Motivation

There are periods of time in my life when, I’m almost ashamed to admit, my prime motivation is just to keep going. Keep moving forward. To simply get to the other side of a set of obstacles that clutter my days. My mindset becomes one of “ok, over the next ABC period of time I have to do/accomplish X, Y and Z. Let’s just get through this”.

In fact, these are realistic thoughts. Sometimes living and functioning in community presents a de rigueur rhythm that calls us to trade living our lives for living for others. Sacrificial love makes demands at times. Life in a fallen world makes demands at times. My challenge is to not allow these insipid demands to totally dull my zest for life.

I feel like I’m coming out of one of those ABC->XYZ periods of life and am actually starting to get my motivational juices flowing again. It feels good.

Memorable Memorial Day Walk

After eating our way through much of this long weekend, Julie sat down with her Bay Area Hiking Trails book Sunday evening to find a way to burn off a few calories.  Finally, she stumbled upon hike #29 - Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Reserve.

The location is along Skyline Boulevard which is at the ridgeline of the Santa Cruz mountain range that separates Silicon Valley from the Pacific Ocean.  In the picture below, that's Half Moon Bay (and the ocean) in the background.

You can see from the picture that (again) it was an overcast day.  I'm starting to think we live in the Pacific Northwest with all these overcast and windy days we are experiencing. However, we came to find out that it was a pleasant temperature for a 10 mile hike.

The Reserve is known for its tall coastal redwood trees.  And, as it turns out - where there are redwoods there are pacific banana slugs.  These beauties are the second-largest species of terrestrial slugs in the world and have been observed to motate at a maximum speed of around 6 inches per minute.   I'll believe that when I see it.  I think a much more reliable speed reading is about 6 inches an HOUR.  Maybe.

That 'hole' in the side of their head is the intake manifold for their single lung.  Come to think of it, it does kind of look like one nostril.

 
The trail looked like a big V in elevation.  We started by plunging down from the top of Skyline into the gulches of the park.  Each downward step we took lodged in our mind as a step we would eventually have to take uphill!  The middle section of the hike meanders up and down through the redwoods and oaks providing ample shade (from the mostly non-existent sun).  The trail ends with a difficult 2 miles of near straight uphill climbing covering about 1600' of elevation.  It was good to have our friends the Scotts along for the hike - because then there were enough people to take turns coming up with excuses to stop and take a break while we were trudging our way back to the top.

As with every epic adventure - we got though the tough times by a) calculating how many calories we MUST be burning and b) fantasizing about what those burned calories meant we could eat if we lived through it.  So, after we finished it was off to The Boardwalk for pizza, soda and some reminiscing.  Okay.. #29 is off the bucket list.  Moving on ;)

Hannah's Big Day!

Today was Hannah's day.  We are proud to tell you that she received her BS in Business Administration from the University of California Berkeley Haas Business School.  The celebrating started early this morning with Julie gifting Hannah with a lei.

The graduation occurred in the Greek Theater at the campus.  It was very emotional seeing Hannah walk in during the processional.

She looked jubilant as she walked in.
 

Ryan got a special call out for showing up in his Cal polo shirt.

Here's a better picture of the venue.

 

After wonderful speeches honoring the graduates - it was time to receive her diploma.  With tears in our eyes we proudly watched as Hannah was honored.

 

And, if you know Hannah - you know there is going to be a celebration!

Here she is sitting between her friends Calvin and Graeme in the student section.  Don't you love Calvin's outfit?

That's Hannah's cap sailing through the air.  Nailed the picture.

After the festivities it was time for a reception at the business school.  It was great to see Maggie again (it's been months!) and Calvin.

And we got a bit of a tour of the facilities.  FINALLY.. here it is folks.  A picture of Hannah in a classroom during college!  Hahaha.

Julie and I are immensely proud of the young woman Hannah has become during her college years.  We are so thankful to God for holding her in His hand throughout this journey.  We're thankful for the friends that she developed and maintained through her years at Berkeley that form a solid foundation for her future.  And we are thankful to God for the grand odyssey that God entrusted to us when he brought a little red-headed ball of joy into our lives almost 22 years ago.

We are all excited for her future.  And we are thankful for those family members that were able to be here in person to witness her graduation and cheer her on.

And we are thankful for the Godly influence and support of our family members, through the generations, that have directly led her to this moment.

Our prayer, our wish for Hannah is that God would continue to be an important part of her life and that He might guide her through a most adventuresome, rewarding and meaningful life.

Ritter Sport

Our first full day in Berlin Hannah took us on a bicycle tour of the city.  An important destination within the city is the Ritter Sport chocolate store.  If you've ever been to a frozen yogurt store that allows you to pick your yogurt and toppings - you would immediately fall in love with Ritter Sport.

Ordering is easy.  First you check out all the delicious ingredients you can add to your chocolate bar.

Then, the spectacular chocolate maiden puts them into a little plastic bowl.  Next, they take it to the magical chocolate fountain; milk chocolate or dark and fill it up.  Then, the mixture is scooped into the candy bar mold.

Once the mold is filled and packed - it looks like this.  The next step is to put it into a refrigerator for 30 minutes or so to cool. 

During the 30 minutes we toured the 'factory' - learning all about the making of chocolate.  We ended at the picture wall and snapped this dandy family picture.

So, what did I get?  Dark chocolate.  Raspberry chips.  And roasted almonds.  Here's the finished product.  Stunningly good.

It was hard to wait to open it until we got back to America.  It was harder to share ;)

The Banana Queen!

We've been playing a lot of cards with family in town for Hannah's graduation.  Last night we played a couple games of prediction.  The second game winner was Linda!  Having achieved that incredible feat she immediately asked "do I get a trophy?".   "You bet", I replied as I jumped up to make one.

Here it is.  Linda's Prediction Trophy!  It reads "U R The Winner" - and indeed she was. 

We love you Linda!

First In!

Congratulations to Joel who came all the way from Oregon to nail down 'First In' honors at the pool this year.  And he also won special honors for his very stylish entry.  Clearly a force to be reckoned with!

Well done Joel!

The Flying Henderlogans

Last Christmas I gave Joel and Jon (Logan) certificates for indoor skydiving lessons and a couple of flights at iFly.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to schedule flights while everyone was in town for Christmas.

Hannah's graduation was a great opportunity to get everyone together and flying.  So, I got her an appointment as well and off we went.  Jon and Joel were ready to go!

Here's Hannah practicing her upside down flying.  (or I flipped the picture upside down.. hmmm..)

We started with some flight training.. (by watching a 3 minute video).  In it, they explain that we are going to be flying in wind produced by 4 250 HP fans.  Pretty sweet.  Then, off we went to get our gear on.

Then, it was our turn.  We nominated Hannah to fly first because this is her special, graduation weekend.  Here she is flying next to the instructor.

Joel absolutely loved it - as you can see by the expression on his face ;)

Here's Hannah on her second flight.  Impressive!  She did so great the instructor was basically just getting out of her way and letting her fly.

Ok.. I went too.  I know, I look ridiculous - but it was a lot of fun.  It's hard to look good when you've got 120 MPH find in your face ;)

This is Joel's form.  It's pretty awesome.  You want to have your arms up near your head and a natural arch in your bag.  He did great.

And the instructor makes sure you're in good form.

Jon did the best.  He was so stable during flight the instructor started teaching him how to spin left and right.  Show off ;)

That's right... we ALL graduated.  Flippin Sweet!!!

Finished

I almost forgot to mention that we finished the bathroom project last week; just in time to free up the guest bathroom for our visitors to Hannah's graduation this week.

It's hard to get a good picture of such a small room.  I don't have lens with sufficient wide angle to nail it - so I tried with Julie's camera this morning.  The results were mediocre - but you get the picture.

We love the dark vanity and matching mirror - and the solid surface vanity top and matching shower walls turned out great.

A critical design decision for the bathroom was low maintenance.  We went with solid surface walls to get rid of those grout lines we'd need to be cleaning when we're 70.  And, there won't be any failed grout lines letting water through the walls and popping tiles off! 

I'd discuss the floor - but Joanne would laugh at my commentary.  So, let me just say we've received some nice compliments that the floor looks good.

It was bittersweet finishing this project as this was the last room in the house we renovated.  I guess it's time to focus on the backyard now.  Julie already told me I'm going to have to slate the patio sometime :)