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.

Cool Driving Game

for those of you that don't have a clue what we are talking about when we mention Mandy - here's an explanation - and how we played this cool new driving game while we were in Oregon.

Mandy is our GPS navigation system. she is awesome, helpful, understanding, patient and long suffering. she's the perfect driving companion.

we used Mandy to play a little navigation game we call "driving by tourette's". the game starts by giving Mandy the address of your destination. in our case that was Mo's restaurant in Newport, Oregon. Mandy computes driving directions and proceeds to suggest a direction we go it to get to Mo's. next, carissa - who was holding Mandy - would pass those directions on to me - the driver. i would either go in the right direction - or biff by turning incorrectly. next, a player in the back seat - in this case joel - screams a tourette's quality comment due to increasing hunger pain and disgust. the front seat players, then, laugh so hard at the situation (being off course and experiencing a full on tourette's attack in the back seat) that you get further off track. the game ends when you are facing a dumpster at the end of a cul-de-sac.

an optional 4th player is allowed to provide consolation and emotional support to the primary back-seat, tourette's screaming participant.

Catching Up

You wouldn't know it watching the blog for the last week - but Julie and I traveled to the Oregon coast to hang out with Joel, Carissa and Tater last weekend. We decided to meet the kids in Salem (where they live) and then travel out to the coast (Newport) for a day or so. [that was a bit of an OOPs.. because Newport is more than an hour away and we didn't factor in Carissa having some remaining nausea associated with her pregnancy. she was sweet about it.. but we should have found a closer spot!].

We stayed the night at the Elizabeth Street Inn right on the coast. The rooms featured private balconies - which Joel used to do some modeling for us.. and cozy fireplaces. It was very comfortable.



















































Just beyond the balcony's was the beautiful Oregon coastline featuring sandy beaches and gorgeous views. Here's the view to the north from our balcony. One of the many lighthouses that dot the coast is visible in the far field.















Saturday morning was sunny and clear. Julie and I had the chance to take a walk in the cool (okay.. COLD to wimpy Californian's) morning. It was invigorating.

































Here's some cool birds that would wait for a wave to come in and then would scramble all over the beach looking for goodies that were either revealed by the water or deposited by it. They were interesting to watch - scampering across the beach.















Here's two guys we saw on our walk. I don't mean this mean - but we named them dumb and dumber... because that water was SOOOO cold. We weren't exactly sure just what they were doing out there.

































While we were there Carissa thought it would be fun to visit Mo's. Mo's is a local seafood restaurant in the Newport's Historic district. We had a glorious time finding the restaurant ;) Once we arrived the food was good and the company very great.















While we were at Mo's we had a change to meet one of the friendly policeman that serve Newport. Apparently, they didn't like the way I had parked and were going to issue me a ticket. But, they decided to check in at the restaurant to see if they could find the owner. After explaining what I had done wrong he was more than welcome to let me re-park the car and return to our dinner. That wouldn't happen in California right now ;)

Saturday night we returned to Salem and enjoyed a wonderful home cooked meal Carissa fixed for us. We are blessed to be provided for by excellent cooks. Then, Joel SMOTE me on the Wii. In fact, it was so bad I am not going to say anything more about it :)

Sunday morning we had the pleasure of joining Joel and Carissa for church. During the service we had the chance to enjoy Joel participating in performing the service. Afterward we had lunch together and then it was time for the drive back to California.















Thanks Joel and Carissa for allowing us to come share time with you and the little Tater! We can't wait to visit again!

We Interrupt this Blog for an Important Announcement

Short attention span readers: read every word of this post.

Last Sunday was 25th Joel's birthday. A quarter of a century! Now, mind you - Julie and I aren't old enough to have a 25 yr old. Nope. But, somehow it happened. We are pleased that Joel lives in Oregon and loves it up there... but not being able to be there with him and celebrate together definitely bums us out just a bit.

So, we were excited because Jon and Rachel had invited themselves over to our house earlier in the week to make us lunch on Sunday. How sweet, we thought. They definitely are very generous people and love to cook.. so we thought nothing of it. The Little Co-conspirators.

First off let me just say those two can cook! It was a very delightful feast - as far as I can remember. So, we're just minding our own business - pounding down some grub when they get up from the table and say 'hey, wait a second - there's something in the car that was delivered to our house that was for you two. why don't we go get it out of the car'. Hmmm.. still just stuffing my face with delightful tastes and not thinking too much of it.

When they returned they were carrying two gift bags. One for Julie and one for me. Hmmm.. what's up? Oh, and did I mention co-conspirator Jon is now running a camera and filming us opening the gifts. Yeah, okay - I do defense work - so I was all over that. Something was definitely up.

Well, Julie opens her bag and it is a framed picture that has a little picture in it that reads "Coming soon... to be filled May 8, 2010". At the bottom of the frame it reads "grandma and me". And for me? A t-shirt printed with "New Grandpas University - Freshman Class - 2010".

Hyperventilation. Shock. Hyperventilation. Confusion. Did I mention hyperventilation? Oh yeah. Cool.

Now.. it's pretty clear at this point that someone's got a bit of a bun in the oven. That's right... Berkeley might be rated just above Michigan as the best public university in the nation.. but I'm still relatively bright.. so I figured that one out - pronto! So - now of course we have Jon and Rachel making us lunch and then delivering these presents.... and we happen to have a married son who's made waves about starting a fam. So - EXACTLY what is up?

Julie's sitting next to me asking Rachel... "you?" "you?" "who?".. and the reality of the situation sets in. Joel and Carissa have set us up!

Joel and Carissa are expecting their first baby next May!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was so cool of them too.. because as soon as we heard.. of course we IMMEDIATELY called Joel. I had just talked with him like half an hour earlier at his home and I knew that Carissa was at work. So - I just expected to speak with him. However, they had set this whole lunch up and as soon as Joel finished talking with me he high-tailed it over to the hospital so that he could be with Carissa when the inevitable call came in. How great is that? So, we got to enjoy congratulating them and just sharing our joy, shock, amazement and every other imaginable emotion with them.

However... Joel and Carissa then put us into the dreaded 'cone of silence'. They hadn't yet told all the friends and family that they wanted too.. and they were simply having too much from notifying people in 'creative' ways... so we couldn't share this amazing news with you.

Every day I call Joel - 'is the cone of silence lifted"'. 'is the cone of silence lifted'. Well, it just was.. and now you all know the blessed news.

Congratulations to Team Henderson II (now three strong!!). We love you and are extremely excited for you. Of course we want to strangle you as well for shocking and confusing us last Sunday.. but we're letting that go :)

So.. now you know. I hope you'll take a moment to congratulate these two little kids of ours... that are about to have their own precious baby. Where did the time go?????
































** Interesting followup. When Joel calls to lift the cone of silence tonight.. he immediately follows up with.. 'and hey, where's the blog entry for my birthday???'. Well Joel - that's what you get when you tell me I'm a grandpa and then don't let me tell the world. So there :)

End of Vacation Campfire

Sunday night represented the last evening Joel and Carissa would spend with us - as they returned home to Oregon this morning. We had a fun-filled week with them; so we chose to spend their final evening kicking back around a campfire. Luckily, our bud Tim has a backyard fire pit which he was more than willing to lend us for the occasion. So, we set it up and lit some firewood and enjoyed a quiet evening around the fire pit making Michigan pies (and yes, Vicki, we completely have commandeered the hobo pie moniker!).

To make the perfect pie? Well, you gotta start with some hot coals. These will do!















Then, you take a pie iron and line it with either white bread (buttered to keep it from sticking) or with biscuit dough (an innovation that Joel and Carissa shared with us) that is kept from sticking by coating the pie iron with Pam. The picture below features biscuit dough.















Next, you put your favorite 'stuff' on the inside. I chose peach filling make from peaches off our tree in the back yard (above). Julie L. loves a good pizza pie (below.. on white bread). You can see from the fixings on the table there are all sorts of tasty options!











































Next you place the pie iron in amongst the hot coals; turning it from time to time to ensure your pie cooks evenly.















We found out that the best way to do the biscuit dough was to 'split it in half' (make it half as thin as it comes in the can). If you don't ... it expands too much when you cook it!















You gotta open the pie iron to take a look at progress from time to time. When the pie crust is toasty brown - it's time to get the pie out of the iron.......















... and into your belly!















We had a relaxing time just hanging around the camp fire.















It's been awhile since we have been able to celebrate Joel's birthday with him - so we decided to integrate a small birthday celebration at the end of the evening. Julie L. was so sweet. I asked her if she could clandestinely make a cake for Joel - at the last minute Sunday night. She and her boyfriend, Evan, were more than willing to help out and cooked up a scrumptious cake; even including a full compliment of candles. My thanks to Julie for her kind act of service to make this last night together a bit more special!















And, of course, many thanks to Joel and Carissa for choosing to spend their vacation time with us this year!

SF Zoo

Friday Joel, Carissa, Julie and I had a chance to visit the San Francisco Zoo. As you all know, Julie loves animals and a chance to get out and experience wildlife in a place as compelling as the SF Zoo is a treat. To be able to share the visit with Joel and Carissa made it even better!

Homo-Sapiens:















Here's Joel - halfway through the visit. He got a little tired and kicked back for some down time.














Here's his impression of a bear!



















Birds:





































































Lemurs:















Lethal Threats:

































Non-Lethal Threats:















There was an infant west african lowland gorilla born at the zoo to a mother that did not take very good care of her. So, they took the infant from her mother and bonded her to a surrogate. Things seem to be going well now.















Reticulated giraffes, zebra, etc.