50!!!!!

Happy Birthday to my beautiful, loving and too-young-to-be-50 wife, Julie!  It seems like just yesterday I was mucking your barn with you in high school.  Can you really be 50?  We're looking forward to being with you tonight and celebrating - but there was one other birthday party we threw for Julie recently.

A couple months ago I was trying to figure out how to get some of the special people in Julie's life together to celebrate her birthday.  There were scheduling problems with the weekend before and after her birthday. Staring at the calendar I was trying to figure out what to do - when it popped out at me!  April Fool's Day was a Sunday.  I hopped on the phone and confirmed that this date, would indeed, work out and hatched a plan to surprise Julie.

Palm Sunday, April 1st started out like any other Sunday morning for Team Henderson.  We arrived at church and enjoyed a morning of worship.  But, by then, the plan was already seriously in motion.

Joel had flown in the night before as did Janice, Julie's sister. Hannah and Eric deserve tremendous credit for their courtesy late night pickup and hotel services; hiding them away until the morning.  They made it happen.

So, while we coming out of church after having enjoyed Dean's sermon,  Joel, Janice and a bunch of our other friends were preparing for their grand arrival across the street.  At the anointed time they piled into a 20 passenger stretch Hummer Limo and took the short drive across the street.

We had Julie positioned down by the street in anticipation of what would happen next.  The limo pulled into our parking lot and stopped right in front of the entrance.  I had asked Joel to wait for 30 seconds or so to add some drama to their entrance. Finally, with all eyes trying to figure out what the deal with the limo was - Joel opened the back door and emerged.  Check out Julie's reaction as she saw Joel!

She kept repeating "that's my son!"  As he walked toward her and they embraced.  The middle right picture below makes me so happy when I look at it (thank you Emily!!). Julie was overjoyed to see him pop out of that limo and give her a big hug and crown her Queen for the day.  Priceless!

Next out of the limo was Janice - another huge surprise for the birthday girl! Can you tell Julie was pretty excited to see her? That's a Happy Birthday sash Janice is putting around Julie.

Well, then the floodgates opened and the rest of the crew hidden in the limo poured out to greet Julie, including our friends the Logans and Auntie, as well as friends from church.

After the greetings at the church, we were off for a joyous afternoon!

 I didn't take a lot of pictures.  This is one of those occasions where I wanted to step away from the camera and just be present - but here's a couple shots from Loma Prieta Winery where we ended up after lunch for a little wine tasting.  This picture is what I can the 'money shot'.  First, do you notice how Julie and Janice are wearing the exact same outfit?  Seriously?  But mostly, it was just such a pleasure that she would come all this way to celebrate with Julie.  It really made her day.

 I swear, those Rexford girls all think they are sooooo funny!  Here's Janice photo-bombing:

 It was a glorious Spring day for a celebration.  Loma Prieta Winery is positioned high in the Santa Cruz mountains and the scenery and ambiance were incredible.

Next, it was off to Julie's favorite ice-cream place - Marianne's in Santa Cruz for some cake and ice-cream.  I had such great help in organizing the day.  Many thanks go to Barbara whose amazing memory (Julie had mentioned how much she loved this style cake) and enthusiasm to order and pick up the cake to keep it a secret from Julie was so appreciated.  And, yes, to Eileen - who graciously shared her actual birthday with Julie :)

 I'd say we nailed this one - as evidenced by Joel peacefully drowsing on the ride home :)

Happy - Actual Birthday - Julie!  I'm so lucky to have you and pleased to welcome you to the over 50 crowd!  Hannah's so happy to have a 50-year-old mom - she's jumping for joy :)