Merry Christmas!!!

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Merry Christmas from the Goodales: John & Michelle, Justin & Julia, Christopher & Brooke, Brianna, Andrew, Mark and Steven 

All of us but Justin & Julia when we went ziplining in Whistler, BC, Canada on July 15, 2013.

Merry Christmas from the Goodales! There never seem to be dull moments for our family, and 2013 proved to be no different. With missionary departures, non-stop travel, PTA to attend to, church callings, sports and everything going on, we feel richly blessed!

I (John) continue to travel like crazy, finishing up the year with 269 days on the road (206 overseas), banking about 600,000 miles on various airlines. I focused on fewer countries this year, hitting only 15 (I believe it was 19 last year). However, in 2014 Australia, New Zealand and India fall under my Asia “umbrella” and I’ll need to spread my wings a bit. The Unity Technologies Asia team numbers 75 today (up from 6 two years ago) across four offices and I love working with them.

After graduating from BSU with degrees in Social Work and French in December 2012, Michelle continued studying for her licensing exams, which she passed this year, and she’s now a licensed Social Worker. She’s also been the PTA President at our Middle School, the Scout Advancement Chair in our Boy Scout troop, and the Relief Society Activities Chair in our ward. She’s also the head wrangler of Dakota (more on that later), which probably keeps her busier than anything! And finally Chief Operations Officer at our crazy household, and I’d put her up against any Fortune 500 COO!

Justin’s wife Julia finished her Russian program at the DLI (Defense Language Institute) in Monterey, CA this Spring and they moved to the Boise area. We love having them nearby! Justin was working in a full-time National Guard position in the area until he was furloughed out of that, and is looking at re-classing in the military. We’ll be sad when they relocate out of the area this coming year.

Christopher and his wife Brooke still live in nearby Star, ID and we love having them nearby, too. Brooke is going to school studying early childhood education and enjoying that, and Christopher continues to work full-time at Gowen Field with the National Guard, on the Apache (helicopter) avionics. They have a veritable farmload of pets that are fun, and we love spending a lot of time with them.

Brianna continued her studies at Utah State University earlier this year and absolutely loved it there! She spent her summer working as a counselor for EFY (Especially For Youth, a program with the LDS church) in Provo and Atlanta. Then on August 28, 2013, she reported to the Missionary Training Center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Provo, UT to prepare for full-time missionary service as a missionary in the Argentina Neuquén Mission. She has been in Argentina now since the second week of October and she is working hard and loving it! Brianna's mission blog is here (see hyperlink).

Andrew graduated from high school in May, and he also was called to missionary service. He entered the Provo MTC on September 4th (a week after Brianna), and they did get a chance to see each other there. Andrew is serving in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission and he’s loving it out there, too. While Brianna is learning Spanish and her e-mails home are getting increasingly difficult to understand, we fear that Andrew may pick up some strange foreign tongue out in the Midwest, too! Andrew's mission blog is here (see hyperlink).

Mark is a junior in high school and doing very well there. He’s involved with Student Counsel, NHS and sportsmed loving being busy, and enjoying that. He loves playing lacrosse, which is really just an excuse to run around with sticks and hit people. Mark and I had the chance to go to Japan in the Spring (2013) and had a really great time (continuing the tradition of Dad taking each kid to Japan when he/she turns 16). I’m also taking him to Korea with me over New Years at the end of 2013, and that should be good for the Seoul.

Steven is now in 8th grade in middle school and doing well there. I started 2013 by taking him to Korea with me, so I guess that’s become somewhat of a tradition.  They just shadow me at work there while on Christmas break. Steven got to sit in with me while I both fired someone and hired someone, so that’s kind of interesting.

We grew our immediate family by one this past year, as well. We adopted a lovable furball (no, I was already part of the family). Our “Dakota” is a super energetic little puppy of St. Bernard breed and weighs in at about 100 pounds these days. She and Shadow (our older huskey/malamute mix) get along great and are best friends.

We had some more fun exploring this great planet again this past year, as well. We took a family vacation to Whistler, British BC, Canada in July and really had a great time. The kids went bungee jump-ing and we went white water rafting, ATV riding, zip lining and had all kinds of fun!

Then this summer Michelle and I went to Asia. It’s hard to believe that with all of my time in Asia, I had only taken Michelle there with me once (Japan back in the mid-90s) in 25+ years of marriage (though I had been there several times with our kids). We went on a bit of a grand tour, spending nearly two weeks running around Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Jeju Island (also in Korea). It was so awesome sharing part of my world with her!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and may you enjoy the many blessings of life.

Sappyness

The last couple of weeks have been pretty emotional ones for the Goodale family, with a lot of "sappy" tears shed. So let me explain: "SAPPY" is the word that I have invented that combines "sad" and "happy" (Sad + hAPPY = SAPPY, but mostly happy). That being said, now that those couple of weeks are behind us and good-byes are said, I think we've transformed to Super hAPPY. :-)

Brianna and Andrew on May 30, 2013,
shortly after receiving their mission calls.

     We've been sad to bid temporary farewell to our daughter Brianna and our son Andrew as they departed to serve full-time missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yet we've been so happy for them because we know that they will have incredible experiences in their missionary service. Brianna is called to serve in the Argentina Neuquén Mission, and Andrew is called to serve in the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission. Brianna will be learning Spanish, while Andrew will be learning English words like bubblah and pop (though a bubblah serving pop would be pretty cool).
     I (John Goodale, Dad) served a mission for the church in the Japan Nagoya Mission from 1985 to 1987, and Michelle (my wife and their mother) served a mission for the church in the France Paris Mission in 1986 to 1987 (I should scan and post pics some time!). Their older brother Justin also served a mission in the Oklahoma Tulsa Mission from 2008 to 2010. Missionary service is incredibly hard work with all kinds of challenges, but is also incredibly rewarding. We know they will have amazing experiences, and we are super excited for them! We know they will be amazing missionaries!

Brianna and Andrew in the MTC, September 4, 2013.

     Why do we serve missions? The Savior taught His disciples, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations” (Matthew 28:19). As followers of Jesus Christ, members of His Church are enthusiastic about proclaiming the good news of His restored gospel to all who are willing to listen. Carlos E. Asay, a Church leader, said, “(There is) a marvelous phenomenon which occurs among men (and women) when the light of the gospel illuminates their lives. Almost instinctively, it seems, the light of truth sparks a desire to share. When our minds are expanded by new knowledge, we want others to know; when our spirits are elevated by heavenly influence, we want others to feel; and when our lives are filled with goodness, we want others, particularly those whom we love, to enjoy similar experiences.”
     Andrew and Brianna have answered the call to so dedicate their lives over the next 24 and 18 months, respectively. They will be teaching about Jesus Christ and about his Gospel. They will be serving others. It will be a full-time, dedicated effort and their only "job." They will have one day "off" per week when they do laundry, go shopping, write home and such other weekly preparation. They won't even call home, except for Mother's Day and Christmas. Hence we'll miss them. However, we know they are engaged in a great cause, and we know they'll be having some great experiences!
     The church has 15 Missionary Training Centers (MTCs) all over the world, to prepare missionaries to serve in 405 missions throughout the world. They teach dozens of languages, and often times the Spanish-speaking missionaries report to one of the Latin American MTCs to learn Spanish. However, as Argentina visas take a while to process, Brianna entered the MTC in Provo on September 4th and will be there for roughly six weeks while hopefully her visa gets processed. If her visa is not ready by the time she completes her MTC training, she could be temporarily assigned to any mission in the U.S. while she awaits that visa processing. Andrew reported to the MTC on September 4th.
     But... I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. Let me get back to the last couple of sappy weeks, leading up to them both reporting for their missionary service.

After church on August 25, 2013.

     The weekend of August 24-25 I had a company management offsite meeting in Seattle, so I was popping in and out of Boise all weekend - it made for some crazy flight schedules. Saturday night, August 24th, we had an open house for Brianna and Andrew at our home, where family and friends came by to wish them well. The following afternoon they both spoke at our sacrament meeting services at church. Their assigned topic was the importance of the 10 Commandments and they gave great talks. Quite a few family members and friends attended the church services, and it was wonderful to have such great support; I've included a picture here of many whom attended.
     At our home Sunday evening, August 25th, Brianna was set apart by our Stake President as a full-time missionary for the church. Many tears of happiness (sappyness) were shed as we shared that experience. Our Stake President challenged Brianna to remember five things throughout the course of her mission, too sacred to shared here publicly. Some pretty cool stuff, though, that we have documented separately.

     On Monday, August 26th, I bounded back for Seattle while Brianna, Andrew and Michelle said good-bye to Boise and started driving toward Provo. Brianna has been going to Utah State University in Logan, Utah and Monday night they had an open house for her at her old apartment. It was fun for her to see her old roommates and a bunch of friends from LDV (Latter-day Voices, a singing group from the LDS Institute of Religion at Utah State, of which Brianna was a member).
     Tuesday began a wonderful day of visiting LDS temples in Utah. Michelle, Brianna and Andrew started with Brigham City in the morning, and I joined them later after I flew in from Seattle. Together we then all visited the temples in Bountiful and Salt Lake City. Pictured here are the four of us at the SLC temple.
     Tuesday night, our oldest son Justin and his wife Julia were able to meet us in Salt Lake City and we all had dinner together at the Cheesecake Factory (yum!).

THE BIG DAY (Sister Goodale)

     Female missionaries are referred to as "Sister..." in the church, or "Hermana..." in Spanish, and Hermana Goodale's report day was Wednesday, August 28th. After a yummy breakfast at IHOP and some very last-minute shopping at Wal-Mart, we arrived at the MTC at about noon. Her report time was at 1pm, so we had an opportunity to stroll the grounds of the neighboring Provo temple a bit. Here is a picture of us there. It's a preview for Andrew, as he'll be reporting exactly a week later.
     Michelle, Andrew and I drove home Wednesday afternoon, and the reality soon hit that Andrew would be leaving a week later. Of course, tough guy Dad was all weepy, Andrew still needed to pack up his room, and little brother Mark realized even more that his best friend was about to leave. Andrew and Mark are super close, share the same room, and do everything together. It's starting to get pretty hard on Mark; even Mark is getting sappy.
     Andrew was set apart as a full-time missionary, again by our Stake President in our home, on Sunday, September 1st. Roughly the same advice was given along with some new stuff that was unique to Andrew.

THE BIG DAY (Elder Goodale)
     Male missionaries are referred to as "Elder..." in the church, and Elder Goodale's report day was Wednesday, September 4th. We drove down to Sandy, Utah the night before, and before checking in to our hotel, met up with and had dinner with Nelly Bateman and her family. Nelly was a missionary with Michelle in France and they have kept in touch over the years. What's fun is that her husband served in the Milwaukee mission a couple of decades ago, so it was kind of fun to get his perspective of the area.
     Andrew's report time was 12:45pm, and we had time beforehand to take some pictures, as well. I took this picture here as we were pulling in to the MTC; as you can see, Andrew is all smiles. Andrew and Mark had just said their good-byes and slugged each other in the shoulder - touching. :-)  You can see that Mark is a bit weepy here, but man it was me who was the wreck! Man I'm gonna miss him!!! I'm going to miss both Brianna and Andrew!!!
     Andrew's time in the MTC will be very short. Not learning a foreign language (questionable at best... we hear that the locals don't put an "l" in "Milwaukee" for example), he's there only two weeks. We don't have travel details yet, but we believe he heads out of the MTC on September 17th.
     Brianna, having spent two months in Tijuana last summer, already has a jump on Spanish, but will be in the MTC for about six weeks. She will be heading out of there around October 8th.

Christopher, Steven, Brianna, Andrew and Mark
(Justin was in Utah on assignment with the Army).
August 25, 2013, at Brianna's setting apart as a missionary.

     Michelle and I are so proud of our children and the great young people that they have become. Not just Brianna and Andrew, but all of them. We are amazingly blessed!!!

SOME LINKS
Here are some additional links that you may or may not find interesting:

• Brianna's profile on Mormon.org: click here. Be warned: One of my non-Mormon friends told me this made her cry. :-)
• Set of 176 pictures on Flickr from these last two "SAPPY" weeks and of Andrew & Brianna right after they received their mission calls: click here.
• Slideshow I put together of Andrew growing up: click here.
• Slideshow I put together of Brianna growing up: click here.
• Wikipedia link on Neuquén: click here.
• The LDS church in Argentina (stats): click here.
• The LDS church in Wisconsin (stats): click here.
• Information on the missionary program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: click here. This is a good site on how the missionary program is run, how elders and sisters are called, what they do each day, and so on.
• Brianna's blog (with some of her letters/pictures sent home): click here.
• Andrew's missionary blog (with some of his letters/pictures sent home): click here.

The Deadbeat Blogger

I've been a deadbeat blogger. Maybe it's because I've spent 189 days on the road this year, trending toward 276 for the full year. Maybe it's because I've flown 440,753 miles. Maybe it's because I've been to 13 different countries so far this year. Maybe it's because Facebook is just so incredibly easy to post to and Blogger is not. Or maybe it's simply because I'm just lazy. But sorry folks; I haven't posted here in forever. I will make an empty promise here to try to do better. Meanwhile, with easy and constant access to Facebook from my phone, I'm still pretty active over there.

2012 in Review

Happy New Year from the Goodales (from left to right): Brooke & Christopher, Mark, Andrew,
Michelle & John, Brianna, Steven, Justin & Julia

This year has brought many exciting changes to the ever-growing Goodale family.

Sunset flying in to Bali.

John had another busy year of traveling, after flying about 400,000 miles and traveling to 19 different countries. In September, he got a deadly infection and was given a 17% chance of making it through the night. Hundreds of prayers were sent up that night, and we are so grateful that he pulled through!! His company, Unity Technologies, had a very successful year, with their Asia unit growing from 6 people to over 30 and tripled revenue from the previous year. He says that he "managed to hold a loose grip on [his] sanity." John was grateful that he was able to surprise his family and cut his last trip of the year short to come home a few days early for the holidays - just in time to attend Mom's graduation from Boise State University.

Michelle at School of Social Work graduation in May.

Michelle is officially a college graduate! She graduated Cum Laude this year with two Bachelors degrees - in French as well as in Social Work. We are so proud of the hard work and sacrifices she has made to reach her life long goal of getting a degree.

Julia and Justin at wedding.

Justin became the first married Goodale child in February. On February 18th, the day after his 23rd birthday, Justin married Julia Black. Julia is from Orem, Utah, and is a member of the Utah National Guard. She and Justin met at Ft. Huachuca in Arizona, where they were both at training for the National Guard. After getting married, the newlyweds moved to Monterey, California, where Julia is attending language school for the Army, learning Russian. They will be there until March, when they plan to move back to Boise.

Christopher and Brooke at wedding.

Christopher also got married this year, to Brooke Johnson. Brooke grew up in the South, and met Christopher in Virginia, where he was attending training for the Guard. They were married May 26th, Christopher's 21st birthday. They are living in Star, Idaho, with their 2 dogs, Charlie and Cowboy.

Brianna, 20, is attending Utah State University in Logan, Utah. She is currently studying Elementary Education but is trying to get into the Music Therapy program. After transferring to Utah State in January from Northern Arizona University, she spent the summer in Tijuana, Mexico, teaching music, math, and English at a community center and orphanages there.

Andrew, 17, is a senior at Centennial High School. He enjoys playing lacrosse and participates in the Sports Medicine program at Centennial. He will graduate in May and plans on going on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Fall.

All the Goodale kids and Grandma Nancy.

Mark, 15, is a sophomore at Centennial High School. Mark played football this Fall, and will play lacrosse in the Spring. He is loving school and thriving in the high school environment. Mark is excited to turn 16 in a couple of days and start dating. He and Andrew have already begun planning double dates.

Steven, 13, is in the 7th grade at Lowell Scott Middle School. He loves playing lacrosse and going shooting with his brothers. He looks up to his older siblings and enjoys spending time with his big brothers.

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Travels

The Goodales have traveled all over the world this year. Over Spring Break, Dad took Andrew and Mark along on one of his business trips to Hong Kong and China (Shenzhen and Beijing). Dad traveled to 19 countries - including Denmark, Lithuania, Indonesia, Vietnam, Singapore, Korea, Japan and so on. Dad plans on taking Steven to Korea the first week of January, and Mark to Japan in March.

Mark and Andrew posing with two guards (which is which???) at the Summer Palace in Beijing.

In May, the family drove to Washington D.C. and back for Christopher and Brooke's wedding.

The family in front of the LDS Washington D.C. Temple for Christopher & Brooke's wedding.

Mark, Mom, Steven & Brianna in the top of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

Mark, Brianna, Steven and Dad at Mt. Rushmore.

Brianna spent the summer in Tijuana, Mexico.

One of the kids from the orphanage Brianna lived at in Tijuana.

Brianna with a family she lived with in Mexico.

More Family Fun

Here are some more fun pictures from throughout the year. We had a great 2012 and are looking forward to a great 2013!

Julia & Justin saluting the flag at their wedding.

The Goodale boys.

The Goodale girls.

All the Goodale kids (and the two wives).

Christopher and Brooke at Halloween with their dogs, Charlie and Cowboy.

Andrew and Mark with their lacrosse buddies from the ward.

Andrew and Mark at the Youth Cultural Celebration as a part
of the rededication of the Boise Idaho LDS Temple.

Goodale kids in the tree in our front yard.

The Luckiest Unlucky Man Alive

"I have to be very candid with you. With the level of sepsis that you have, for every six patients treated in the U.S., one survives."

So said the ICU physician at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho to me two months ago today on September 25, 2012. So here it is two months later on Thanksgiving weekend, and I am particularly grateful to be alive. Upon hearing these words, I looked up at my totally amazing wife, Michelle, who was standing by my side, and without exchanging a word shared a look like, "Did you just hear what I just heard?"

So let’s back up a bit and I’ll say how I got there. The story starts about 11 months prior to this. I had just wrapped up some business in Tokyo when I had developed a high fever and wicked chills. I slept it off, though, and flew on to Shanghai the following morning. Still feeling a bit under the weather, I gave a speech at an industry event there, then flew on to Shenzhen in southern China.

The whole flight down to Shenzhen (about 3 hours) I felt really awful. Long story short, I ended up in a hospital in Shenzhen – an experience I won’t soon forget. In consultation with my doctors at home, we feared that it was an acute onset of prostate cancer, so I was ordered to be on the next available flight home. After an "entertaining" and ultimately successful attempt at crossing the border in to Hong Kong with a fever of more than 103F, I made it home.

Fortunately, upon getting home we determined that it was merely an acute prostate infection, easily cured by some aggressive antibiotics. Even still, though, the prostate never quite fully returned to "normal" and we continued to monitor things. After nearly a year of monitoring things, my doctors determined, "We really doubt you have prostate cancer, but we would be irresponsible if we did not check."

Now, I won’t share the details of this minor medical procedure, but I had a prostate biopsy done on September 24, 2012. [FYI: Confirmed that I do not have prostate cancer.] At the time, I was told that there was less than a 1% risk of infection with the procedure. Sure enough, I realized that risk; hence, the "unluckiest" part of this story.

The doctors told me to keep watch for a fever, and that any fever of over 100F in the next 24 hours necessitated a hasty trip to a hospital emergency room. The following afternoon I started feeling a little achy, and within an hour of that I started getting really bad shakes. Just really bad shivering. I took my temperature and it was only 99F; however, knowing that I normally run a little bit "cold" (97F as opposed to the "normal" 98.6F), I called my doctor’s office. I asked, "So not being 100F, do I still need to go to the emergency room?" After confirming my shivering, he told me, "No. Head straight to the hospital. We’ll pre-admit you and keep you at least overnight for treatment." OK then. By the time I got to the hospital, my fever had already topped 102F.

So, lucky break #1: I didn’t play the typical male; I actually called the doctor right away.

Lucky break #2: Within 30 minutes of calling my doctor, I was in the hospital and on intravenous antibiotics to fight what was a rapidly spreading infection.

By 6pm I was in the hospital, feeling extremely achy everywhere and shivering with a high fever.

By 9pm, in a regular hospital room, I had been administered to and felt somewhat stabilized. My fever was a more manageable 101-ish. The doctor told me, though, that things could get worse before they got better, and they had notified the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of my condition and to be ready for me "just in case." Despite this, we sent Michelle home to be with the kids that night, and she was on standby just in case things turned.

And turn they did. Sometime shortly after 10pm, my fever shot back up. Way up. I started shivering uncontrollably. My heart rate had raced past 160 beats per minute, but my blood pressure had dropped to something like 40 over 20 – it was working like crazy but not doing anything. I couldn’t breathe. As they were calling in medical staff from all over the floor, at some point I passed out, and I’m glad I "wasn't around" to experience all of what happened. The next I knew, it was about 10:40pm and I was regaining consciousness, now in the ICU. They were saying something about the infection shutting my heart down, and that they had "brought me back."

Lucky break #3: The ICU physician on call that night was Dr. Joseph Crowley, whom one of the ICU nurses later explained to me has a personal interest in septicemia or sepsis, infections of the blood, and he happens to be one of the Pacific Northwest’s leading experts on the subject.

That first night in the ICU was when Dr. Crowley explained to my wife and I that with the level of infection I had, 1 in 6 patients survived. What the infection did as it ran its course through my bloodstream was that it shut down vital organs such as the heart, liver and kidneys. He was quite direct with us, to convince us of what needed to be done. And he needed my release signatures for the treatment. I won’t go in to all of the details, but I will tell you that the treatments were some of the most painful things I’ve ever had to endure.

Some six hours after treatment started he told Michelle, "John is responding very well to the treatments, and I don’t think he’s going to die anymore." So I was unlucky to get there, lucky to survive it: the luckiest unlucky man alive.

I gotta tell you about this totally awesome medical technology that was an important part of saving my life. It’s just SO cool. Part of the treatment involved putting a central intravenous line directly in to my chest (OUCH!). Through that line they pumped in a very strong, broad-spectrum antibiotic to fight the infection. But this second part is what’s so cool. In my right wrist, they put in an "arterial line" which was an I.V. that went in to an artery (OUCH!! OUCH!!). They put this arterial line in guided by an ultrasound. Michelle had left the room while they did this, but my 21-year-old son Christopher stayed in the room, and he said it was totally cool to watch on screen. This line was not for intravenous fluids, but through this line they fed a 18-inch electrical line up through that artery. The line "coiled up" in the artery, and it measured my blood pressure with every heartbeat. This arterial line in my wrist was linked electronically to my central line I.V., and when my blood pressure started dropping, it instantaneously pumped in medicine to counter it. Is that COOL, or what? Oh the wonders of modern medicine!

In the picture here (kind of grainy – sorry), you can see five small TV-like screens; these are the electronic controls of the various I.V.s I was on in the ICU. Earlier this month I was having dinner with a customer in China about this really cool medical technology, and he was amazed. He said, "Here in China, you would have just died." I am truly grateful for such amazing medical technology.

I spent four days in the hospital, two of those days in the ICU.  After surviving sepsis, I thought Michelle might kill me when I suggested that the day after I got out of the hospital I carry on with a planned trip to Copenhagen that following day. I did end up, however, taking off about three weeks without any business travel. Doctors told me that I would feel generally beat up and a little tired for 2-3 months as I recovered from this. Though recovery has been a little slow, I’m generally feeling pretty strong, and glad to be alive! :-)

When told I had a 1 in 6 chance of survival, my immediate thought turned to my wife. I looked at her and she looked amazingly strong. My second thought was to my children. My third thought was to my work family; we had lost an associate to cancer earlier in the year and I remembered how devastating that had been to the company. Those thoughts ran a course of a few seconds and then I pushed them out. As Dr. Crowley put in the central line I.V., during that great pain I said through gritted teeth, "Don’t let me die, doctor; I’m not done here yet."

I know the work that he did to save my life was amazing. I also know that the hundreds if not thousands of prayers sent up on my behalf were also of great benefit. The faith, fasting and prayers of many helped to save my life, and I am eternally grateful. The infection didn’t get me, and my kids said later they want to make me a tee shirt: "Part of the Seventeen Percent Club."

Truly the luckiest unlucky man alive, and certainly very blessed!!!

Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support.

Japan with Brianna and Andrew

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

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.