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).

Fun In Virginia

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

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.