'Cause That's the Way It Ought to Be!!!

When I was here in Tokyo last summer with a colleague, uber-impressed with motion-activated escalators (had never seen anything like that in the states - escalators just continually run), he remarked, "Ya' know why that is? 'Cause that's the way it ought to be!"
Well... I found two more occurrences of that on this trip so far. First of all, when I bought eggs at the grocery store, I discovered that their chickens are smart enough to imprint the expiration dates right on the eggs as they lay them - smart chickens!!! :-) And secondly, yesterday I bought a printer/scanner unit to have in the apartment, so I could be more productive. You can tell Tokyo is a train society; check out the elaborate handle the sales associate constructed for the box! This made it so convenient to carry on the subway back home!
Ya' know why all this is? 'Cause that's the way it ought to be! :-)

Tokyo Apartment

This time around in Tokyo, I am staying in a corporate apartment, and I'm loving it!!! It's so much nicer than staying in a hotel! It's a one-bedroom apartment with about 800 square feet. That's actually bigger than the apartment Michelle and I had when we first got married! It's so nice to have a living room and a kitchen - not to mention a washer and dryer so I can do my own laundry. And ironically... it's actually CHEAPER than a decent hotel. Of course, I only get housekeeping service twice a week, but on the other days I can certainly take out my own garbage, hang my towels up, and so on. Below are some photos I took; you can click on them to see larger versions. You can see that management left me some food, even a box of Corn Flakes ("kon furaykee"). :-)

Christmas Morning

So this posting is a little late in coming; finally on my long flight to Tokyo yesterday I had a chance to go through the photos we took Christmas morning.

More fun than the gifts we give/receive are the traditions we've established:

• Nativity: Michelle collects nativity scenes; we've got more than two dozen. One of the traditions that Michelle picked up while serving as a missionary in France was that nativity scenes are always devoid of baby Jesus... until Christmas Eve. We've carried this tradition on in our home, and many of the sets we have collected have a baby Jesus that can be separated from the cradle; we put baby Jesus in the manger(s) on Christmas Eve before going to bed. It's nice to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas this way.
• Gift: In years past, our kids have gotten to open one present on Christmas Eve, and it has always been a new pair of pajamas. The kids really had all the PJs they need, so we broke with tradition somewhat this year. Instead, the gift they opened Christmas Eve was, for the entire family, season passes to our local ski resort, Bogus Basin.
  
• Santa: On Christmas Eve, we have a tradition of each of the kids setting their stocking on the floor usually by the Christmas tree. This is where Santa puts his gifts, unwrapped, and the kids know to go right to their stocking Christmas morning to see what loot was delivered. The kids are all forbidden to come downstairs until everybody is awake and we can head downstairs together. Michelle and I really look forward to the day when the kids want to sleep in Christmas morning, but this year, most of our kids (especially the younger ones) had their alarms set for 6am.
• Breakfast: It has become tradition to have French toast and bacon on Christmas morning. So as soon as we're done with presents, Dad fires up the griddle. Just FYI... for our size family, French toast requires 20 eggs, some milk, a bunch of sugar and cinnamon, and nearly two loaves of bread! Ask our kids to tell you about taco seasoning!!! :-)

You'll find a few pictures below, and can check out our Flickr site for all the photos we took Christmas morning; please click here.

Brianna gets two tickets to Wicked (in L.A.; Mom and Brianna went on December 27th).

Score!!! A sample of the Christmas morning excitement. Andrew gets two tickets to a Lakers game (in Salt Lake City).

Yummy!!! French toast and bacon for breakfast.

Dad fires up the griddle (OK... merely plugs it in and turns it on) and cooks eight pieces of French toast at a time.

Brianna at All-State

Today Brianna performed in the Idaho Music Educators Associations' All State Honors Group performances out in Pocatello. The venue was the Stephens Performing Arts Center on the Idaho State University campus; I was amazed at how beautiful this world-class facility is, right in the heart of Pocatello! :-)

Brianna was a first soprano in the All State Mixed Choir, with over 200 high school students from throughout Idaho. They did a GREAT job, and really sounded angelic.

Of the six songs Brianna's group sang, I took video of three of them, and have posted them up on YouTube. I have embedded one of them right here in the blog (click on the YouTube 'play' button below), of the group singing "I'm Gonna Rise," by Paul Marsena. It's a gospel song, and it's pretty fun. Here also are links to two others on YouTube:

• "Simple Gifts," an old Shaker tune. I've sung this one in church choirs before, and I love this song.
• "Winter," by Z. Randall Stroop. This song is very melodic and beautiful.
  

Skiing at Bogus

Nice - It's a whopping 10 degrees outside as I post this! Two nights ago up at base at Bogus Basin it was a cool crisp 17, but most of us stayed warm. Justin couldn't go with us because he had school and Mark couldn't go with us due to a knee injury, but the rest of us were on the slopes and we had a great time. Below are a few photos, and you can find a dozen posted at Flickr; click here.

Mom and Steven in the lift line.

Brrrrrr it's cold!!!

Nice tuck, Andrew!

Poles? Poles are for wimps! Go Steven!!!

Dinner at the lodge.

Skiing - Go Steven!

The kids were out of school yesterday for MLK Day, so we went skiing up at Bogus Basin. Had a great time. I'll post pictures later, but below is a video of Steven booking down the hill. A week earlier we put Steven in a one-hour private lesson, and it made all the difference in the world for him.

Rexburg

It's been a while since I've updated our blog - sorry. Last weekend I took Justin and his girlfriend, Bailey, out to Rexburg to see the LDS Temple open house there. We had a very fun overnight trip to Rexburg and back. Before we went to the open house Monday morning, we met some of our BYU Idaho friends for breakfast. You see "still" and "action" (eating) shots here, as well as a shot of Justin and Bailey with the temple in the background.

Winter Camping!!!

Last night Andrew's Boy Scout troop did an overnight campout that was a lot of fun. We were supposed to go camping in some caves near Twin Falls (about two hours from here); however, we got word that they were inaccessible due to heavy snow. So instead, we went south of here to Swan Falls, near the Swan Falls Dam on the Snake River. Unfortunately there was no snow, but we got a nice little spot near the river (see picture at right). It also didn't get TOO cold, dropping to about a low of 24 overnight. There were just four scouts that went, our scoutmaster, and two of the kids' dads (including myself).

Sleeping bags have cold ratings; for example, "Rated to 10 degrees." I discovered last night that the sleeping bag I have used for years apparently has a very unique rating, "Rated only for using on the living room floor of your heated home when you have guests over." Everybody else seemed to be pretty comfortable and slept pretty well; I was too busy swatting the icicles dripping from my nose to get much sleep. But I still had a great time with the boys and the other adults that were there.

Another photo, of some of us huddled around the campfire last night, is also included. I've posted additional pictures (just nine for now) on my Flickr site, but as photos from the other dads come in, I may be able to post those as well. Please click here.

Wrist Update / Skiing

So... earlier this week we took Andrew to an orthopedic doctor to have a more permanent, hard cast put on Andrew's broken wrist. That doctor took more x-rays just to confirm, but he though that if it HAD been broken, it was very minor (x-ray from January 1st E.R. visit at the left). He didn't call it a broken wrist, but more of a severe sprain. Nonetheless, he told us to keep it in the wrist brace we had, and that if it didn't hurt anymore by January 18th, he could return to full activity.

Well... last night after the kids got home from school, the family went skiing up at Bogus Basin, and after much begging, pleading, and groveling, we decided to let him go. He wore his wrist brace, and did just fine. Andrew makes us all sick, though!!! He had gone snowboarding three times previously, and last night he was on skis for the first time. He picked it up right away, and by the end of the night, was even going down the more advanced bunny hill run.

Also last night, Mark had a private ski lesson, and it REALLY made all the difference. He now loves skiing, is going a great job of it, and we'll have a hard time keeping him off the slopes, for sure!!! Steven's also getting it - we're just becoming a ski family, I guess!

Playin' in the Snow

We got a TON of snow today, so after school we all had a good time playing out in it. Some of our neighbors joined us, too. Here is a picture of everyone (except me; I'm behind the camera) by the snowman we built.

We also built a small fort out of ice/snow blocks we formed with Tupperware containers. You'll see those pics and others (10 posted) if you please click here.

It's forecast to snow every day this week. Loving winter!!! :-)

Rexburg Temple Open House

This past Friday the family took a day trip out to Rexburg, in eastern Idaho. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has completed a temple there, and before it is dedicated, the church is holding an open house where the public can go through the temple on formal tours.

Fortunately, the roads were clear for the 300+ miles out there, but the wind was intense!!! We had a nasty headwind on the way out there, and a tailwind coming back; I think we used about a billion gallons of gas on the way there, and about three drops of gas on the way back! :-) Sometimes tumbleweeds blew across the freeway like we were under some sort of major attack.

Anyway... it was great to visit the temple. Michelle was reading that within a 55-mile wide circle extending out from the center of Rexburg, there are 120 regular church meeting houses, so it's very special for all of those members to have a temple in their midst. This is the third operating temple in Idaho (Boise, Idaho Falls, now Rexburg) with one more under construction in Twin Falls; by comparison, I think California has seven.

Can you tell from the photo that it was a bit cold out there? We had a great day together.

Unique Christmas Present from our Awesome Kids

Wow... sometimes our kids can be so wonderful!!! Michelle collects nativity scenes; we have at least 20 sets. Michelle also collects pigs (not real pigs); there's a Michelle-and-John-courting story behind that that you will NEVER hear!!! Well... Christopher found a pig-based nativity set online, and the kids ordered that for Michelle for Christmas. Each nativity character (even baby Jesus - is that sacrilegious???) is a pig! Isn't this cute? Man... our kids can be awesome at times! :-)

Kids These Days!!!

Man... I swear!!! Kids these days and their high-tech cell phones!!! Always got their noses buried in them, text-messaging their friends and all!!!

We spent New Year's Eve at Michelle's cousin-in-law's sister's house out in Caldwell, and this cousin-in-law's Dad was there. He is a widower, his wife having passed away recently. But he was there with his girlfriend, and it was so cute to watch this older couple so head-over-heels in love. :-)

This photo is NOT posed. While the rest of us were playing a game, both of them had their cell phones out, and they were text-messaging their children. I'm so used to seeing my kids do this that I thought it was hilarious to see this older couple doing the same thing. I just had to sneak over and take a picture! Man... KIDS THESE DAYS!!! :-)

Let It Snow!!!

Call us crazy, but we just LOVE this weather. This morning Michelle and I were talking about how pretty this is. I guess the question becomes, though, since this is only our second Boise winter, will we love this ten years from now? :-)

Funny Pictures!!!

Last night on our drive home from Rexburg, we stopped at a Golden Corral buffet restaurant in Twin Falls for dinner. While eating, we somehow got on the topic of funny stories (there are a lot of them!!!) from the Goodale family. Associated with that was a discussion of two of the favorite family photos from our history.

The first one here is of Mark when he was almost three. Mark at that age was a climber, and he loved climbing in/on things. He climbed on to a shelf holding videos; even at that time it was a tough space to squeeze in to; he's barely taller than a VHS videotape (remember those?)!

The second one is of Steven, who is not quite a year old in this picture. He wasn't even walking yet, but managed to crawl in to the kitchen, open the pantry door, grab a box of powdered donuts, and go to town!!! He was SOOOOOOOO proud of himself when I snapped this photo. :-)

Wicked in Los Angeles!!!

Brianna has for a very long time wanted to see a professional stage production of the musical "Wicked." One of her Christmas presents was two tickets to Wicked at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles on December 27th. Mom and Brianna flew down to L.A. the day after Christmas, saw some family and friends in the area before the show the next night, and flew back home on the 28th. They had a GREAT time!!!

Here's a fun shot of Brianna at the beach - not a scene you'll see in Boise in December - that's for sure! In fact, that very day the boys and I went snow skiing here at Bogus Basin, just 16 miles from downtown Boise. We had a great time, too, but in very different weather, to be sure.

Below, also, is a picture of Brianna with Grandpa and Linda Cotter. Though their trip was short, it was good to see family and friends in the L.A. area, and to see a great show!

Broken Wrist - Andrew

Andrew's wearing a silly grin in this photo taken on our vacation this past summer, but today he hasn't been wearing a silly grin; he's been wearing a pained expression. Last night just after we rang in 2008, Andrew slipped on a patch of ice on the sidewalk, and fell very hard on his left hand/wrist. We splinted and wrapped it right away, but tonight it was still hurting really badly.

Figuring 2008 would not be complete for the Goodale family without a trip to the Emergency Room, here on January 1st we went to the hospital. Sure enough, x-rays confirmed that Andrew fractured his wrist. They put him in a temporary cast, and we will follow up with an orthopedic doctor in the next couple of days. At least it wasn't his pitching arm!!!

I would assert that this was the first AND last trip to the hospital for our family in 2008, but I don't want to jinx it!!! Good luck and take care, Andrew!!!