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 :)

Summit Peak Half Marathon

Hannah and Eric run during the week at work and are generally in pretty good shape.  So, it wasn't a complete surprise earlier in the year when they set a goal of participating in a half marathon before the end of 2011.  So, as the year waned Hannah looked around for a nearby half marathon to participate in.  Having stumbled upon the Summit Peak Half Marathon in nearby Saratoga, she checked out the website and saw a bunch of smiling, happy participants; just what she was looking for.  They seemed happy.. so she signed up and then got Eric to come along with her.

On December 10th Hannah and Eric were off to the Summit Peak Half Marathon.  Julie and I were invited along as their support staff providing such important services as a ride to the race location, photography, in-race cheering and post race buffet.  We were honored to have the chance to participate.

The course map is shown below.


Now, right off the bat, there are some subtle clues that this might not be your normal, relatively flat, half-marathon.  For instance, the name of the race includes the words 'Summit' - which is not a word associated with low elevations.  Also, the word 'Peak' is used.  Another word not generally used together with the terms 'flat', 'level' or 'easy'.  A third clue might have been when you looked at the map and noticed elevation rings.  Many elevation rings.   Oh, at the race course is located in the Santa Cruz MOUNTAINS.

As we climbed up road to Sanborn County Park I think it started to dawn on the kids that this wasn't going to be a simple run in the park.  The windy, uphill road snaked through the redwoods until we reached our location.

Undaunted, the kids checked in and got their race numbers and prepared to get going.

As I was checking with the race staff to determine where we could go to cheer for Hannah and Eric it became obvious this was a unique course.  The race was run entirely on wilderness trails and there was only 1 place (at the half-way turnaround) where observers could park to encourage their racers.  At that point Julie and I decided to split up.  She would go to the turnaround in the car and I would take off (since it was more than 30 minutes to race start) on foot and go find a place along the course where I could take photographs.   So, armed with my camera I was off through the start and walking.

Immediately, I started to get concerned for the kids.  You see, after the first 100 yards or so the course starts a continuous upward track - relatively steep in many places.  As it turns out - this little chart - which Eric found after the fact - might have been very helpful as they were evaluating which race to enter ;)

As you can see - the course is a significant uphill for the entire first 4 miles.  Then, the course meanders up and down for the next couple miles - reversing the pattern on the return (it's a back and forth course).  In all there is over 1/2 mile of elevation change during the race!

I was able to cover the first 2.5 miles or so before finding a spot where I could get good pictures (and a good workout myself).  I worried as I waited for our racers to come by.

Fortunately, as I spied them down the hill on a switchback (note the narrow trail they were running on) they were in excellent spirits!  Note: the pictures are dark because it was early in the morning and in the middle of a forest.

As they came up the hill and ran by me they looked like they were doing very well!  I cheered them on and then they were off - continually gaining altitude!

Well, it was going to be awhile before I saw them again (they had to SUMMIT and then come back down) - so I moved my location down to about 1.25 miles from the finish (around mile 12).  I remember running a long, tough race and it was an incredible encouragement to me to have my family and friends there to cheer me on.  And there were so many random people along the course that would cheer for all the participants.  So, this was my opportunity to give something back.  Knowing I was one of the few non-racers on the course - I really got into encouraging every racer as they ran by.  It was an easy thing to do because having walked just a portion of the course I was incredibly impressed with anyone that would finish this race.

It was an inspirational moment to finally spot Hannah and Eric coming towards me.  They may not have noticed, but it really got me all choked up.   So - I snapped away with the camera and cheered for them!  Only a mile or so more to go... and it's all down hill!!  I knew they would be fine.  Don't they look great?!

In a flash they were by me and approaching the aid station.  A few gummy bears and a last drink of water and they were off - racing towards the finish and the achievement of a difficult goal.

As I started my own trek down to meet them at the finish I had a chance to reflect on their achievement.  I was absolutely certain they had no idea just how difficult this race would be.  I would guess they are both capable of running the distance on a relatively flat course in a couple hours or so - give or take.  This race would take them over 3 hours.  And yet, they kept their composure and seemed to actually thrive on the difficulty.  Also, they stayed together throughout.  That is an admirable trait - to come alongside your friend and provide mutual encouragement to achieve a difficult goal.  I was filled with pride as I returned to the start to see them reveling in their accomplishment.

Way to go Hannah and Eric!  You should be very proud of yourselves.

Can't wait to go to your next race!

Disneyland!

Last year when Julie (Logan) Winslow got married we got tickets to visit Disneyland the day afterwards (she was married just down the street).  Well - what we didn't plan for was the torrential downpour that would accompany the weekend - washing out of trip.

The pre-paid tickets were good for a year, so as the Winslow's first anniversary approached it was time to get back to Disneyland for a visit.  So, we loaded Jon and Rachel, Hannah and Eric and Julie and I and headed off.

Here we are arriving Saturday morning!

Hannah just had to have this sequined set of mouse ears.  Doesn't she look like she's having fun?

We've never been to California Adventure Land - but we got park hopper passes and were off to that side of the park in the afternoon.  One of the rides the kids and Julie tried was California Screamer.  And a screamer it was!  The rides takes off like a aircraft leaving a aircraft carrier.  This is a picture taken about 1 second into the ride.  Look at Julie!!  Hahaha!

Here's Eric trying his best to free Excalibur.  A nice try.

It wouldn't be a Henderson vacation without a jumping picture... now would it?

Here's the kids getting ready to go on Space Mountain.  Yep, Julie and I too!

Hannah just loves visiting the Princess Fantasy Faire to hang with her sisters.  Here she is with Julie and Rachel and Eric as well as Mulan, Ariel and Belle.

Jon and Rachel stopped to get their picture taken with a couple of the Car's stars.

 Rachel as a wookie?  Hannah and Eric waiting to get on the Star Wars tour.

Interestingly, the day we went they were taping their Disney Christmas Day Parade for broadcast Christmas morning.  Because you're supposed to believe it is actually a live event - they had to tape in during the morning.  Saturday it was.  So, look for us on TV.  ok?

All in all it was a great day!