Justin's Homecoming Weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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).