore-Ida Council's camp, Camp Morrison near McCall, Idaho, and all the boys and the leaders had a great time. I was also up there with them for a couple of days, and had a great time, as well.

Mark worked hard during Boy Scout Camp, earning 8 merit badges: Climbing, Shotgun Shooting, Wilderness Survival, Tracking, Camping, Fish and Wildlife Conservation, and Soil and Water Conservation (hmmm... I only count 7 but that's what he told me). I was up at Camp and witnessed Mark qualifying for Shotgun Shooting; he's a good shot! Mark didn't do any of the water merit badges (he's actually already completed most of those), and that's a good thing because so early in the summer with a little bit of snow still remaining up the mountains, the water temp in Payette Lake was still clinging to the low-50s. Brrr!!!

Then more recently (July 23rd), we had a really fun ballgame/camping outing where we went to a Boise Hawks (minor league affiliate of the MLB's Chicago Cubs) game versus the TC Dust Devils. Coincidentally, as a group we were trying to figure out what the "TC" stood for, and I think my guess "Tyrannical Chickens" was the group favorite. The game was an absolute blowout 13-3, and we were down 5-0 after the top half of the first inning alone! It was still a lot of fun, though, and they did a really cool fireworks show after the game. This was a special Boy Scouts night at Hawks Stadium, and ALL of the Boy Scouts in attendance were supposed to camp Friday night after the game in the outfield. Unfortunately, as the grass at Hawks Stadium is struggling, they wouldn't let us camp there. Instead, they were going to cram all of the Scouts in to a really small bullpen area just off right field. We thought, "Oh yeah... that sounds about as fun as getting a root canal."

So we bagged on that the field camping idea, and instead went camping at the farm owned by Scoutmaster Whiting's parents. They have a HUGE grass area, and we went and camped there, instead. We really had a great time! We slept out under the stars, braving the elements and the wild animals (the most ferocious of which was their cat "Tigger"). After a yummy pancakes and eggs breakfast (we were really roughing it!!!), the boys even got to feed the chickens and do some other farm chores.

We'll have a Court of Honor on August 11th, and I believe we'll have one more summer campout before school starts, but it's been a fun summer!!! Andrew, as part of the older "Venture" scouts and the Teachers Quorum in our ward (church) is on a "High Adventure" trip even as we speak. They're doing a 75-mile bike ride, and hopefully he'll get some good pictures for me to post later. I just hope he doesn't try to take pictures while riding!

Enjoy the pics posted herein; you can see all 98 pics from Scout Camp and the Hawks/camping activity, posted here on my Flickr account.

Beijing Public Safety Dog

2010-07-12T09:20:00.000-06:00

This past week in Beijing, in the taxi on the way to a meeting I snapped this fun picture. Two big ol' police dawgs riding in the back of a police truck. Two interesting things about this picture. First of all, on police cars in China, painted across the hood (only) of all the police cars I've seen there are "POLICE" (in English) and "KEISATSU" (or at least that's how the two kanji characters would be pronounced in Japanese) in Chinese. However, everywhere else on the car is the phrase "PUBLIC SAFETY." The second thing is that these puppies would be ILLEGAL in Beijing (if they weren't police puppies). I was reading an article in a local paper in Beijing this week that it is illegal (you cannot get a permit) to have a dog taller than 35cm at the shoulders. Illegal or not, I don't think I'd want to get in a mixup with these public safety dogs!

I had an interesting cultural experience the other day in Beijing, as well. Since I am on quite the tight budget on this trip, I have eaten twice at McDonald's. The Mickey Dees right across from the Beijing Railway Station (pic at right) that I ate at was really crowded, but I happened to find a spot at a two-person table, and I sat down. Shortly thereafter, some Chinese dewd (in China - go figure!) gestured to my table, inquiring as to whether or not he could also sit at the table. I gestured back that he could. He sat and we both ate in complete silence. This is interesting because it would SO NOT HAPPEN in Japan!!! Because of this, Japan has the mistaken perception that the Japanese don't like foreigners. Not so!!! In fact, they love foreigners, but they are embarrassed because they don't speak English (all throughout Asia, if a white person is present, it's automatically assumed he/she speaks English - another cultural discussion altogether). So to avoid the embarrassment of not being able to communicate, on trains, in restaurants... in all public settings, Japanese will tend to shy away from foreigners. So I thought it interesting that this Chinese guy would come up and sit at my table so readily.

With meetings in Japan on Monday and it being cheaper to stay in China rather than heading to Japan for the weekend, I had a free day in Beijing on Saturday. I've been to the Forbidden City and seen the Beijing Olympic venues, but I had never been to the Great Wall. As such, I was really looking forward to it!!! So I purchased a really cheap tour bus ticket out there and set out, in spite of weather in Beijing being a little bit questionable. But after the 90-minute bus ride out there, the weather was much worse. Went to the "Mutianyu" section of the Wall, which is quite high up (you take a cable car ride up), and even covered in snow during the winter. Especially up at the Wall, the rain and fog were so thick that at points I couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of me. This picture on the left is one of the better ones; you can actually see part of the Wall. It was still good to be there, though. Now at least I can say, "Been there. Done that." (but didn't get the tee shirt)

And finally, I just LOVE these little motorcycles you see all over China (pic at right). Or these cool, or what?!

I've posted 55 pics from Beijing to my Flickr account; you can check them out here.

Fun Fourth!!!

2010-07-06T08:59:00.001-06:00

We sure had an AWESOME Independence Day weekend!!! All three of my sisters came up to visit us. And while they were here, all of Michelle's Boise-area cousins also came over for a big BBQ/pool party, as well. I think we had nearly 45 people here, and at one point I think we had as many as 25 in the pool. Fireworks, and impromptu baseball game with a tennis ball, a lot of food, posing for family pictures, etc. etc. etc. Just a great time with family this weekend.

Unfortunately, I'm very pressed for time as I'm taking off for Beijing, then Tokyo later this week, so I can't post much detail. And once I get to China where the Great Firewall of China blocks blogging, I won't be able to blog at all. So just a quick entry here, with a family picture (serious and silly, above and below) and links to more. To see about a hundred pics I posted from the weekend, you can go to two albums on Facebook (here and here), or see them in higher resolution on my Flickr account here.

Morp

2010-05-18T15:52:00.000-06:00

Every year at our high school they hold a "Morp" dance. That's "prom" backwards, and as you might imagine, it's sort of a backwards prom. It's held every year a couple weeks after prom, and it's everything prom isn't: it's girl-ask-guy, it's casual, and so on. This past Saturday (May 15th) was Morp, and from that comes one of my favorite photos ever!!! Above is a picture I took of their Morp group Saturday evening. They're all jumping, and isn't that just great?! Very fun pic!

The Morp theme this year was Cops & Robbers, and everyone in Brianna's 5-couple Morp group had custom shirts where the front said, "I used my one phone call on..." and on the back it had the name of their date. As you can see in the picture above, each couple had matching color shirts, and they were really cute. Here to the right is a silly pose of Brianna and her date. We had a lot of fun taking pictures at our neighborhood "DeMeyer Park."

In addition to the traditional pre-dance dinner and the dance, the school events here in Boise are all-day affairs with a daytime activity, as well. For Brianna's group's daytime activity, they did a Jell-O fight. Messy!!! The all hosed off in our driveway after that was over.

Enjoy these couple of pics, and you can see a lot more of their various poses. Posing in trees, laying down on the ground with their heads together, all sitting on a slide, and many more (34 to be exact), here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.

Crazy Spring Weather

2010-05-07T09:42:00.000-06:00

Spring weather in Boise has really been weird. For example, we'll wake up and the skies are blue and bright, with temps in the mid-60s. But by afternoon, it's cloudy, temps in the high-30s, VERY windy (gusts up to 70mph this week), and we'll get hail storms, as you see in the two pics in this posting. Last night our overnight low was right at the freezing mark. On some days, we've wished that we didn't pack away all of our winter clothes! Many here feel that Boise weather should just pick a season and stick with it. Call me a weird sick freak (many do), but I actually kind of like the daily variety.

Today, we're actually supposed to see consistent, stable weather. Bummer! :-)

Back on the Pitch

2010-05-02T20:19:00.000-06:00

Andrew's been back on the pitch again, playing Spring soccer. He plays in a coed recreational league, Merdian PAL, and has played with most of the same kids over the last few seasons. They have A LOT of fun together. In particular, he's been on the same team with a friend of his, Stuart Walton, and they are both powerful attackers. We've seen more assists/goals with those two than I think I've ever seen on the pitch. It's really fun to watch them.

Many people have commented on this, but Andrew makes some GREAT faces when he's playing soccer. This first one here has got to be my new favorite photo of Andrew. :-)

This one on the left here is another pretty good one. Andrew stole the ball from this kid on this play, too, so it was pretty fun.Yellow cleats may be snazzy, but they can't keep you from losing the ball to Andrew!!! But isn't that a great face Andrew is making???

At the game yesterday, there was an instance when Andrew along with a defender and one of his other teammates had a NASTY collision. It was like one of those cartoon sequences when a character gets clotheslined. It was like Andrew got clocked at chest level, flew up in the air, and came down on the pitch HARD!!! I was standing very close to there taking pictures, but Michelle said that they could hear him hit the ground, a good 70 feet away. We were ALL absolutely shocked when he just popped right back up and kept playing. He honestly looked a little pale and staggered rather than ran, but he got up. He actually THOUGHT about going back down and we all sort of expected him to, but he kept on going. He's still pretty sore from that collision today. Still... our only regret is that I didn't get any photos of it! :-)

Sadly enough, though, they lost their game yesterday, 6-5, and it was their first loss of the season. But here is a picture of Andrew taking a shot from the edge of the penalty box in yesterday's game. Did it go in??? He's scored plenty this season, but I'll just let my reader guess here as to whether or not it went in. :-)

I am posting all the pics from this season on our Flickr site linked here. There are 63 photos uploaded there to date.

My Son Has a Cooler Job Than I Do

2010-05-02T19:09:00.000-06:00

Oh wait a minute... I actually don't have a job right now. I guess the point is still valid, though: Christopher's job is still cooler than any job I've ever had. This weekend at his National Guard drill, he was out on the aircraft firing range. He does avionics and weapons systems repair and maintenance on the Apache helicopters, and this weekend the birds were out on the range practicing. The birds would come in, and then he and his team would run out, reload the 30mm cannons (them are BIG rounds!!!), and the birds would take off again. As you can tell from this picture here, he came in a bit dirty!

Below you can see a video of one of the birds coming in. Check out the amazing dust cloud that it kicks up. At a point where the video becomes invisible, a rock flew up, hit the phone and closed it. Yikes. Christopher loves his job; just like Boy Scouts but with cooler toys! :-)

Brianna's "Smile" - An Original Score

2010-04-28T23:23:00.002-06:00

Tonight was Centennial High School's talent show, and there were more than two dozen performances. Everything from clogging to a "Who's On First" comedy routine to singing - we were amazed by all of the talent at the school. At the piano, Brianna played and sang a song that she composed on her own, "Smile." She won second place overall in the competition, and we thought she did pretty well. Her performance is embedded below, and you can also click the link here.

The full-length video of the host's introduction, the song, and the judges comments is also linked here (but not embedded).

She also accompanied another song there, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" sung by her friend Danielle Després; Danielle also did a beautiful job and won an Honorable Mention. That video is also embedded below, and you can click the link here.

Beautiful Sunset/Rainbow

2010-04-28T06:41:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was a different kind of day in Boise, at least as far as the weather is concerned. When we awoke, it was pretty clear and about 64; however, it got COOLER as the day went on as a storm rolled in. By afternoon it was cloudy with REALLY strong winds, and pollen was blowing everywhere (much to my allergies' dismays). Then by late afternoon, we had massive hail; the streets were white with chunks of ice everywhere, before it turned to rain. The boys and I took Shadow for a walk in the evening, and though it was cloudy, it was quite pretty out. Then after that walk, I was sitting at our dining room table working over a WiFi connection, and I saw this (this first photo here). The sky was almost dark, but the sun was hitting the top of a tree just visible through a round window in our entryway.

Brianna had gone outside to check it out further and she came dashing in, "Come check out this rainbow!!!" So we all ran outside to check it out.

Hmmm... you can't have pretty rainbows without rain - I suppose there's a life analogy there.

But I digress...

Indeed, the rainbow was pretty, but I was more blown away by the panoramic scene playing out over the top of our house. The sun was nearly set and the clouds had made the sky pretty dark, anyway. The first photo I snapped was one of birds flying probably a quarter-mile away. It was cool how the sunlight was reflecting off them.

Then I snapped four pics that I stitched together to become this panorama. I thought the way the sunlight was hitting the tops of the trees against the nearly-dark sky was really pretty. In the right one-third of the photo, you can see the rainbow, as well. Christopher might think that the coolest part of this picture is his new Acura Legend in the driveway. :-)

I've uploaded nine pics to both Facebook and Flickr, viewable via those respective links. Only via Flickr is it possible to see them in their original resolution (though it takes a few clicks).

Fun In Virginia

2010-04-03T17:31:00.000-06:00

Michelle and I were able to attend Christopher's AIT graduation (as previously posted) this past week. Much of Christopher's time was spent doing outprocessing, etc., so Michelle and I had some time to kill while we were in town. We really enjoy spending time on the East Coast (and in the South), so enjoy the photos, like this one here on the right; it's so picturesque eastern seaboard!

We flew out there using my American Airline miles, and getting award tickets from Boise on AA partners is getting increasingly difficult. Therefore, we woke up at 4am Monday (3/29) and drove down to Salt Lake City to fly out from there. Nothing quite like driving 5.5 hours to then fly for 5.5 hours (in two flight segments). It works, though; we're getting used to that BOI-SLC drive.

On Tuesday, we had the opportunity to crisscross the state, driving three-and-a-half hours (each way) to visit a friend of Michelle's in Front Royal, VA, in the Shenandoah Valley. We spent a couple of hours with Lanette, one of Michelle's former missionary companions from Rouen, France. We had a very nice lunch and visit with she and her husband. We really enjoyed all the scenery on the drive up there. Pictured here is an example of the many farms we saw on the drive up there and back.

Christopher was done with his activities on base for the day on Tuesday, and we were able to pick him up for dinner. He took us to one of their favorite places to eat while he was on base, the Quaker Steak & Lube. Pretty yummy place! Then after dinner we went and flicked out. Saw the new Jennifer Aniston movie, Bounty Hunter. A chick-flick love story, but with the prerequisite number of explosions, etc. so that Christopher and I were not required to turn in our Man Cards. :-)

On Wednesday after Christopher's graduation, he had to finalize all of his outprocessing, and while he was doing that, Michelle and I went to check out their local and very exciting (note the sarcasm) Patrick Henry Mall. That entertained us for all of about three nanoseconds, and then we went to check out a local Civil War site, a place called Civil War Endview Plantation. It was actually a pretty cool place. Though the formal tours and the buildings there were closed, we were able to walk around the grounds, and it was easy to envision Civil War battles being fought on the fields of that plantation - in fact, they do war reenactments there.

After we dropped Christopher off at the airport Wednesday afternoon, Michelle and I went out for an anniversary dinner (our 22nd anniversary was five days earlier, on March 26th). We went to a GREAT restaurant right on the boardwalk at Virginia Beach, a seafood restaurant called "Watermans." And after dinner, a nice romantic walk along the beach, where we got to see the moon rise (and dang... I did not have my camera!).

Wednesday afternoon, too, I took a bunch of pictures down near Christopher's barracks on base. You can't see them in this shot here, but in front of their barracks are a lot of plastic alligators. Their unit name is the "Gators" so the alligators out front were appropriate.

Anyway... Michelle and I flew back to SLC starting early Thursday morning, and after arriving there early afternoon, made the drive back to Boise, arriving late Thursday evening. We had a GREAT time while away. To see all 64 photos and 1 video of our time in Virginia, including Christopher's graduation, you can check them out here on Flickr.

PFC Goodale Earns His Wings

2010-04-02T23:08:00.001-06:00

Christopher had his U.S. Army AIT graduation ceremony on Wednesday of this week at Fort Eustis, Virginia. He was the Distinguished Honor Grad from his unit, meaning that he graduated at the top of his class. This was a 28-week training course that started immediately after his Basic Training graduation last September. He is now qualified to maintain and repair the avionics and weapons systems on Apache helicopters.

This first picture was after the ceremony, and as you can see, he has earned his first set of wings. No doubt Christopher will want to go on and earn more wings throughout his career!

Michelle and I were able to go back for the graduation (thank you AA miles!!!), and we were really glad that we had the chance to go back there and experience this with him. It was way fun to be there. We also had a chance to visit one of Michelle's former missionary companions, do a little bit of exploring of Virginia, and have a wonderful anniversary dinner while back there (albeit five days late). I'll do a separate posting on that later.

Christopher is now back home, and getting reactivated in his local Idaho National Guard unit. He still will have three more months of additional training in the (hopefully) near future, and he'll likely be enrolling for school at BSU soon, while continuing his Guard service.

Of course, before Christopher left for his Army training, he was always working on cars for friends/family/neighbors. Oh great... now he'll be working on their attack helicopters, too! :-)

There are 16 pictures that I took at the graduation ceremony; to see them all, please click here for Flickr, or here for Facebook.

Video of Christopher getting his wings.

Steelheads Hockey

2010-03-25T12:54:00.000-06:00

As posted earlier, we went to the Steelheads hockey game here in Boise last night. Michelle stayed home to do homework, but grandma went to see/hear Brianna sing, then Brianna and grandma left. However Andrew, Mark, Steven and I stayed for the game. Before moving to Boise, we weren't in to hockey at all. But with each game we attend, the boys and I love it more and more. These games are so fun! And there's so much "culture" in hockey.

Oh... and a really cool part about the game is that when Michelle called to order extra tickets so the boys and I could go (they normally only comp us two tickets), the coordinator at the Steelheads told us how wonderful Brianna has been in singing at so many games, that he comp'd ALL of our (fifth row from the floor, down at one of the corners) tickets last night. Mark and Steven eating Dippin' Dots on the left here, by the way. Saweet!!! But back to the culture part...

For example, in just about every hockey game we've been to, there's a pretty serious fight that breaks out. Or... as it's often been said, "I went to a fight, and a hockey game broke out." Some of these fights have been pretty vicious, and one we saw even left blood on the ice (yikes!). For the most part, the zebras (officials) just let the fights go on, until the players fall to the ice. It's only then that the zebras break them up. In last night's game, though, the big fight near the end was totally staged. I guess for a while the ECHL (the NHL's premier "AA" league, as they call it) became the WWE. It was still an entertaining fight, though. The crowds go crazy when a fight breaks out. And YES... of course I took pictures! :-)

Another interesting cultural point is the "hat trick." It's when a player scores three goals in a game. This pic on the left is of a shot on a breakaway - we scored. Anyway, I'm not sure why they call scoring three goals a "hat trick" - maybe somebody could look that up for me. Last night when one of the Steelheads players, John Swanson, scored his third goal, fans in the stands started throwing their hats on to the ice. Those hats are expensive!!! I don't know that I could sacrifice my hat like that!

We won the game versus the Victoria Salmon Kings, 5-0, and after every goal we scored, the normally nice, polite Boise crowd would shout out a nice little taunt: "He shoots! We score!! Hey goalie... YOU SUCK!!!" Naturally, I was appalled; what awful behavior! You can be sure that my boys and I participated in no such nonsense!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Oh... and at the Steelheads games, always in the third quarter they play this one song over the loudspeakers, and the whole crowd does this hand-bouncing movement. I'm not sure what that's all about. If you can figure it out from the video embedded below, please let me know!

I hope you've enjoyed the pics as much as we enjoyed the game. To see the 32 pics/videos posted, please check my Flickr page here.

Oh Canada Can You See

2010-03-25T11:33:00.000-06:00

No. Canada is not apparently needing glasses; I just mixed the two national anthems together in the blog entry title here. Oh great... I've probably just offended both Canadians and Americans! Oh well.

Last night my daughter Brianna and her friend Danielle Després sang to kick off last night's ECHL hockey game between the Idaho Steelheads (affiliate of the NHL's Dallas Stars) and the visiting Victoria Salmon Kings (affiliate of the NHL's Vancouver Canucks). Somebody help me out here... what, exactly, is a Canuck??? But I digress...

That's "Victoria" by the way, as in British Columbia. Therefore, they first sang the Canadian national anthem, and then the U.S. national anthem. They've done this a couple times before, and it's always fun. I wonder how many people from the U.S. have the Canadian national anthem memorized. Oh well... at least two in Boise do! :-)

Enjoy the videos embedded below. Just for your reference, Brianna is singing the soprano part. It's not in every performance that Brianna sings that really high note at the end, but she decided to last night. It was funny... where I was standing filming, everybody in the stands was facing ME. OK... so they weren't facing me; they were facing the U.S. and Canadian flags behind me. :-) When Brianna went up to that high note, though, about a third of the people I could see turned and looked at Brianna with an expression like, "Where did that come from?!"

Oh... and who is the guy that shouts after they sing, "I love you Brianna!!!"??? I'm gonna kill 'im! Oh wait a minute... that was ME! :-)

These still shots, by the way, were taken by Mark while I was filming with the other camera. Mark's getting pretty good with a camera!

Brianna and Danielle singing "Oh Canada"

Brianna and Danielle singing "The Star Spangled Banner"

Mark's 7th Grade Band Concert

2010-03-24T17:27:00.000-06:00

This past Monday night (March 22, 2010) was Lowell Scott Middle School's 7th and 8th grade band concert. Lowell Scott's 7th grade band is actually bigger than their 8th grade band, and they've made a ton of improvement over the year - they sound pretty good!!! Mark played in the concert that night, despite having a nasty ear infection. His ear is totally plugged up and painful, but he played his trumpet with style! :-)

Lowell Scott has recently started doing all of their concerts at Centennial High School's new Performing Arts Center, and it's SUCH a better venue than the old middle school gym! We really enjoy the concerts.

The 7th grade band played three songs at the concert, which they will also play again at the district's Spring Festival during school hours tomorrow. Wish them luck!

The videos are embedded from YouTube, below. And a great big THANK YOU to their great director, Sarah Frazier. Enjoy.

"Winchester March" by John Edmondson

"Country Wildflowers" by Larry Daehn

"Beyond the Seven Hills" by Michael Sweeney

A Grinding Experience

2010-03-21T19:59:00.000-06:00

For those of you whom have been following Andrew's Eagle Scout project (previous posting from October 2009 here), we had another Eagle Scout project work session yesterday. Andrew has sold, built, and installed four benches at Lake Lowell out in Nampa. The day we went to install them last Fall, we were told that the arms on the benches did not meet ADA requirements. So we installed the benches, but removed the arms so that we could take them and make them ADA-compliant. The problem was that they were too wide. They were very VERY solid and could support an elephant standing on them, but they were too wide. So we had to make them narrower.

That wasn't so easy, because these arms were secured to the benches with custom-made cast iron brackets. We literally had to have those cut in half lengthwise - no small task when it comes to cast iron! We got those back, and of course they now had VERY rough edges. So we had a bunch of guys come over from church and from scouts to use grinders to smooth these down and to repaint them (before and after shots on the right).

As you can see from this pic here, the penalty for NOT working hard enough on the project was pretty high. No... kidding... they're just playing around. Really. As you can see, they have a lot of fun at these Eagle Scout projects. Nothing beats Scott Ableman's air guitar poses, though!

For all 40 pics from yesterday, you can go here on Flickr.

BBQ Season is Back

2010-03-16T22:58:00.000-06:00

Ahhh... thank goodness for Spring temps and beautiful weather! Though I'm sad we had a "warm" winter and very little snow this year, I don't miss BBQ'ing in January, dressed to the gills (the rumor is true - I have gills) in heavy clothing trying to keep warm while BBQ'ing in temps in the teens. These California natives BBQ in Boise year-round, but it was nice to BBQ yesterday in temps near 60! And thank goodness for frozen steaks out in the freezer, from when we bought that near-side-of-cow several months back. :-) In the pic here, do Andrew and Mark look like they're happy they're gonna get a steak dinner, or what?! In steak land, there's well-done, medium-well, medium, medium-rare, rare, and "with some tender loving care the cow would recover." Our propane tank ran out of fuel midway during the BBQ, and our backup tank was also empty, as well, so the thicker of these steaks were the TLC-recovery variety - Andrew and Mark loved it!

Another year-round activity around here is Rock Band on Wii. You see Andrew, Mark and Steven jamming here. Apparently, Steven is going to be a guitar-smasher, and Andrew will make silly faces while drumming!

Good times!

Wheeler Family Reunion 2004

2010-03-10T20:08:00.001-07:00

That's right: I'm getting caught up to 2004. :-)

We had a VERY fun Wheeler Family Reunion in Wyoming in July 2004 and I'm finally getting around to putting up the pics from that great event.

Of course we ate, we played games, we had a program, we sang, we sat around and talked... We really had a GREAT time!!!

One of my favorite parts of the program was when Mike and Jennifer Dillon and their kids "dressed up" (or did they???) and performed, "I Am My Own Grandpa." Enjoy the photo here on the left, plus the short snippet I caught on my digital camera, below. Michelle actually recorded the ENTIRE song on our VHS-C camcorder, so the whole thing exists on magnetic tape. Does anybody have the equipment for us to convert that to digital format? It would be AWESOME to have up on YouTube! :-)

I have posted 150 photos and videos online; the photos can be found here on Facebook, and all can be found here on Flickr. Enjoy.

Brianna Singing National Anthem

2010-03-06T19:48:00.000-07:00

Brianna and her friend Danielle continue to make the circuit singing the National Anthem at our local sporting events. They regularly sing at BSU games, Idaho Steelheads (ECHL affiliate of the NHL's Dallas Stars team) games, Boise Burn (Arena Football League) games, and so on. Normally they sing it as a duet, but back on January 13th, Dani was unavailable and Brianna sang it as a solo. They sang it as a duet this past Wednesday (March 3rd), but that was the last good thing that happened that night. After they sang, the Steelheads lost 3-1 to the Bakersfield Condors, and I was rear-ended on the way home from the game. You'll see both the solo video and the duet video embedded below.

The next time they're scheduled to sing is on Wednesday, March 24th, when the Steelheads play the visiting Victoria Salmon Kings. That's right... from Canada! So Brianna and Dani will be singing both the U.S. and Canadian national anthems that night. Buy your tickets now! :-)

National History Day

2010-03-06T18:46:00.001-07:00

Today was the Treasure Valley regional prelims for the middle school "National History Day" competition. Each year, middle school students have the chance to write an essay, build a website, or prepare a documentary honoring some great event in history. This year's theme was Innovation and how it impacted history, and Mark did a video documentary on the evolution of the transistor. The transistor certainly is something that people just take advantage of today, and don't even realize how it impacts their lives. Mark's video documentary is embedded below, and I particularly like the part that says that if cell phones used vacuum tubes a cell phone today would be ten-and-a-half feet tall. :-) Watch and enjoy.

3-Car Mix-It-Up

2010-03-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday night (March 3rd), my Acura MDX decided to put its manliness on display and mix it up with two other cars. My car won, but at a bit of my expense. I was sitting at the red light in the left-hand turn lane on Chinden, waiting to turn left on to Five Mile, when I heard a horrific BANG!!! And literally in the middle of the thought, "What the heck was that???" there was a second BANG, and my MDX jerked violently forward and upward.

A car two cars behind me, which I'm guessing was doing about 45mph, hit the car immediately behind me, and that car ricocheted in to me. The first car was an older-model minivan, I think something like a Dodge Caravan. The second car was an older-model sedan, I think something like a Honda Accord. The first car was about two feet shorter, its front end all smashed in and steam flowing from the smashed radiator. The poor car in the middle was significantly shorter on both ends, totally sandwiched. Because they were both older-model cars, my guess is that the insurance company will total both vehicles.

My back bumper was kind of scratched and dented, but nothing awful. Just enough so that the texturing cannot be fixed, and they'll replace the entire bumper and bumper insert (more of a dent there). But as you can see from this picture on the right, my dual exhaust was definitely messed up. The muffler on the right has been pushed in by about six inches. That in turn bent all the exhaust piping, normally shug and cozy up in the chassis, so that it dropped and wasn't too far away from the ground (see picture below). Fortunately, the driver who caused the whole thing is taking responsibility for it, and his insurance company is being great. They got my car in for repair early Thursday and it should be fixed by Monday afternoon. They've arranged for a rental in the meantime, and all is well there. :-)

Fortunately, at the time of the accident, we all appeared to be fine. The guy who caused it was 18, the guy in the middle car was 17, and those young whipper-snappers are probably still OK (I have not spoken to either of them). But I'm sort of a wreck. Maybe it's because my car didn't give at all (I still can't believe how little damage it sustained!), but I've got whiplash really bad, with my neck and back really aching, and that in turn giving me a wicked headache. I've spent most of the last three days in bed with a heating pad and/or ice.

We've got a chiropractor that we like, and on Friday I finally gave up and went to see him. Hopefully he'll be able to help me recover a bit more quickly, and I can get back to normal. So that being taken care of, now I just hope that the auto body shop doesn't actually CLEAN my car when they fix it. As you can tell, I'm undergoing a bit of a scientific dirt test with my MDX. :-)

Klondike

2010-02-08T23:39:00.005-07:00

I wrote about Special Olympics at Bogus Basin and I also wrote about the Sweethearts dance. But... I had not yet written about the other big event this past weekend: Klondike!!! It's where many of the Boy Scouts in this area do a big snow camp and "Klondike Derby," where more than 600 scouts camp out overnight in tents or in hand-dug snow caves, and they have all kinds of activities up there. It's a HUGE event each year, and the boys love it!!! Mark (pictured at left, kneeling just to the right of their troop's sled) went to that this year, and for about the first two hours after he got home Saturday evening, he would NOT stop talking about it; he was so excited. Then tiredness overwhelmed him and he fell asleep on the couch! :-)

I did not go up there, nor did Mark have a camera, so we've got to rely on the blog postings of others to report on the event. Our Boy Scout troop's scoutmaster's wife posted an entry on her blog, so you can check that out here.

Mark as a Guinea Pig???

She has posted three pictures up on her blog, including this at the right. In it, Mark is walking in a snowfield lined with sticks, all alone, while the other members of his scout troop look on in angst, like the expect it at any moment to go crashing through ice or something. Hmmm... I'll have to ask about this one. Was Mark a guinea pig???

Sweethearts Dance

2010-02-07T11:43:00.006-07:00

Yesterday was our high school's "Sweethearts" girl-ask-guy dance. Brianna went with Scott Briggs and they had a great time. Brianna chose this pic on the right as her new Facebook profile picture, so I suppose it's OK to put here on the blog. :-)

Though we didn't experience this when we lived in California, here in Boise the high school dances are day-long activities, with a daytime activity in addition to dinner and the dance in the evening. For their daytime activity, the group they went with had "paint wars" where the loaded squirt guns with paint and had battle. I don't have any pics of that, but Brianna does, and I'm sure she'll post them on Facebook later.

Andrew and I were up at Bogus Basin yesterday afternoon, but Michelle took a bunch of pictures for Sweethearts yesterday afternoon. Personally, I think this one here on the left of Brianna and Scott is really cute.

Cutest of all, though, is the pic I've posted below. The girls in the group posed for a silly shot, and WHO KNEW that my beautiful daughter could make such a silly face???!!! :-)

For all the Sweethearts pics, you can see them here on Facebook.

Lovely expression, Brianna... lovely!!!

A Day at Bogus Basin

2010-02-06T21:42:00.008-07:00

Today we had a really great day up at Bogus Basin, our local ski resort. Michelle, Andrew, Steven, and my mother-in-law Nancy and I volunteered at the regional Special Olympics Nordic events up there this morning, sort of in honor of Michelle's brother Michael and his love of Special Olympics. Our family worked at the main staging area, with Michelle leading that area, in which she did a great job! We were responsible for getting the athletes from the lodge area down to the next staging area and the starting lines. At the right here is Michelle with one of the athletes.

Since moving to Boise, where there is a much smaller pool of volunteers to draw from, we've had quite a few more opportunities to help with Special Olympics than we did down in Southern California. Justin and Christopher have both been coaches for Special Olympics; I think some of the best memories Justin will ever have is getting to run alongside a blind athlete to "show" him the way. No doubt Justin and Christopher would have enjoyed being there with us today.

As you can see in this panoramic shot on the left, it was an absolutely gorgeous day up there. If you click on that photo to see it enlarged, you'll notice Andrew in the lower right hand corner. And being such a gorgeous day, this afternoon Andrew and I stayed up there to snowboard and ski. Andrew has become a really good skier, and especially with my bad wheel, he would normally blow me away on skis, and I would have rarely if ever seen him. But for the first time in about four years, he decided he wanted to try snowboarding again today. That was REALLY cool for dear ol' Dad here, because with Andrew on a snowboard, I could keep up with him. We got to spend the whole afternoon together, and I don't know that Andrew will ever know how special that was to me!

Andrew did pretty well on the snowboard, though - I think better than he expected. I was able to ski near him and take quite a few videos - that was fun! Below is one of those videos. He and I are talking to each other on this run, so turn the volume up when you take a look at this. He does pretty well right up until the end, when he eats it. Though he said it was harder than skiing (of which I have no doubt), he said it was more fun, and that he'll be doing a lot more boarding from now on. Here's the video:

You'll find all 27 pics and 6 videos from the day on our Flickr site here. The pics can also be found on my Facebook account here. Meanwhile, enjoy some more pics below.

We had to be up there by 8am this morning, so we got to see the sun come up while there; it was really quite pretty.

Michelle and Nancy with Sheri (sp?) one of the organizers of the event.

Steven playing in the snow.

Michelle organizing the troops.

Andrew and I are going down one of the CAT trails at Bogus (Andrew is in front of me, at the bottom of the pic).

Virginia, Days 2-3

2010-01-19T13:39:00.008-07:00

After spending the day in Colonial Williamsburg last Friday, we drove out to Lynchburg, Virginia, about 150 miles inland. We stayed overnight there, then in the morning visited Appomattix. This is where the last of the Civil War battles was fought, and indeed where the South surrendered and the war ended (in this court house, pictured at left). The community there has been restored nicely to 1860s condition. We wish Justin could have been with us; he would have loved it, and he probably could have told us a few stories.

While driving around in central Virginia, we were surprised at the lack of big roads there. It seems everywhere we had to go, there were just two-lane undivided highways - sort of tough to drive. It's no wonder they had such a hard time moving troops around in the Civil War! :-)

After Appomattix, we took several of these quaint roads to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson's mansion and property. Pictured here are Christopher and Mom behind the mansion. Way impressive house and furnishings - it's not tough to figure out how he died with so much debt! Thomas Jefferson penned our nation's Declaration of Independence and was the Minister of France for five years, but what's amazing is that his headstone doesn't list that he was POTUS (President Of The United States)!

After Montpelier, we drove on to Montpilier to see James Madison's mansion and property. Though James Madison was also POTUS and was known for such, he perhaps is best-known for authoring our great Constitution. 4,440 words (man... I've seen IP licensing agreements twice that long!!!) that are incredibly inspired - we ignore them at our nation's peril.

Whew!!! I almost waxed political in that last paragraph; I'll do my best to keep neutral here. :-)

Digression: They say that Thomas Jefferson wasn't a good speaker because he had a speech impediment, though he obviously was a very gifted writer. I like two quotes attributed to him, the first being "Science is my passion; politics is my duty." He also said, "A little rebellion now and then is a good thing." Hopefully we'll see that in the Massachusetts Senate election today, with the electorate realizing the HOPE was merely HYPE. Uh oh... I waxed political again!

To the left here is Madison's house - it was nice but far less ornate than the Jefferson mansion. It's tough to believe that little 5-feet-4-inch, less-than-100-pounds Madison was the father of our Constitution. I think in today's TV and internet-world, the U.S. would have a hard time electing such a little guy. James Madison had a very successful entrepreneurial life; it's too bad he had family that squandered his fortune away, leaving good ol' Dolly Madison to die a pauper.

There are also a couple of quotes from Madison that I like. He said that under the new Constitution, the nation's powers would be "derived from the superior power of the people" (really trying hard here not to make a political comment). He also said, during the War of 1812, "I flung forward the flag of the country, sure that the people would press onward and defend it."

Perhaps you can tell here that during our tour of some of Virginia's historical spots I was way impressed with our Founding Fathers and what they accomplished, as well as for most of the values that they held.

Right up there with that was the greatness of George Washington. After staying in Fredericksburg, VA Saturday night, we went on to Mt. Vernon Sunday morning to see Washington's home and grounds. Though the weather thus far had been great, Sunday it was VERY rainy, and it made it tough to see things. In the pic here on the right, you can even see rain drops falling in front of the rain-soaked "Bowling Green" in front of the mansion. I hear that the view from the back of the mansion, overlooking the Potomac River and Maryland beyond, is really spectacular. Unfortunately, the weather was so poor that we couldn't see it.

OK... continuing with my trend of listing quotes by these great Founding Fathers, I do like how George Washington was offered the position of "King" and how he promptly refused that, saying that power should be in the hands of the people. His quote here is awesome: "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is a force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."

Wowzers!!! Today's politicians please take note! Anyway... pictured here at the left is one of the original trees at Mt. Vernon - more than 300 years old!!! My children would probably tell you that I'm about the same age! Again to check out all the pics (more than 60) from the trip, please click here for Facebook, or here for Flickr.

Though I didn't get any pictures of this last part, I honestly believe it was the best part of the trip. Michelle, Christopher and I spent Sunday afternoon and evening with my cousin Steve Detton and his family at their house in Springfield. My cousin Matt Jensen and his wife Melinda also joined us there, and we really had a great time!!! Shelley made a delicious pasta dinner, and despite what she might tell you the cookies she baked were also awesome. We really enjoyed hanging out with family back there, and hope we get an opportunity to do so again in the near future!!!

Colonial Williamsburg

2010-01-16T07:49:00.005-07:00

After getting in to Virginia around midnight Thursday night, we picked Christopher up from Ft. Eustis Friday morning and spent most of the day in Colonial Williamsburg (see pic at right). What a totally awesome place. In most of the major sites there, they have guides dressed in period costumes, and they tell stories, relate history, and answer questions. They were all very knowledgeable and entertaining - it was great fun!

After Colonial Williamsburg, we drove over to the "Presidential Park" there where they literally have like 20-foot busts of each of the Presidents. It was closed (what's with the historical places closing at 4:30pm?!); however, and we could only get glimpses from outside. The place looks cool, though!

Then last night we drove to Lynchburg, VA and we'll check out some historical sites around here and as we drive northeast from here on our way to northern Virginia. What a great trip, and it's so fun to be with Christopher!!! Oh... just in case you were interested, to the left here is a picture of Christopher's barracks - this is where Christopher lives.

To see all 40 pics I've posted from yesterday, please click here for Facebook, or here for Flickr. I haven't added descriptions to all the pics yet (sorry I'm such a slacker!!!), but there are more descriptions on the Facebook album.

McCall Days 2-3

2009-12-31T08:37:00.006-07:00

We sure have had a great time here in McCall. I haven't been able to do a posting here, though, since the neighbor's unsecured wireless network has been a bit spotty. Imagine that... not allowing us to "borrow" their internet bandwidth! :-)

This pic here on the left is of Brianna and Andrew while walking on the golf course at McCall the day before yesterday. There was a great sliding hill there that we went sledding down. That same evening we went to dinner at the "Toll Station" pizza restaurant - yummy! Nothing beats the taste of pizza from Northwood Pizza in Irvine, but Toll Station had a menu much more extensive here and it was all yummy!

Yesterday we had breakfast at the famous "Pancake House" here - YUMMY!!! They have these cinamon rolls here that fill a whole plate. Mmm... Mmmm... GOOD! Their serving sizes are ridiculous and prices quite reasonable. We need one of these in Boise! Check out this photo on the right - do you think our kids are addicted to their cell phones? I do NOT know where they get this from!!!

Then after eating at Pancake House we went to a place called "The Activity Barn" which wasn't a barn at all, but a lift-served tubing hill. An 85-foot drop over a 700-foot run - a 12% grade. It had been snowing so much that the run was actually a bit slow, but as the day went on and the snow was packed down, the run got faster. This pic here is of Brianna and Mom at the top of the hill waiting to go down, and Brianna is eating falling snow. :-)

There are three sets of photos on Facebook (here, here and here), plus all the photos and videos on Flickr, plus some videos embedded below. I'll award ten credibility points if you can name the 70s-80s rock band that sang the song I sing on the one tubing video, below.

McCall Day 1

2009-12-28T23:00:00.004-07:00

I'll start off today's post with the cute picture here. This afternoon the kids were playing in the snow, and in this shot on the right, Andrew has just stuffed Brianna in to the snow and he's pointing to her mocking, "Haha... look what I did." They had a great time out there.

Except for Justin, we're all up here; even brought Shadow and Grandma Nancy. Had to come up in two cars because Michelle's van is in the shop with transmission problems. My MDX was the lead vehicle with a canvas car top carrier strapped to the roof rack with bungie cords, and Nancy's Accord was the trail vehicle. Unfortunately, the Bungie cords were apparently too old to handle the combination of cold weather and 60+ mph speeds. When the cords snapped it was SO LOUD in our car, and when the carrier went sailing off the car, we were lucky on a number of accounts: 1) it didn't take out the trailing vehicle on highway I-55, 2) it didn't fly off the highway in to the largely-frozen Payette River, and 3) absolutely nothing inside got broken! We had no choice but to just put it in the back of my MDX, leaving Shadow with almost no room back there. Oh well... it makes for a good story!

We got up here about 3:30pm and the rental home we are in is really nice, with a large backyard where there is a good two feet of snow on the ground. Since we got in sort of late, the kids (and the dog) just played in the snow in the back yard. It was funny to see Shadow sink way in to the snow, but you could tell he had fun.

After playing in the snow we came in, had some dinner and watched TV. We also took the occasion to exchange Christmas presents with Grandma, since we hadn't done Christmas with her yet.

We had a great day. Check out a few more photos below, and all 45 of the pics I posted from today (here on Facebook, and here on Flickr).

Our kids love tackling Shadow, and Mark has him pinned here. Shadow doesn't seem to mind.

Steven exploring.

Andrew making a snow angel.

Andrew TOTALLY gets Brianna with a sled full of snow!

Hey, Brianna. You're a little wet. Did you REALLY think you could beat Andrew in a snow fight? :-)

Half-a-Million Lights

2009-12-26T13:54:00.004-07:00

On the way home from skiing last night we stopped by this insanely decorated house in Boise. It's even listed in an article in the local newspaper about Christmas lights in Boise. A more detailed article is here. This place has 500,000 lights, and it's really amazing. The owners of the house let people come right up on the driveway to check it out. Check out the pics I took below.

Panoramic shot stitched together from four shots; sorry for the multiple time stamps.

Christmas Day Skiing

2009-12-26T13:08:00.005-07:00

Christmas day yesterday was really great. Got to talk to Elder Justin Goodale for nearly two hours; he sounds like he's doing great! He is absolutely in love with Missouri and having a great time there. Then in the afternoon we went skiing at Bogus Basin along with the Briggs family. We always have a great time with the Briggs and we love our great friends in Boise. To the left here is Mark skiing in his Santa cap. How festive, huh?! :-)

I didn't get too many pics. I started out on the bunny hill with Steven, so he could get used to skiing again. I caught Mark there once so got some pics of him, too. But aside from Steven and Mark, I didn't get pics of anybody because my skiing day ended on only the 5th or 6th run. Steven and I had a nasty collision which tweaked my really bad knee (I'm enjoying narcotic painkillers even as I post this, so I hope you enjoy the hallucinations as much as I do). So enjoy the pics and videos below.

A video of Steven on his second run down the bunny slope. Love his, "Hi Dad!" on the way down. Nice snowplowing, Steven!

A video of Mark heading down the hill. He says he got in a tuck and started going faster further on down this run.

Hey Steven... I think it might be more fun if you open your eyes. :-)

As you can see, there weren't too many people on the slopes last night - it was AWESOME! In fact, when we left at about 9pm (the lifts were open until 10pm), I'd say there were less than 50 cars still left in the parking lot.

Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!

Christmas Eve at the Goodales

2009-12-24T22:27:00.005-07:00

Ahhhhh... I love Christmas. And Christmas traditions! Every Christmas Eve we:

Read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ from Luke 2 in the New Testament.
Read "The Night Before Christmas."
Put out all the baby Jesus figures in our nativities. Michelle collects nativity sets and we have them all over our house at Christmas. We pretty much collect only nativity sets where the baby Jesus is not attached to the manger's bed. When Michelle served a mission in France, she noticed that they did not put in the baby Jesus in the nativities until Christmas Eve, and this is a tradition we have kept in our home.
Put out milk and cookies for Santa.
And finally, our kids get to open a gift, and it's never a surprise. Every Christmas Eve our kids get a new pair of pajamas. The first picture you see here is of our kids in their new PJs by our Christmas tree.

This year we also did something new. For the first time (I think), we all stood around the piano with Brianna playing, and sang Christmas carols. It was a lot of fun. You see a pic of us below, and there are more online (here on Facebook, and here on Flickr).

Merry Christmas!!!

2009-12-21T20:17:00.002-07:00

Today we had our annual kids-with-Santa picture taken down at the mall. Of course, everybody but Justin was there. However, we received a Christmas card from Justin and his missionary companion Elder Moxon the other day. You'll find both pictures below.

Of course, last week Justin transferred from Stockton, MO to St. Robert, MO and is no longer with Elder Moxon. His new missionary companion is Elder Hirshfeld. We look forward to talking to Justin on the phone on Friday, but for those who want to write to him, his new address is:

Elder Justin Goodale
181 East Lawn Ave., apt. 124
P.O. Box 929
St. Robert, MO 65584

Couch + TV + Snuggling = SLEEP

2009-12-08T09:30:00.005-07:00

This past Sunday evening Steven, Andrew, Brianna and I were snuggling up on the couch watching TV and we all dosed off. Mark snapped this picture. And certainly, there was a fire in the fireplace. Does it get any better than this???

And as you can see, our dog Shadow gets in on the act pretty frequently, too. Though he hardly looks comfortable here! Good times!

Around Tokyo

2009-12-01T06:37:00.011-07:00

Me travel with a camera? Hoodathunkit?!?! I like taking pictures wherever I go, and it's especially fun to travel around Christmastime. Things are so festive everywhere, even in countries where Christianity is not all that common. To the left here is a close-up shot I got of a Christmas tree in the Takanawa Wing section of Shinagawa.

To the right here is a Christmas tree display inside the JR Shinagawa East Building, right next to my favorite book store in Tokyo (Ooi Shoten). If you're ever in a need for the latest English-language paperback book, this place has a pretty good selection.

I've inserted a few photos and videos below, but for all I've taken thus far on this trip, please check them out here on Flickr.

When I go out on the town, I wanna wear my brown cowboy boots, purple pants, pink shirt, and leopard-skin coat. Woohoo!!! Taken on the subway the other night.

My awesome French toast breakfast last Friday morning (Thursday afternoon in the U.S., when everyone back home was pigging out on turkey).

Note to Daughter: If something ever possesses you to wear blue shoes with blue fuzzy balls at the toes, I might have to hurt you. Secondly, if something ever possesses you to wear a skirt with a slit this high, same result.

Fall is still in the air in Yokohama (taken in front of Hiyoshi Station).

Haha... baguette delivery scooters. I would much more expect to see this in Paris!

Ahhh... check out these cute little yellow hats as part of these girls' school uniforms. I bet my kids are jealous they didn't get such attire for school!

There's probably scientific proof for this, but on Tokyo subways, 4 out of 5 people have their noses buried in their cell phones; the 5th person sleeps.

Video of Christmas decorations at Takanawa Wing in Shinagawa. Listen for "Jingle Bells" playing in the background.

Home Sweet Home (or not)

2009-12-01T05:49:00.006-07:00

Lately in Japan, I've favored what they call "weekly mansion" style studio apartment facilities over hotels. Now keep in mind, "mansion" is about as mansion-esque as a "limousine bus" is limousine-esque. :-) Most importantly, these things feature at least a small kitchen (my "kitchen" pictured at right), so I can prepare my own meals and hence save a ton of money. They also feature either in-room or coin-op laundry facilities on site, also saving quite a bit of money.

What's more is that they are typically CHEAPER than hotels. Most of them do not have a concierge desk nor room service nor any of those other "niceties" of hotels; therefore, I couldn't in good faith recommend them to foreign guests who do not speak Japanese.

And woohoo... check out the tiny bathroom pic on the left. With a mere twist of that faucet you can either fill the sink or fill the tub; what an efficient "feature." As with everything in life, weekly mansions come in all shapes, sizes, and budgets. The one I'm staying at on this trip (Weekly Mansion Tokyo Akasaka) is really quite cheap, old, somewhat dirty, and ANYTHING but fancy. In fact, it feels very much like a pretty low-end college or company dorm (company dorms are somewhat common in Japan). Out in the corridors, the flooring is an immaculate, fancy CONCRETE. The door to my room is only about 5'8" and I have to duck going in. But... this place is less than $100 per night even with the horribly weak dollar right now. The very moderate ANA Intercontinental Hotel just a 5-minute walk from here would run $300/night!

There's also quite a bit of "riffraff" here that you wouldn't find at the nearby ANA, but hey... I suppose that's part of the ambiance. Below is a panoramic shot of most of the glorious 24 square meters (258 square feet) that occupies my "home" this week. In both this shot and the bathroom shot above, the panoramic stitching utility I used sort of whigged out, but you get the idea. It will be really nice to get back to my REAL home on Thursday!!!

Right Wing in Japan

2009-11-29T04:49:00.007-07:00

This (Sunday) evening here in Tokyo I decided to be really geeky and get some fun pictures down at Shibuya Crossing - sort of the "Times Square" of Tokyo. My 360-degree panoramic shot is here at the left. Without clicking on it to see it enlarged, it may be tough to see because it's so long and skinny (and I never dated a girl like that). Anyway... it's always a fun place to people watch. I ended up taking in some very interesting propagandizing. In Japan causes, politicians and others can use vehicles laden with speakers to be mobile propaganda platforms. These things can actually be quite annoying, just because they're so loud. I'm sure even here in Japan you need a special permit, but I'm not even sure you could get such a permit in the U.S.

Anyway... tonight parked down at Shibuya Crossing was one of these propaganda trucks for Taikousya Sumera. Upon doing some research I discovered that they're a right ring group here in Tokyo of about 700 members, and they even have ties to the yakuza. Lovely. For the most part, their propagandizing wasn't bad. They brought up several speakers, each addressing the topic of how to make Japan better. Not a bad cause. They were even saying some really logical things like, "You'll have a chance next summer to participate in elections; study up on the issues and candidates to make an informed choice."

It's all good so far. As was one guy who said, "We can make Japan better by honoring our parents. Even if you don't like your parents, you still need to honor them because they brought you in to the world. Take care of them, and don't let anything bad happen to them. Don't let the medical establishment treat them poorly." And so on. All good stuff. But wait a minute... this is a land of socialized medicine: on that last point, how could that happen???!!!

One guy even got up and said, "You know... for as long as I can remember, at this time of year, we also light up all parts of the city with 'Christmas light-up' every year. Even here a Shibuya Station, erected back in the 1920s, in its first year it had Christmas light-up. Why is it that we all do this? Why do we like this so much? I believe it's because in the vast craziness of living in such a big city, it makes us feel like a small community..." (you can see a little bit of that "Christmas light-up" he was talking about at the right).

Interesting, huh? Man... he just DOESN'T GET IT!!! We like it because it's the Christmas spirit, you nitwit!!! Christmas. Christ. Geesh. Oh well... I'm glad this guys feels the spirit of Christmas, even if he doesn't recognize it for what it is.

But the most interesting part was when the guy got up and spoke about how we need to rely on ourselves to make Japan better. OK... I'm a self-reliance kind of guy; I'll go with that. But then he went on to rip on all foreignors, and that's when he lost me. He said that "in our own circles of trust (individually), we trust ourself the most. Then just below that we trust our family. Then just below that we trust our friends." OK... I guess this isn't so bad; I'll go with it. But then he lost me. He said, "Trusting foreignors is way down on the bottom; we cannot trust them. We can't trust the Chinese; look at what they do to their own people. We cannot trust the South Koreans because look how we treated them for several decades last century. (OK... he sort of has a point there.) We cannot trust the Americans; they nuked us. Why didn't they nuke the also-white-skinned Germans instead?"

Whoa wait a minute, fella (pictured at left). Maybe it had something to do with the fact that despite overwhelming losses for over three years the Japanese were still entrenched throughout the Pacific and were not giving up, but the Germans had already surrendered???

By this point, probably 100 people were standing there listening, including another white guy standing near me. He and I both started shaking our heads at the same time. He came over to me and asked in English with a very thick accent, "Do you understand this guy?" I laughed and said, "Yeah, I do." As it turns out, this guy I was near was from Russia but also speaks English and Japanese. He told me, "This guy's stupid." Well... I actually think he seemed pretty intelligent, just a little nutty.

It was really interesting. I was here in Japan in September when they had their big parliamentary elections, and I sat glued to my hotel room TV that Sunday night watching election returns in Japanese. I got really in to that then, and observing this tonight was pretty interesting, too.

Below, and linked here, is an embedded video of the massive throng of people crossing at Shibuya Crossing when the light turns green. You can hear one of these guys talking in the background.

Brianna Singing "Hero"

2009-11-26T22:38:00.006-07:00

My readers here know that I love taking pictures. My favorite camera is my Canon Digital SLR, but it's just too big to take along on business trips, so I have a smaller "simpler" Olympus digital camera that I take along with me when I travel. It also shoots video (which my larger digital SLR does not).

So I brought it along with me to Tokyo on this trip, and I go to download a few pictures that I've taken with it. Lo and behold, I discover that back on November 9th, somebody (I'm assuming Andrew) used this camera to record Brianna singing "Hero," undoubtedly one of the tribute pieces of her Uncle James Michael Cotter ("Uncle Michael"). Michael was a proud member of the Hi-Tops Dance Team, and they always perform this song. Whenever they perform it, each member of the dance team wears a shirt with his/her picture on it. At Michael's funeral, the Hi-Tops performed, and they all wore a shirt with Michael's picture on it.

Anyway... I don't know how Brianna got through this, but she made it without crying. One of these days we should record her doing this mic'd up so we can hear her voice better over the piano. If any members of my family can watch this and listen without getting all teared up, my hat's off to you!

There's a YouTube link to the video here, but chances are that YouTube will remove it due to copyright protections. I'm also embedding it here below, directly to my blog (blogger link is also here). Enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T20:05:00.003-07:00

Though it's Friday morning here in Tokyo where I am for a week or so, it's Thanksgiving back at home, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to list some of the things I am grateful for. There are sure to be many MANY things I'm missing, but this was just sort of a brain dump here.

I approached listing God first, followed by immediate family members in descending age order, and then everything else is just alphabetized. I am more of the persuasion of Matthew 6:4 ("That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly.") and so I usually don't discuss this much, but I have a deep and abiding faith and perhaps some day I'll do a more extensive posting on this, but herein I list it first and know that it's the cause of all of my other many blessings.

So here goes, and I apologize for the many things I've left out:

God and Jesus Christ. I’m grateful for God’s great plan of happiness that makes all of this possible, and for my Savior who in spite of me loves me and offers me an avenue of repentance for all my imperfections.
Michelle. My wife is my best friend and I love spending time with her. She’s a terrific mother and wife. All parents encourage their children to “marry up” – I certainly did that, and I’m glad that Michelle ignored her parents’ counsel in this regard.
Justin. I’m glad that Justin has turned out to be such an awesome young man, in spite of being our “guinea pig” in the parenting experience. He’s super talented, funny, full of integrity, and is doing a great job serving a mission right now for our Savior.
Christopher. I know of few young men whom have a greater love for his fellow man that Christopher. He always wants to help other people, and is doing a great job serving our country.
Brianna. I once heard a father explain that with the birth of his son, he thought he had no greater capacity to love. But then his daughter was born and he found a little corner of his heart that he had no idea existed. And so it is.
Andrew. Quiet, unassuming Andrew. Sort of a quiet, blend-in-the-scenes young man with incredible intelligence, whit, athleticism and talent that continually takes us by surprise.
Mark. “Hey… I coulda made a hat out of that!” The poor kid got my sense of humor (sorry, Mark). We can always count on Mark to make us laugh and to appreciate life in all its wonderment.
Steven. Rounding out the Goodale lineage with an even half-dozen, Steven always strives to do the right thing and we love him for it. His purity and innocence reminds us of where we should all be.
Acura. Loved my TL when I had it, and today my MDX is really fun to drive.
Air Travel. On American Airlines alone I’ve traveled more than four million miles lifetime to date, and yet air travel never ceases to amaze me.
American Soldier. And all of our military members. Though Christopher’s experiences in the Army have jaded him a bit about the quality of our men and women in uniform, I think overall he still respects them and is proud to be counted amongst that group. I am grateful these brave men and women whom have written blank checks to our government and to us, payable up to and including their very lives.
Blogging. Michelle says I’m voyeuristic and perhaps that’s true, but I love expressing my thoughts and sharing my fascinating (or incredibly dull) life with my loved ones.
Books. Wow I love reading. So many good authors out there, too. You’ll never see me on the road without a book to read. Hey… maybe I do all this traveling because it’s a good excuse to engross myself in a good new book.
Boy Scouts. Two of my sons are Eagle Scouts and I’ll have a third one soon. I am grateful for this great program.
Campfires. Sure… I’m a boy and therefore like fire. And if you know me, you know I’ve always said that if it’s not visible from space, it’s not a campfire!
Cell Phones and Text Messaging. My first cell phone was a BRICK, and my how we’ve come to rely on these things!
China. OK. Is it weird this one would come up in my list of things I’m grateful for? Not really. Over the past few years I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time in China, and I love its “uniquefulness” – a tough thing for a nation of over a billion people. One for personal progression, I love to see the national progression China is making to become a responsible player on the world’s stage. Still a ways to go, but I love China’s progress.
Computers. I grew up in a world where a motherboard was what your mom hit you with (OK… my mom never hit me, for which I am also grateful) and random access memory was just merely selective memory (a practice still practiced by my entire gender). Imagine life without computers now, though!!!
Constitution. I believe the document created to guide our nation was inspired of God, and I am grateful to have it. May we not use it as a doormat.
Dining Room Table. OK… not the table, itself, but I’m grateful for all the great family conversations we have around the dining room table. You see, in our home, the dining room table is not something you pass by on the way to the rest of your life. It’s a destination.
Diversity. Indeed, I think it’s really cool that we all sway our hips (or not) to the beat of a different drummer.
Driving. I love driving, and have driven in some amazing places: cross-country trips in the U.S., the German autobahn, the laneless madness of the roundabout circling the Arc de Triomphe, the French and Italian rivieras, the crazed streets of Japan, another driving-on-the-left experience in Melbourne and Sydney, and other great places.
Earth. What a beautiful planet we live on!
Employment. I am so grateful to not only have a job, but I’m grateful to do something that I really enjoy.
Extended Family. I paid tribute to each of my direct family members, but I am so grateful for all of my extended family. Too many to mention here, but I love you all!
Facebook. I have reconnected with so many long-lost friends through Facebook – it’s way fun. Not to mention being on Facebook is a great way to know your own kids! Thank you Mark Zuckerberg and your geeky fellow computer science friends at Harvard for founding Facebook!
Food. I’m not the smallest guy on the planet, so you’re probably not too surprised to hear that I enjoy food. Speaking of which, while here in Tokyo this week, I can’t wait to go to my favorite yakiniku restaurant, Safari.
Freedom. I am so grateful for the freedoms that I enjoy every day, and admittedly take for granted.
French Toast. OK. Who doesn’t love French toast? While my family is enjoying a yummy Thanksgiving dinner at home in Boise, it’s Friday morning here in Tokyo, and I made French Toast here in my weekly mansion studio apartment room. Yum!
Health. Though not perfect, I do enjoy relatively good health, for which I am grateful.
Home. We have a great house, that truly is a “home.” I really miss it when I’m on the road.
Idaho. I truly love my adopted state (some pics here). It’s gorgeous, and for the most part, I love its people.
Information. I am grateful to be part of the “information age” when just about anything you can possibly imagine is readily researchable with a few keystrokes.
Infrastructure. OK… on the outset, I can see that this might seem funny, but think of all the modern-day conveniences we take for granted. And when was the last time you freaked out when you flipped a switch and the light did NOT come on. Or flushed the toilet and it didn’t go down. We freak out in the rare instances when our infrastructure fails us, and it makes me grateful to have them.
Intelligence. I’m not claiming to have it, but I love pursuing it, and am thankful I can do so.
Internet. Ever indebted to Al Gore for having invented this!
Japan. I love its people, its culture, its history. What a great place. I am so glad that I was called to serve in Japan as a missionary, and thus began a lifelong love of all things Japanese.
Japanese. I love the Japanese language, and have fun in my never-ending study of it. I am grateful to be bilingual.
Microwave Ovens. Wow how we missed ours while it was on the fritz!
Modern Medicine. It has brought my kids safely in to my world, and has on occasion brought them back from some pretty serious ailments. Who could imagine that a once-daily little pill could save our family from the traumatic epileptic seizures that one of our own was suffering? And as I sit here I can think of eleven separate times I’ve been under general anesthesia while doctors have cut in to me to fix one thing or another! And who can survive kidney stones without modern medicine (I've done it once, on a flight from Tokyo to L.A. - I wouldn't recommend it!).
Mother. I’m grateful to have had a great mom, and I miss her. We had this tradition that I would call her every time I went out of town – and hence we actually spoke quite a bit! There are still times when I get in to the car to head to the airport and instinctively I pull out my phone to call Mom. See my tribute to her here.
Movie Time. Whether going to the movie theater or sitting in our family room with a DVD, I love hanging out with my family and watching movies.
Music. I love music, and with the possible exception of twangy country western and opera, there are few genre of music that I do not enjoy. I am very grateful that I have some musically gifted children. Even as I type this, I’m listening to a recording of Justin playing in the All Southern California Honors Orchestra playing Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” – recorded when Justin was just 16.
Photography. Capturing life is awesome. My Flickr sets can be found here.
Popcorn. Kudos to the guy (or gal) who discovered that if you heat up corn kernels, they explode in to a culinary treat! I’m enjoying some right now, even while typing this list (otherwise I may not have thought to include it).
Shadow. We have an awesome dog. Our 80-pound huskey/malamute mix is gorgeous, loving, and dumb as a rock. Sometimes I think I’d like his life.
Simplicity. In spite of all the fancy things I’m listing that I’m grateful for, I love simplicity, as well, as reminded by Lynyrd Skynyrd’s recent song release “Simple Life.”
Skiing. Though I’m not very good at skiing, and my really bad left knee keeps me from going on advanced runs, I look forward to making good use of our season passes to Bogus Basin this winter!
Snowflake. Our beloved bunnicula? I can’t be thankful for our pets without including the rabbit. Nobody really seems to like him, but I admit to occasionally going up to him and petting him on the head (and miraculously, he doesn’t try to bite me in the process).
Sports. Not that I’m very good at any sports (“Here, Andrew… let me show you how that’s done…”), but I sure love watching them, at every level. From the hysterical tee ball games we enjoyed with our young kids all the way up to professional level contests, it’s all great!
Stormy. What? I’m grateful for our cat? I guesso. Stormy has put a chink in my belief that cats are God’s proof that not everything in nature has a purpose.
Taco Seasoning. It’s unlikely you could ever escape our house without hearing from our children about our taco seasoning experience one Christmas morning several years ago.
Talk Radio. A funny thing, perhaps, to be thankful for, but I love it, and listen to perspectives from all sides. It stimulates the mind.
Travel. Though I spend TOO much time on the road, I am grateful to have seen much of the world, and I love it.
USA. I have the cool perspective of experiencing much of the world throughout my travels, and there is no place like the United States of America. I pass through U.S. ports of entry several times a year, and on more than one occasion I’ve gotten choked up when seeing “Welcome to the United States of America” at these ports of entry.
Video Games. Hey, indulge me here! The industry is what puts food on my table and keeps a roof over my head.
Weather. Now having grown beyond the four seasons of Fire, Earthquake, Flood and Riot that Southern California offered up, I’m grateful now to be living in Idaho where we experience four distinct seasons.
Writing. I’m not a very creative person, but I love writing and it’s the one avenue where I do have at least some level of creativity. I’ve already written a little bit on a couple of works of mine here on this Japan trip, and look forward to more.

Bronco Nation

2009-11-25T20:30:00.008-07:00

Since moving to Boise, we've of course become huge BSU fans. It doesn't hurt that we have two people in our family who go there: Michelle pursuing a Social Work degree and our son Justin pursuing a Music Education degree (though Justin is on a two-year break serving a mission). And its fun to be in the national spotlight with a top ten ranking in NCAA football. Horizon Air has even done a Broncos-themed aircraft now. I snapped this photo (on the right) of our Broncos turboprop just after boarding my regional jet flight to LAX (connecting through to Tokyo) earlier this week. Horizon has university-themed aircraft in their fleet, honoring universities in cities they serve. I've seen the aircraft for the Universities of Oregon and Washington, and now it's good to have one for Boise! I understand that this aircraft did a flyover at Bronco Stadium at the home game a couple of weeks ago - that would have been fun to see.

Boise is a city of just less than 200,000 people, and the whole city goes crazy on a football game day, particularly if it's a home game. Everybody wears blue and orange. All the store marquees have some sort of message for Broncos football. BSU flags are flying on a good percentage of the cars in the city. Local schools even excuse absences for BSU game attendance. At the stadium, tailgate parties are crazy!!! The whole atmosphere is just way fun. People even dress their pitbull dogs in BSU attire on game day (see pic here). I also like this pic from the tailgate parties from the November 14th game, sporting the USA and BSU flags.

This week (Friday after Thanksgiving) BSU plays Nevada in what will end up being the WAC championship game. I'm sad that it won't be broadcast on Japanese TV while I'm here. It should prove to be an exciting game. GO BRONCOS!!!

Below are some additional Bronco Nation photos, and I've linked a bunch more (click here). Michelle's sister and her family were up here a couple of weeks ago, and we went for a walk down at Julia Davis Park and around Bronco Stadium, and that's where these pics are from.

Broncos fans are also patriots.

Pre-game tailgate parties in the parking lot at Bronco Stadium.

BSU-clad dogs pulling a wheelchair. I think this sort of thing could give Santa Claus and his raindeer-pulled sled a run for his money! :-)

Pre-game tailgate parties in the parking lot at Bronco Stadium.

At a tailgate party, one fan even played the Broncos-Vandals matchup on his PS3 before the game. His outcome was 33-14 Broncos. The actual game ended up 63-25 Broncos. Pretty close to the same ratio, ironically, but the wrong score.

Pics from Around Idaho

2009-11-15T21:24:00.011-07:00

These past two weekends I've had the opportunity to take quite a few pictures from around Idaho. First off, last weekend (November 7th) Michelle and I had a "driving date" through northern Idaho on my way home from a business trip to Seattle and Vancouver (BC). After I drove out there for work earlier in the week, Michelle flew out to meet me in Seattle Friday night, and we drove home together. We have some really good friends whom had moved to the boonies just east of Coeur d'Alene from Irvine about the same time we moved to Boise, and we hadn't seen them since our California days (daze?). This is their beautiful home here on the right. They built this log cabin home on their 40-acre property after they bought it, and the home overlooks Lake Coeur d'Alene - it's really beautiful!!!

I had crossed the border (border crossing pic here on left) from Vancouver in British Columbia back to the U.S. earlier Friday afternoon and picked Michelle up in Seattle, then we drove to Spokane that night. We spent the night in Spokane, then visited our friends for breakfast Saturday morning. It was so great to see them again! We took the rest of Saturday driving south through northwestern Idaho, down through Plummer, Moscow (University of Idaho Vandal country!!!), Lewiston, and McCall en route home. It's really pretty up in Coeur d'Alene, and call me crazy, but I actually thought Lewiston was quite pretty (I've never heard any talk about how pretty it is). Particularly as you are coming south on I-95 and you're on the big hill overlooking the entire valley, it's quite pretty. Maybe it's because we were seeing it at sunset it was nice - I dunno. You'll see the pics and can judge whether or not I'm crazy.

Then this past weekend Michelle's sister and her husband and children were visiting from California. We took the opportunity of the first measurable snow this season in Boise Friday night to take a stroll around downtown Boise's Julia Davis Park Saturday morning. The park is right next to BSU's Bronco Stadium, and of course it was game day. The whole area is awash in blue and orange, and it's just really fun. You'll see a lot of nature pictures of the park and of the Boise River (pictured at right), but you'll also see a bunch of pics from all the tailgate parties, as well. Boise gets CRAZY on BSU football game days, and it's way fun!!!

We also had a GREAT time Friday night while the Bruns were in town, when much of the local Dillion clan from Boise came over to our house for dinner (lasagna) and fun. It's always so much fun when the whole family gets together! Believe it or not, though... I didn't take pictures at this gathering (like I usually do). Michelle's sister Melinda was taking pics, so I can't wait to see them on Facebook after she posts them!

Anyway... enjoy the photos below, as well as all that I've posted online from last weekend (here on Facebook and here on Flickr) as well as from this weekend (here on Facebook and here on Flickr).

The Seurynck's log cabin home on their 40-acre lot.

The view from the second floor of the Seurynck's log cabin home. Dave literally sits at this window from where I took this picture, and hunts in his pajamas. Last year he bagged a big ol' elk without even taking his slippers off!

Lake Coeur d'Alene.

Overlooking Lewiston, Idaho.

The cousins at Boise River.

The little white church on the BSU campus.

The tailgate parties.

From the tailgate parties.

The lake at Julia Davis Park.

My favorite mother-in-law!

Haunted House 2009

2009-11-01T15:22:00.007-07:00

Every year Michelle's cousins do a big Haunted House here in Boise. Steve and his neighbor use both of their back yards and turn them in to this great Haunted House. We ran the Haunted House Friday and Saturday night, the 30th and 31st, and between the two nights took close to 600 people (I think) through the attraction. It's a very popular (and FREE) haunted house, and people line up out front and often wait up to two hours to get in. We take groups of 4-6 through at a time, guided by three tour guides. This first photo here are Steve Sr. and his sons Steve Jr. and Mike (from left to right), whom were our guides Saturday night.

We have tarps and other barriers constructed as walls to take victims... er... guests though a route that features many sections: a head table, a creepy bridge, a graveyard, a funeral, a guillotine execution area, a torso table, a dot room, a headless poker tournament, a butcher... lots and lots of different sections. To the left here is from the mental ward infirmary. I won't say what happens in this "room," but let's just say it's kind of disheartening. I worked in the guillotine area, and had the honor of beheading Mark over and over and over again - we had great fun! I actually had one of the few speaking parts in the Haunted House, and you know me... I can't do anything like that without spewing corny joke after corny joke. At any rate, I highly recommend you come to Boise next year and check out the Haunted House. Boise is a great place to beheaded anyway. :-)

I've posted 90 photos from both nights - some of these are not for the faint of heart. You can check them out on Facebook (click here) or on Flickr (click here). And below you can see an embedded video from YouTube (or click here) of me doing a practice run at the guillotine with Mark and Andrew.

Greetings from Maryland

2009-10-26T20:18:00.008-06:00

As mentioned in my post yesterday, today I had the really cool experience of driving 300 miles on the U.S. east coast during Fall, when all of the tree leaves are changing colors. Up to central New Jersey from Philadelphia for a meeting, then back down to Maryland, where I have more meetings tomorrow morning. The photo here at the left is taken along the East Coast Greenway near the Raritan River. The East Coast Greenway is a 3,000-mile-long traffic-free trail connecting cities from Maine to Florida - pretty cool! My little rented Ford "EDGE" SUV - I think that stands for "piece of junk" - did well enough, and it was a very pleasant drive. I sure wish I had my regular digital SLR camera instead of my simple point-and-click camera, but these pics will have to do.

Here (pic on right) is one thing I really love about traveling on the East Coast: things are OLD. On the West Coast where I'm from, if something has been around since 1950 it is considered "old." Just in case you're wondering, I have NOT been around since 1950, so I am NOT old!!! But I love this township (what did they do to the cat???), established in 1666. Do you think that things have changed at all around there in the past 343 years.

And finally for this posting, I saw this (pic on left) customized license plate from the province of Ontario. Based on this, the question goes begging... Do they really allow mummies to drive in Canada???

All 22 photos from today's drive are posted on Facebook (click here) and on Flickr (click here).

Greetings from Philadelphia

2009-10-25T21:06:00.005-06:00

Driving my rental car on I-76W late last night after arriving in Philadelphia, I found a retro rock radio station that I really liked, WYSP. "The Rock You Grew Up With" was their catch phrase, and they played some great stuff. Unfortunately, even with the stereo at max volume, I could barely hear it. Cheap rental car stereo? Actually not. It was raining SO HARD that the rain pounding on the car was deafening. Not to digress, but to introduce the pic on the right (a random photo of some really nice homes in a Philly neighborhood - I love the Fall colors in the surrounding hills), you can see that the weather cleared up nicely today. But last night's storm was WICKED!!! It caused my connecting departure from Denver airport to be delayed, and I got in too late for a industry VIP party I was supposed to attend last night.

At the PHL airport, though, as you so often see in many cities in the U.S., there is a big welcome sign (pictured at left) from the city mayor. I had previously not known the name of the Philadelphia mayor. Michael Nutter. Man oh man... especially if I went in to politics, I think I would change my name. My guess is that this guy is a real nutter!!! :-)

Today I spent that day at the GameX trade show here in Philadelphia. A very nice little local show, featuring some talented local developers, as well as some of the larger players in the industry, as well. There were the usual characters dressed up in, say, Star Wars garb playing with light sabers (video here on YouTube), but one of the more entertaining parts of the show was a performance by Buffalo, NY based metal band "ArmCannon" (their MySpace page here). They have done a bunch of stuff for videogames, and they were pretty good. Check out the video below, though. The guitarist in the middle, particularly toward the end of the video, gets in to some serious head-banging. With his long hair, he's quite entertaining to watch. But man... I would have a SERIOUS dizzying headache after this!!!

So anyway... tomorrow I drive about 90 miles to my first meeting in New Jersey, and then about 200 miles to the Maryland destination of my Tuesday morning meeting. 300 miles of east coast driving tomorrow. It's a beautiful time of year here, and I look forward to the drive. Hopefully the weather will hold. Then flying up to Boston Tuesday afternoon.

I've posted more photos on Facebook (click here), and I'm still uploading photos and more videos to Flickr (click here).

Andrew's Eagle Scout Project

2009-10-21T14:51:00.010-06:00

For Andrew's Eagle Scout project, he has been building and installing benches along two trails down at the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge at Lake Lowell in Nampa, Idaho. To the right here is a panoramic view of part of the refuge, with part of one of the trails in view, plus two of the four benches, and even my favorite mother-in-law walking the trail (you'll have to click on the pic to enlarge it to see the detail). :-)

These benches did claim a victim. I had just returned from a business trip to San Francisco and was helping Andrew with the benches in our garage last Friday evening. Now... these things are made of very high quality (and heavy) Trex board and cast iron steel - in total I estimate each bench approaches 200 pounds. One of them fell, and like an idiot I tried to catch it. I would like to claim that my actions saved Andrew from a broken toe or foot, but I think he got out of the way in time, anyway. Emergency Room x-rays later that night revealed no broken bones, thankfully; however, the tendons are severely strained, and it's just a bad sprain. The E.R. doc was talking about surgery it's so bad, but I'm just chalking that up to crazy talk!

Andrew "sold" the benches to sponsors at the refuge's 100th anniversary celebration back in June (pic at left). We've been building the benches at our house, where they had take over our garage. This past Saturday, though, was the big day when we installed the benches down there. With a small crew we installed all four benches in about three-and-a-half hours. I went back there yesterday to remove the "caution" tape now that the cement has set, and to cover the cement bases back up with dirt and rock.

Other than Ma & Pa and Gran'Ma, the two adult scout leaders to come and help install were Delynn Searle and Scott Ableman [pictured at left eating pizza, supplied by Gran'Ma (also pictured) - thank you!]. They're both a crackup and made things really fun, so thank you! Thank you also to Lloyd Lumber of Nampa and Kuna Machine Shop (of Kuna - go figure) for all their advice and at-cost supplies to help make it all possible.

Enjoy the photos in this blog entry, and check out even more that I've posted online. To see them on Flickr, please click here; to see them on Facebook, please click here. And more below.

Working on the Trex boards.

More work on the Trex boards.

Check out the sparks fly as Scott angle-grinds off the protruding bolts.

Delynn pouring in the Quick-Crete for mixing.

Work that post hole digger, Scott!

Steven on one of the installed benches yesterday.

Mark Spitz Watch Out!!!

2009-10-11T16:10:00.004-06:00

OK... so perhaps the next Mark Spitz he is not, but he does swim, he does spit, and his name is Mark. :-)

This year, Mark joined the YMCA swim team, and yesterday was his first swim meet, an invitational out in Nampa. He did the 50 freestyle and the 100 backstroke, and he did very well. I've posted a picture of his fine form here, and we look forward to catching Mark at some great swim meets this year!

Christopher and I went to watch the swim meet, while the rest of the family was at Andrew's soccer game in Meridian. Christopher had fun being back in that environment, since he was on his high school swim team.

Go Mark!!!

Family BBQ

2009-10-11T00:07:00.003-06:00

Since PFC Christopher J Goodale is home for a four-day weekend, we got the entire family together for a BBQ. It was FAR TOO COLD out to do a swim party/BBQ, but with temps in the mid-40s, I stood outside and BBQ'd, and our nearly-adopted-son Andrew Clark was my "runner" taking food inside to all the warm eaters. :-)

We have had SO MUCH FUN living here in Boise, near where so many of Michelle's cousins (the Dillons) live. Of Steven and Ruth's nine kids, five of them live in this area, and we always have a GREAT time!!! And since the Dillons do this GREAT Haunted House every Halloween, we used the opportunity tonight to plan for the big event. The panoramic photo here is stitched together from five shots taken in our family room during the planning. We planned, and we laughed until we cried. :-) Very good times.

Michelle's cousin Mike took a good half of the photos tonight, as I was pretty busy BBQ'ing for some 30 people. Thanks, Mike! To take a look at all the pics, please click on the Facebook photo album here.

Willing Winter Here

2009-10-07T17:55:00.003-06:00

Saturday through Monday the high/lo temps here in Boise were about 49F/34F or so and we got lots of rain. Which meant that we got snow in the mountains around us. Though it's been sunny and warm for the last two days, there's still a little bit of snow visible up on Bogus Basin, our local ski resort. On Monday, snow was all the way down on the foothills immediately around us, at about the 3,500 foot level (our house is at about 2,800 feet). But as you can see, all of that has melted away. :-(

I am willing winter to get here. I love winter!!! And seeing as how we have our Bogus Basin season passes already, let's hope for a Thanksgiving weekend season opening!

Meanwhile, this weekend is supposed to be sunny and low-to-mid-60s. Pool party!!! :-)

Trains / Being Polite

2009-09-26T08:47:00.005-06:00

When I boarded the Yamagoto Shinkansen (bullet train going north from Tokyo) this morning, there was this old lady getting on board just in front of me. Oh and pardon my A.D.D. moment, trains are just COOL - check out the brand-new train model that will start running between downtown Tokyo and Narita airport starting October 1st: I'll be on it that day! But I digress... Anyway, this old lady was trying to lift her suitcase on to the overhead bin above the seats, and I knew this would end in disaster. So I asked her if I could lift it up for her, and after she nearly fell over because this big white dewd was speaking in Japanese to her, she nearly fell over with thanks and praise for helping her. Well it turned out that she was assigned the seat next to me, and so we chatted for the nearly-hour-long ride from Tokyo to Utsunomiya, where I had to change trains.

She was a sweet old lady, but she was brutally honest as most Japanese are. She said, while patting my tummy, "Ya' know... I have a son who is in international business, too, and he's fat, too." She went on to lament how that if you spend your life bouncing all over the place, you get fat, and there's just no going back. She went on to say that before we boarded the train, she noticed me on the platform (CREEPERS!!!), and that I reminded me of her son. She said that she thought it would be a wonderful thing if her son was as nice and polite as I was, and while I'm saying "Oh I'm sure he is...," on the inside I'm thinking, "He's probably as rude as you, ya' ol' windbag!" No no no... it's not actually rude to comment on somebody's rotundness in Japan - in many ways it's still a compliment. But speaking of being rude on trains, the JR East Company has ads all over it's trains and in the stations promoting being polite on trains (as seen on the left in this paragraph). Some of these ads are pretty funny. I should send in a suggestion: a picture of an old lady patting a fat dewd's tummy with a word bubble coming out of her mouth saying "futori."

And finally on trains, I saw something I hadn't seen before today. The newer trains (certainly none in Nikko!) have TV screens where they run ads/commercials. The pink TV screen you see pictured at the right is a horoscope of sorts. And it was running "fortunes" based on your blood type. Displayed here is the fortune for O-type blood carriers. Fretty punny, eh?

Have a great day.

Nikko

2009-09-26T08:16:00.007-06:00

I have always believed that I will work better internationally as I better understand the local culture, so as part of that belief, I make it a point to travel to places overseas that are steeped in culture. OK... I wasn't buying that as I typed it, either, so let's just suffice to say that I like to travel. And today I traveled to Nikko, which is most famous for the Shinkyo Bridge spanning the Daiya River (pictured at left). Legend has it that a Buddhist priest by the name of Shodo Shonin crossed the Daiya River at this exact spot more than 1,200 years ago, on the backs of two huge serpents. Alrighty then... I see that sake was big here in Japan even 1,200 years ago... :-)

Today was kind of an historic moment for me, of sorts. In all of my traveling in Japan, I've been to Hokkaido (the northernmost island) and I've seen nearly all of Honshu (the main island) south/southwest of Tokyo, and I've even been down in to Kyushu, but I had NEVER been north of Tokyo on Honshu. Nikko is about 100 miles north of Tokyo, so at least now I can say I've been to that area of Japan (and a pic on the right to prove it - sorry for the hat hair). One of these days I'd like to make it way up to Aomori and Sendai and that part of Honshu, but I was limited today to just a day-trip.

There are dozens of shrines in the Nikko National Park, and they're all pretty cool looking. Many of them are adorned with carvings of monkeys (see left). They even have the "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil" statues around there - I wonder if it's Japan where that whole thing originated. But in fact, as in most Asian shrines (not just in Japan), I really love all of the ornate carvings/paintings that are part of these temples. You'll see some of those in all of the pictures I took.

To the right here is a panoramic view of sort of a courtyard that was surrounded by all of these old structures (most of these shrines date from the 1630s). Sure all of this stuff was cool, but what I thought was most cool about Nikko is that ALL of it is old. Tokyo is all modern concrete and glass, and though shiny and neat, it's all modern. Even traditional ol' Kyoto has quite a bit of concrete and glass, as well. But in Nikko? Nope... it all seemed pretty old. Even the train I rode on creaked and squeeled along the rusty old tracks as it swayed back and forth. It honestly reminded me of the first time I rode on an old Kintetsu train from Nagoya to Chiryu way back in August of 1986. Man... that's OLD!!! :-)

Anyway, I had a great time up there, and am happy to have visited a part of Japan that I've never seen before. You can see all the photos I took, by clicking here for Facebook, or here for Flickr.

Basic Training Graduation

2009-09-12T22:49:00.011-06:00

On Friday, Fort Benning had its graduation ceremony (pic of PFC Goodale and Dad here at the left) for Company D's 2-47th Infantry Division Basic Training graduates, and it was really cool!!! It was held on the parade grounds (a huge grass field) in front of a large grand stand there that was full to overflowing with visiting family members. The parade grounds are part of National Infantry Museum that was just opened this year (it's a really cool museum that is extremely well-done; the website is cool, too).

One of Fort Benning's bands played there, too, marching on the field. We even got some video of them for Justin's benefit.

One of the coolest parts of the ceremony was a battle simulation that they did on the parade grounds. Complete with lots of smoke, really loud explosions, and gunfire, it was really cool!!! Christopher was part of that demo squad (which is why he is dressed in full combat gear as you see here in his photo with Michelle on the right). Christopher was the automatic gunner in the demo squad, carrying his 17-pound M249 Squad Automatic Weapon (SAW). In the video you see embedded (or linked) below, as the soldiers run forward they stop in front of the grand stands. Christopher is in the group directly in front of our side of the grand stands, the third one in from the left. I like the announcer's comments, too, talking about America's greatest secret weapon in warfare: the foot soldier. Check it out below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqDhrnpHq2M

After graduation, we got to spend the rest of the day with Christopher. We spent a lot of time checking out the museum and doing lunch there. Then we went and to our hotel to hang out. We watched a movie and ate junk food (woo hoo!!!), and Christopher also got to video Skype call Brianna, Andrew, and Mark at home. Check out a photo of that on the left. They had fun videoconferencing, and we can tell that Skype is going to be fun while Christopher is away at AIT (Advanced Individual Training) at Fort Eustis, Virginia. He is already there (arrived there last last night), and after a couple of weeks, he should have pretty regular internet access.

Michelle and I had a REALLY great time with Christopher. We had him from 10am and 11am on Wednesday and Thursday, and he didn't have to be back to barracks until 20:45 each night. We also got to spend some time with him on Friday. That was unexpected, so it was a nice surprise. He was dropped off at the airport in Atlanta around 10am on Friday, but his flight to Richmond, Virginia wasn't until more than eight hours later! Our return flight to Boise (via SLC) wasn't until late afternoon, and as Christopher didn't have any specific orders during his free time, Michelle and I picked him up and took him to lunch.

I have uploaded 23 photos and 7 videos from our time with Christopher at Fort Benning on to our Flickr site. To view all of them, please click here.

Family Day at Fort Benning

2009-09-09T19:05:00.004-06:00

Today was "Family Day" at Fort Benning, and after a brief orientation session this morning, Michelle and I got to spend a truly awesome day with Christopher. To the right here is a picture of mom and PFC Goodale this morning.

We had a lot of fun mostly sitting around talking (and eating), and getting to hear all of the fun stories that he didn't put in his letters home. Tomorrow morning he graduates and then we get to spend another day with him before Michelle and I fly back home, and Christopher heads to Virginia, on Friday.

Christopher's such an awesome young man and we're so proud of him! He's in terrific shape and he's very much a soldier, but he's still the fun-loving, happy Christopher that we all love. :-)

I have posted a couple of videos below, as well. The first one is of all of the soldiers making their entrance in to the orientation session, and the second one is of the whole group singing the Army song. It's apparent that all of their intensive training these past several weeks did NOT include much singing practice!!! :-) But they sounded awesome to these proud Army parents!

Kyoto

2009-09-06T09:36:00.007-06:00

I spent the day touring Kyoto, Japan today with three work associates (our group pictured at right, at "Kinkakuji," or the Golden Pavilion"). I absolutely LOVE Kyoto; it's my favorite city in Japan. Kyoto is much more laid back than Tokyo, and it has one of the most awesome train stations in the world. There is SO much of historical significance here, too - it's just way fun. One gets a much better understanding of historical Japan by touring Kyoto.

We first started at Nijo Castle, a shogun castle originally built in the 1600s. It's the "miracle of Japanese joinery" - you can ask me about that later if you want. :-) I like Nijo-jo because it really gives you a sense of what life was like in that era.

Then we went to Kinkakuji - it was probably close to my 20th trip there, but it's still cool every time! Nearby is Ryoanji where the famous rock gardens pictured in many Japan books, plus a gorgeous zen garden. However, it was undergoing renovation and though still open, we didn't feel we'd get the true sense of the place. So we skipped it and then...

...we went on to Kiyomizu-dera, or the purified water temple. Not only is this cool for all of the temple buildings, but it also sits up on a hill overlooking Kyoto, which is really kind of cool.

One of our taxi drivers today was SUPER talkative!!! He even had pictures of lots of things here in Kyoto, and he was flipping through these picture books while he was driving us, showing all of these places. That was kind of scary!!! He said there are over 1,600 (was that the number? anyway it's a lot!!!) temples/shrines/sites in the Kyoto area, but we saw what I think are the three coolest.

Posted herein and below are some of the pictures from the day. To see all 35 pics that I've posted on Flickr, please click here.

Overlooking part of Nijo Castle.

This dude had DARTS on his backpack (plus a cute little furry duck). Waddup???

The back side of Kinkakuji. This side isn't photographed as often, but it's still pretty!

Kiyomizu-dera, with Kyoto in the background.

Kiyomizu-dera.

Observations from Japan

2009-08-29T07:39:00.006-06:00

Greetings from Japan, everyone. I am in Tokyo for the annual CEDEC game developers conference, and got in here Thursday night. Today while heading out to Nvidia to pick up the demo machines they are loaning to us for the show, I happened to notice this girl's shoes (pic at left). Sorry I chopped heads off in this shot, but it's hard to take good pictures with a cell phone while walking in a crosswalk with hundreds of other people. Love the shoes, though. Did gold moon boots come back in style??? The shoes on the girl in the upper left look interesting, too.

At any rate, it's exciting to be here right now. Japan is holding a parliamentary election here tomorrow, and they say that after 54 years of LDP control, the opposition party, the DPJ, is going to win control of the lower house of parliament (the DPJ already controls the upper house). The Liberal Democratic Party has held control since 1955, and it appears that the Democratic Party of Japan will assume control tomorrow. Though "LDP" has the "L" word in it, believe it or not it's the politically conservative party here. Ironically, the DPJ is actually the politically liberal party. It'll be fun to watch the local news coverage to see how crazy they are about following this stuff in Japan.

Meanwhile, this pic on the right I snapped today at Nvidia's office building in Akasaka. Though this is to prevent the spread of the N1H1 virus, having hand sanitizers in public buildings probably isn't a bad idea generally, anyway. Today was a Saturday, though, so the building was largely empty - I had no way of gauging how much this thing is used.

Finally... below are daytime and nighttime panorama shots (stitched together from multiple photos) from my hotel room window. This is taken from the 26th floor of the Hotel Pacific Tokyo, overlooking the Shinagawa train station.

Western Idaho Fair

2009-08-23T00:37:00.005-06:00

The Western Idaho Fair is running in Boise for 10 days, and as many times as most of our kids have been to the fair over the past three summers that we've been here, neither Michelle nor myself had ever gone. In fact, even more pathetic is that as long as I've lived in Boise (three years) with all of the events held nearly every weekend at the fairgrounds, I had never been there. So we fixed all that today.

Justin and Christopher have actually worked at the fair each of the past couple of years. Pronto Pups, a popular corn dog franchise here in Boise, always operates food/drink stands at the fair. Though Justin and Christopher are gone, Brianna worked the lemonade booth at the fair. Of course, you know our Brianna. Always so shy and afraid to speak to people. Yeah... right!!! They've had her at the cash register (fear not: though polynomials frighten her as they do me, counting bills and change comes second nature to this teenage girl!!!), and she has loved interacting with customers. To the left here is a picture of her working at the lemonade booth this afternoon. She has worked 12-13 hours each day she has worked so far, and that will likely continue throughout most of the 10 days the fair is in town (she'll take tomorrow, Sunday, off, as well as next Wednesday to take some online summer school class finals that I know she is DYING to take on!!!).

So, Michelle, Andrew, Mark, Steven and I spent 3-4 hours at the fair today. To the right here is a picture of A, M and S near the entrance. We rode several rides, drank some lemonade (of course!), took in a couple of shows, and saw quite a few farm animals... typical fair stuff. All in all it was "fun" just hanging out with family outdoors in 95-degree heat, but the fair wasn't "all that and a bag of chips." Hmmm... maybe we should have purchased a bag of chips with our lemonade.......

For all 14 pics I have posted, please click here for the Facebook album, or here for the Flickr album.

Brianna's Persuasive Speech

2009-08-20T13:59:00.003-06:00

This summer Brianna is taking an online speech class. She has regular classwork for this class, but obviously needs to do speeches as well. Her speeches need to be done in front of an audience, and we record and post these speeches for her teacher to review and grade.

Well... this afternoon we all gathered to film Brianna's "persuasive speech" but we all got the giggles. I've put together a bloopers reel from her "speech" this morning, which you see below. In her persuasive speech, Brianna is trying to persuade people that it's a good idea to give your children music lessons.

Check out the speech below, and let me know if you're persuaded. :-)

Freedom Team

2009-08-15T22:01:00.003-06:00

PFC Christopher J. Goodale, a Soldier in the United States Army, has submitted you for a Freedom Team Salute Commendation for your support and sacrifice as an Army Parent.

So starts the letter (to the right) that we received today, along with a certificate (below), and Army Parent lapel pins for Michelle and I. We will wear them proudly; in fact, I even look forward to wearing mine on my sports coat when I'm in Japan in a couple of weeks. We'll see what sort of conversation starter that ends up being. :-)

A week ago today, Christopher's platoon entered "White Phase" of training, which we thought allowed him more freedoms and more time. However, we haven't received any letters from him this week, other than very brief notes along with things he has sent home. So we cannot wait to hear from him again soon!!!

I still have quite a few letters to post on his Letters from a Warrior blog; please forgive me for not getting to that.

Courageously Step Forward

2009-08-02T19:25:00.003-06:00

Last week we received a letter from the Church, about PFC Goodale's attendance at the church on base at Ft. Benning, Georgia. To the right is a scan of the letter, with the text OCR'd below. I like how Brother Oaks writes, "In these troubled times, it is heartwarming to see sons and daughters courageously step forward to help preserve our freedom and way of life."

Indeed, it is true!!! And Christopher has stepped forward; we are proud of him. At basic training, he gets time to write letters, and we received three letters from him this past week. They don't OCR well, so Michelle is re-typing Chrisophter's handwriting (end editing out platoon member/leadership names, etc., which they advise us to do). We'll get those up when we can.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Goodale:

We recently learned that Christopher has joined the military and is attending basic training at Ft. Benning, GA. We are pleased to inform you that he has been attending the Church services on base and are grateful for the spirit he brings to the meetings. President Funk is the Church leader at Ft. Benning and will do all he can to help strengthen Christopher's faith and testimony. We appreciate your support and know you join with us in asking that the Lord will guide and protect him during this time of uncertainty and turmoil in the world.

In these troubled times, it is heartwarming to see sons and daughters courageously step forward to help preserve our freedom and way of life. You can be proud of the part you played in molding Christopher's character. Courage and patriotism do not come automatically; they are planted in the hearts of children by their parents. We express our gratitude to you for your selfless service in his behalf.

We have a deep and abiding interest in Christopher's welfare and want to ensure the blessings of Church membership are available wherever he is stationed. As military members move around, occasionally they are unable to find out where and when the Church meetings are held. Our Military Relations Division can assist them. Likewise, we are able to help concerned parents locate the bishop or branch president where their son or daughter is stationed. In addition, many times we can assist in locating the name of a group leader aboard a ship or at a deployed location around the world.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact the Military Relations Division at (801) 240-2286 or e-mail them at PST-Military@ldschurch.org. We know that the Lord is mindful of Christopher and the challenges he will face as he valiantly serves in the military.

Sincerely,
Robert C. Oaks

Grab Kleenex Before Watching

2009-07-17T23:54:00.002-06:00

I have uploaded a couple of videos from the funeral services for James Michael Cotter II, held in January 2005. Michael was in a singing/dancing group called the "Hi-Tops," and they performed at his funeral. Below are videos embedded from YouTube, of the group singing "God Bless the USA" and "Hero." When this group performs "Hero," each member wears a shirt with his/her picture on it. At the funeral, they all had a picture of Michael pinned over their own picture - it was really sweet. At the end of the song, they all point to a picture of Michael up on the wall. Enjoy... but try to ignore the family members on the first couple of rows weeping in both joy and sadness. :-)

We have more video from the funeral, and I'll post some of that later.

Family Reunion

2009-07-16T01:12:00.010-06:00

Over Independence Day weekend, we held a Descendants of Morris and Cora Wilcox family reunion in Delta, Utah. My maternal Grandma and Grandpa Morris and Cora were both born in 1905. My grandpa passed away in 1984, and I remember it well. I was in my senior year of high school, and sitting in my "College Typing" class when I was summoned to the office, where I was informed that my grandpa had just passed away. As much as grandma wanted to go be with grandpa, she still lived for more than 10 more years. They had five children, of which my mother was the oldest. The picture here on the right is of the surviving siblings (all but my mom are there) and their spouses.

Mark had Boy Scout Camp all that week, returning Saturday (the Fourth of July), so Michelle stayed home to wait for him, while on Friday Brianna, Andrew, Steven and I drove down to Delta (about 8 hours from Boise). It was weird not having my full family with me, especially Michelle, but we had a lot of fun. Then on Saturday evening, Michelle and Mark flew down to SLC. We left the reunion early to go pick them up, then Saturday night we stayed in Salt Lake, for my cousin's baby's blessing in Provo that next morning. The pic here to the left is a picture from that.

Anyway... on Friday evening, the four of us checked in to our hotel in Delta and got ready for a fun-filled 24 hours there in that HOT SPOT of Utah (Delta, with a population of all of 3,200, in a county with just over 13,000). :-) But seriously, it was fun to experience Small Town America on the country's birthday.

Friday evening, the town hosted a bike parade, where the main street was blocked off, and the kids (and many many adults) could ride up the street on their decorated bikes, scooters, etc. Amongst all the pics I got were some of our own family that participated. But the real highlight of the evening was the family program we had. The pic here to the right is all of the second cousins singing Lee Greenwood's "Proud to Be an American." I won't go in to all of the details, but it was a great program, and we had a lot of fun.

On Saturday, we all went to the Fourth of July Parade that the city of Delta had. I couldn't believe how many people were there!!! I think the entire county was there, and then some. But it was a way cool parade. To the left here is my sister and her husband and Austin, strolling down the street just before the parade. There was even an Air Force flyover - how cool is that???!!! That afternoon, many of us first cousins and their families went to the movies to escape the heat. Delta has a two-screen theater, and I think those who went to the movies were split between the new Transformers movie and the new Ice Age movie. Most of the clan was going to the town's Demolition Derby that night, but we missed it because we had headed back up to Salt Lake. I heard it was way cool, though.

Anyway... it was great fun. You can see all 66 pics I have posted here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.

Fun Day at Lagoon

2009-07-15T19:50:00.006-06:00

Over the Independence Day weekend, we had a Descendants of Morris and Cora Wilcox family reunion in Delta, Utah (I'll be posting some pics from the reunion later). After the reunion and before heading home, we spent a day at the amusement park in Farmington, UT, "Lagoon." We went on quite a few roller coasters, played in the water park, and Brianna, Andrew and Mark even "flew" the "Sky Coaster" - GREAT FUN!!! All six of us even crammed in to the little tiny photo booth at the left, resulting in the wacky pictures you see scanned on the right. Thanks, Brianna, for suggesting this; it's a good thing we're a close family!

Also that weekend, on the evening of the Fourth of July, we found ourselves at an Applebees restaurant in West Valley City, UT for dinner and no fireworks plans. The restaurant manager must have taken pitty on us, so he invited us to join he and his staff when they closed at 10pm, as he had purchased some $200 worth of fireworks for his staff since they had to work on the holiday. So... for Independence Day 2009, we enjoyed fireworks in a parking lot with the Applebees staff; that'll be a fun memory.

Here are some additional photos from the day, and you can see all the pics from Lagoon and our Applebees fireworks here on Facebook, or here on Flickr.

Address for PFC Christopher James Goodale

2009-07-15T19:29:00.003-06:00

Today we finally received an address for Christopher while he's at Basic Training. So between now and September 10, 2009 (when he graduates Basic Training - Michelle and I intend to be there for the ceremony), you can reach him at the address below. I'm sure he would love to hear from you, so please write him at:

PVT Christopher Goodale
RN 303 3rd Plt
DCO, 2-47INF
5375 Hanson Drive
Fort Benning, GA 31905

We've also received two letters to date from Christopher, the contents of which I will post when I have a chance to retype/edit them. He also called this past Saturday evening. He was given just 5 minutes to speak (though we spoke for 8 - I hope he didn't get smoked for that), and he, Andrew, Mark and I had a nice but brief chat. Christopher said it was "very hard" but he sounded great, and anxious to start doing what he went there to do (train hard).

A Sentimental American

2009-07-03T07:55:00.002-06:00

Five years ago this weekend, I sent an e-mail to my family, entitled "A Sentimental American." I had completely forgotten about it, until my sister recently reminded me of it. I post it below in its original form, adding only a couple of additional countries that I have visited since then, as I travel the globe. Happy Independence Day from a sentimental American.....

Happy Independence Day from a very sentimental American. It occurred to me today that I have passed through eight U.S. ports of entry, upon returning to these great United States from various overseas trips. Whether it be at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, or at SFO in San Francisco, or any other ports of entry I have passed through, they have all had one thing in common: Just prior to entering the Immigrations and Customs clearance areas, there is undoubtedly a depiction of the U.S. flag, and a very prominent sign stating, "Welcome to the Unites States of America."

It further struck me today that since the first of this year, alone, I have passed through the international arrivals areas of LAX some six times, and through San Jose International Airport's port of entry once. Certainly more than once in this my 38th year, upon seeing "Welcome to the United States of America," I have had to fight back tears. In many ways, I have felt unworthy of the U.S. passport that I so proudly hold. Many times throughout the years, as I approach the Immigration officers at these U.S. ports of entry, I have had to wipe away a tear, fearing that these guys would think I'm a bit nutty. But... I truly get all weak and sappy when I consider the great country whose passport I feel so protected by. And it gets worse with each passing year. I guess I'm just a sentimental American.

Even though I've visited a lot of the same countries many times, I haven't really been to that many countries. My limited international experience includes Japan (where I have also lived), Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, France, and Italy. Of ironic note, very few of these countries proudly display their flag and prominently place "Welcome to ......... " signs in their ports of entries. The United States is a very welcoming nation, and I swell with patriotic pride every time I see "Welcome to the United States of America" upon returning home. I guess I'm just a sentimental American.

I truly wish that more Americans could share in this experience, and truly felt the spirit of "Welcome to the United States..." upon returning to our blessed nation. Perhaps fewer Americans would be inclined to listen to and support those fellow citizens who hold their mother country in contempt. One such prominent U.S. citizen recently told a gathering in the United Kingdom, "You're stuck with being connected to this country of mine, which is known for bringing sadness and misery to places around the globe." Such statements really break my heart.

I regularly give thanks to God that we have the right to free speech, but that doesn't mean that what people say is always correct or responsible. In fact, I'm grateful I have the right to reject the lunacy that sometimes spews from the mouths of such America-hating fellow citizens. This past week I have been brought to tears thinking about some of the malicious things some of our own citizens have said about our country. I guess I'm just a sentimental American.

If you will indulge me, I would like to share some of the things I have learned from people who are NOT citizens of these great United States:

In the late summer of 1986, I sat in the home of a Japanese family (father, mother, a son, and a daughter), and the mother in the family recounted to me (in her own Japanese tongue) the story of how her entire family (grandparents, parents, siblings) were killed in the atomic fireball that consumed Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. She happened to be out of the city at the time, at a prep school in Tokyo. As she recalled the story, I began to feel extremely awkward. You know what she said, though? She told me that she was GLAD that we Americans recognized evil and stood up against it. She explained that all during the U.S. Occupation of Japan through 1952, that she deeply resented Americans, but that in the end, she was glad that America didn't drag the war on any longer, and that we rid the world of Imperialist Japan. We all cried during the discussion. They insisted to me there's were tears of happiness. As for me, I guess I'm just a sentimental American.

In March of 2003, shortly after the Iraq war started, I sat with two Italians at a business lunch in Genova, Italy. We had a very candid discussion over lunch, a conversation started by the two gentlemen I was dining with. They freely shared their views of Americans, and the current war effort. They expressed to me that, only two time zones away from Iraq, they feared what Iraq could do to them, and stated their gratitude to America, for standing up against evil. They broadened it beyond the scope of the current conflict, and furthermore stated how grateful they were for all that America has done over the years to ensure freedom throughout Europe. Driving back up the Italian and French Riviera coasts to return to my Cannes hotel, I fought back tears. I guess I'm just a sentimental American.

Not quite two weeks ago, I was in Seoul, South Korea, when one of their own faced a terrible, unjust execution in Iraq. Fearing possible anti-American sentiment, I tried to lay as low as I could. My fears may have been largely unfounded, and I hope they were. One South Korean woman asked if I had heard the news, and spoke very openly about it. I asked her, frankly, if South Koreans were saddened or angry. She sadly replied, "Both." I pressed further, "Are South Koreans angry at Americans?" She smiled and emphatically said "NO!" Upon further pressing, she explained that some younger Koreans hold Americans in jealous resentment, but that certainly any older Koreans still held Americans in great appreciation, for our involvement in the Korean War, for protecting their freedom. She told me she is 26, and is appreciative that Americans fight so strongly for freedom around the world.

Of course, the above-listed experiences offer anecdotal evidence, at best; however, I would bet that these are not unique circumstances. I believe such sentiments are held by many individuals who are citizens of other nations. Unfortunately, their voices will continue to be drowned out by those who would wish to stifle the cause of freedom. And indeed, they will continue to be drowned out by the citizens of our own country who hold it in contempt.

However, I will take comfort in knowing the truth: that indeed we embrace freedom, and we strive for freedom all over the world. And that most of the world is absolutely grateful that we do so. May God continue to bless this great nation, and may we ever be worthy of those blessings.

Happy Independence Day, from a Sentimental American.

May we especially honor the following:

The Civil War: 184,594 soldiers dying through out the valleys and hillsides of America’s North and South.
World War I: 116,708 soldiers die on foreign soil to protect this nation.
World War II: 407,316 soldiers died to change the face of the world and how others viewed the United States of America.
The Korean War: 33,651 soldiers dying, so others could be free.
The Vietnam War: 58,168 gave their lives to help free others.
The Persian Gulf War: 148 a war to stop a dictator.
The Iraq War: 865 American Soldiers have given their lives so far.
And many others, who have served or are currently serving to protect and defend our freedoms and liberty.

PFC Goodale in Georgia

2009-07-01T23:36:00.005-06:00

After seeing Christopher off at the airport very early this morning, we heard from Christopher tonight that he has safely reached Fort Benning, Georgia. He sent a quick text message to me, "They announced we'll be there in 10 minutes, so get your last phone calls in." Upon receiving that text message, of course, I did the only logical thing any father would do: I called him. We all spoke with him briefly, and it was great to say one last good-bye before we don't hear from him for a while. They told us previously not to expect to hear from him for up to two weeks after his arrival, but already we could tell that he sounded anxious and ready to start this whole thing.

To the right here is a picture of him waving good-bye as I saw him off at the airport very early this morning. And below are several other photos over the last couple of days as we said our good-byes.

Some silly faces as we dropped him off at the Airport Holiday Inn Monday night where he started his MEPS processing.

PFC Goodale with proud Mom and Dad as Andrew tries to make silly faces in the background (brothers!!!).

Brianna with her big brother and best friend.

PFC Goodale at the airport very early this morning.

PFC Goodale in line waiting for Security.

Christopher Senior Pics / Graduation

2009-06-10T12:50:00.007-06:00

On Tuesday, May 26th, Christopher had his graduation ceremony. To the right here is a pic of us after the graduation ceremony. Grandma Cotter was able to come up for the graduation and that was nice. Christopher's girlfriend, Norah, is also in the photo with our family.

Additionally, below is a video of when Christopher's name was called out, and him walking across the stage. You can see all the pics from graduation, posted here on Facebook, or here on Flickr.

Finally, I have scanned Christopher's senior pictures, as well, and they are all posted below.

Shooting

2009-05-27T16:13:00.004-06:00

On Labor Day I took Christopher, Andrew and Mark (and Andrew Clark) and we joined the Dillon cousins for a morning of shotgun shooting at this really great range out in Homedale, Idaho (about an hour from Boise). Though last time we did this in January I did pretty well, yesterday I started strong but ended up shooting horribly. I was last amongst the Goodale clan, and close to the bottom of everybody that went. I am going to blame it on the hayfever-inducing "snow" (the wind blowing cottonwood tree "flowers" all around). Oh well that doesn't matter; we had a good time, anyway! Christopher actually shot really well, which I suppose is appropriate since he ships off to boot camp in a little more than a month!

Yesterday while driving on I-84 we saw a cool bumper sticker. It said "Annoy a Liberal: Work Hard. Be Successful. Be Happy." I guess it should have also said, "Go Shooting." :-)

Anyway, check out the photos here (part of the group here on the left; Christopher taking aim here on the right), but to see all the photos, please click here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.

Grad BBQ/Pool Party

2009-05-23T23:55:00.007-06:00

We had Christopher's graduation BBQ and pool party today, an 8-hour extravaganza that was really fun! It was fun to have Grandma Nancy here, and we had quite a bit of the Dillon family clan here, as well. It's always so much fun getting together with the cousins and extended family! And several of Christopher's friends from school were here, as well. This first picture here is of Christopher and some of those friends, and Brianna.

We had BBQ'd chicken, hamburgers and hot dogs. I love summertime BBQs and pool parties, and the pool was up to 88 degrees (it was only 64 when we opened it on Monday!). It's gonna be a fun summer!!!

The party got so wild that the law had to show up and calm us down, too. No just kidding - not really. Michelle's cousin, Mike, works for the Sheriff's department, and he came by on a break. Unfortunately, he was only here for about 10 minutes, when he got an urgent call. This picture here is of Ed, Steve and Mike Dillon, three of Michelle's cousins.

To see all 75 pictures that I've uploaded from the party, please click here for Flickr, and here for Facebook.

Mark Trumpet Recital

2009-05-23T21:23:00.002-06:00

Mark has been taking private trumpet lessons for about a year now, though he recently took about a three-month break because of his bout of Bells Palsy. Last night his trumpet teacher held a recital for all of her students, and it was Mark's first trumpet recital. His teacher has been very impressed with how he learned to play the trumpet again, even though he's not quite fully recovered from the Bells Palsy (though he's now probably 95% or more completely healed). As you can imagine, it's impossible to play a brass instrument when half your face is paralyzed!

Below you can see a video of Mark playing "When the Saints Go Marching In" at his recital. E-mail versions of this will not have the embedded YouTube video, so please click here for the link to the video on YouTube.

Christopher: Graduate, Mechanic, Great Guy!!!

2009-05-22T23:33:00.004-06:00

This weekend, it's time for Michelle and I to be proud parents. It's hard to believe that Christopher is graduating from high school. We now have a second child who is a high school graduate. Amazingly enough, though, Michelle and I are not getting older. HA! To the left here is the graduation announcement that I put together for him; the photo is from his senior pictures that we just took in March. I will get around to posting them eventually.

Earlier this week, Christopher made an interesting analogy, from the pulpit in church, actually!!! It had to do with churning horsecrap in to butter - it was really funny, though highly embarrassing to his parents, sitting in the second pew in the chapel at church. We could just feel the eyes boring in to the backs of our heads. :-) Check with Christopher if you're interested in hearing the details behind that analogy.

We are very proud of Christopher and the awesome young man he has become. As you can see from the announcement, he ships off to Army National Guard Basic Training on June 30th. After 8-10 weeks of that, he'll then go to Virginia for six months of AIT (Advanced Individual Training), learning how to repair Apache helicopters. Then he'll come home and still be in the Guard, but he cannot be deployed to any current conflicts (new conflicts are fair game) until he has had two years of school. So after AIT, he will do a semester of school at BSU, after which time he can take time off to serve a mission for the church, which he intends to do. Long term, he is considering a career in law enforcement, while he continues his eight-year commitment to the Guard. He LOVES those drill weekends, and I'm sure the two weeks of exercises every summer will be awesome for him, even if he never gets deployed to active duty military. But what are the chances???...

Christopher is a great son and brother, and a great guy to everybody. Christopher goes out of his way to help people in need, and everybody loves him. Through his three years of auto tech and through his own learning and experience, he has become a great auto mechanic. Just in the last week alone, he was requested to look at a cars by three friends and neighbors. To the right here is Christopher replacing break pads and rotors on a friend's car. This is just what Christopher does, and he enjoys it. In this photo, both Christopher and Brianna are making silly faces; only Christopher's girlfriend, Norah, looks normal!

We're excited for Christopher's graduation Tuesday night!!! And he is SO excited to be done with high school!!! :-)

Last Soccer Match

2009-05-22T23:10:00.004-06:00

This past Saturday (May 16th) Andrew's teach had their last soccer match of the season. The team had a very successful season, and more importantly, the kids had a lot of fun. To the left here is Andrew on the attack. Andrew scored once in this last match of the season, and he scored at least once in most every game they played. Andrew played mostly at left midfielder, though he occasionally played as goalkeeper, as well.

Also in this last match, we had a guest player, as well. The Dahl family used to live in this area, though currently they live in Vancouver, BC. They were visiting this past weekend, and their daughter Katie joined the team for a day. I tried to get some good shots of our guest player, as well, and you see one here to the right.

I've uploaded 40 photos from the match. You can see them here on Flickr, or here on Facebook.

Hiking/Camping

2009-05-16T23:28:00.004-06:00

Our Boy Scout troop went camping this weekend, to a campsite that we had to hike in to. Andrew and Mark went on this campout, and I love going with them on their campouts, as well. To the right here is a photo of the group posing on a bridge over the river downstream from a dam's spillway. Notice the patches of snow in the background... it was somewhat cold up there, with the overnight low Friday night dropping to near freezing. None of us felt too cold, though... I think the 3.5-mile hike in, in hilly and snowy conditions, made us so tired that we didn't care that it was cold in our tents and sleeping bags! :-)

We really had a great time!!! Most of us brought freeze-dried meals that we "cooked" with boiling water - those meals aren't half bad!!! Saturday morning, though, one Scout even finalized requirements for his Fishing merit badge by catching, cleaning, and cooking a fish all on his own, and then of course eating that fish!

It was absolutely GORGEOUS up there, as you can see from the photo on the left. We went to Sage Hen Reservoir, about 65 miles northwest of Boise, Idaho (about a 2-hour drive). To see these and all 40 of the pics I've posted from the campout, please click here for Flickr, or here for Facebook.

And thank you, Scoutmaster Sant, for a great campout!!!

Prom

2009-05-09T22:20:00.009-06:00

Today was prom at our high school, and it was fun to see Christopher and Brianna with their dates, heading off on a double-date with their dates. For dinner, the four of them went to Olive Garden, and good big brother even called ahead to see if the restaurant would puree noodles for Brianna. Fortunately, Brianna was having a good day today, and hopefully the pureed noodles went over well (they're still on the date as I post this). What a drag to be in a liquid diet on your prom!

To the right here is a fun shot I took of them, and below you'll see a few others. For all 18 pictures I've posted, please click here on Facebook, or here on Flickr.

Christopher and Brianna. Christopher is such a good big brother, and Brianna's going to be a wreck when he leaves home in less than two months. We're taking donations of Kleenex cases in advance of that event!

I love the "attitude" look here by Christopher's date, Norah.

Christopher and his date, Norah.

Brianna and her date, Jeff.

Wu Zhen Tour

2009-05-02T09:56:00.007-06:00

Today we went by car about two hours from Shanghai, to a town called Wu Zhen. On the way there, though, check out this photo on the left. The little kid, being held by the girl on the back of the bike, is sound asleep, and this looks so dangerous. This would be SOOOOO illegal back home!!! Anyway, Wu Zhen is what they call a "water town" because most of the town's buildings are built on rivers that run through it. According to a legend told by our tour guide, it started because a successful merchant doing business from his home needed room to expand, but there was no land. So he extended his home out on to the water. I don't know if that's true or not, but it sounds good so I'll go with it!

It's still an active, functioning town today. Of course today was a national holiday and it was REALLY crowded, but I'd have issues with tens of thousands of people strolling past my home and gawking at my neighborhood! Or "boating" by my home like you see in the picture here (we took one of these boats, too).

The town was filled with various museums and what not, including a museum that feature all kinds of beds built in the day. You'll see some of those if you click through to the photo links. We even got to see a cute little Chinese shadow puppet show (pics and video via the links). Oh... it was a bit weird, too, because the entire day we saw just about one dozen non-Chinese (whereas in Shanghai westerners are very common!).

Finally to the left there is a picture of our Shanghai crew on this trip: Mark Atkinson, Nicolas Schulz, Areil Cai, Barbara Bernad, and moi. To see all 71 pics/videos I uploaded, please click here for Flickr, or here for Facebook (not all posted on Facebook).

Shanghai Tour

2009-05-01T10:28:00.004-06:00

Today was China's national holiday, Labor Day. As such, nobody was working and we had no meetings, so even though it was a Friday, we totally became tourists. When my team and I checked in to the hotel here (Marriott Executive Suites with apartment-style rooms), even though the rooms had been pre-paid with a company credit card, they double-billed 4 of the 5 of us again, on our personal credit cards presented for incidentals charges. OOPS!!! They are in the process of refunding the charges on our personal credit cards, but in the meantime to make up for the screwup, they booked a professional tour for us, with an English-speaking guide. Leo, I thought, was pretty good. However, he spoke English with an Australian accent. It was pretty weird!!! The accent and the face just didn't go together.

This first pic posted here is taken from our first stop on the tour, some famous gardens that, of course, I have already forgotten the name of. I like the pic because it's a contrast of old and new. In the foreground are the rooftops of some old buildings, while in the skyline in the background features Shanghai's three tallest buildings, from left to right, the Oriental Pearl TV Tower, Jin Mao Tower, and the Shanghai World Financial Center. This pic was also taken just after we participated in a Chinese tea ceremony.

From there, we went to the Shanghai Museum, but got there ten minutes too late to get in. From there, though, I took this picture, to the left; I really love some of the architecture in Shanghai. Having missed the museum, for the fun of it Leo took us to Shanghai's French quarter. Weird to see European style architecture in Shanghai! Then he took us to a silk "museum" where of course after the brief tour by a very energetic little English-speaking Chinese girl, there was more silk than you can imagine, all on display for purchase (of course!). Yes... I did buy something for Michelle.

Following dinner at a Chinese restaurant that frankly wasn't very good, we went on a night time boat ride on the river. It was pretty cool.

To check out all 82 photos and 4 videos I have posted online, you can click here for Flickr, or here and here for Facebook (in two albums).