Summer Fun

Ruth and I have been running a lot for the last year and we decided that it was time to push ourselves so we registered for a half marathon. On the morning of the race Ruth was ready to go; I, on the other hand, only went because I had paid $50 and didn't want to feel like the money had gone to waste. It was a hot and humid morning and the race was in a hilly suburb of Hartford. Throughout the entire race I kept asking myself why I paid good money to put myself through this. We both finished. Ruth placed second in her division and loved it. I, on the other hand, had by far the worst experience of my life. If anyone who reads this is thinking about running a half marathon or marathon, DON'T DO IT. We are planning to try again in October.








Callie participated in Field Day at school this week. She had a great time. Luke enjoyed it too. The whole class enjoyed "freezie pops" that Callie brought to share.

The weather has been extremely hot and humid. Callie and Luke have spent a lot of time in the little pool in the back yard. We probably have the only kids in the world that think they need goggles in 4 inches of water.
Vivian is growing like crazy. She is doing pretty good except for destroying our rug and pooping on the floor.

Baptism

Here is another picture of Callie's Baptism that was provided by a friend.

Another Henderson

Callie is still playing soccer. She really enjoys it.

Luke watching the Memorial Day parade in West Hartford. Every sports team in town marches so the parade lasts for about 3 hours.



This is Vivian #2. (We had another dog for a couple of days, but it didn't work out; her name was Vivian.) She is a two month old cocker spaniel. We went to the pet store to get Callie a hampster and came home with Vivi.

Favorite Memories

Since we don't have any exciting pictures from this week, we thought we would start posting some of our old favorites...

These are pictures from our trip to Idaho last summer; Great-Grandma, Tablerock, Idaho Pizza (the best food in the entire world); and the place where Jason proposed to Ruth.

Dinner time at our house.

Our new glasses at Strong Museum in Rochester, NY.
The Joseph Smith Memorial in Sharon, Vermont.
Six Flags water park.

Cherokee, North Carolina.
Even wild turkeys like McDonald's in Franklin, NC.
Callie's big lollypop at Disneyland.

Our house.
Callie in Central Park.

Spring Activities

This post is to catch up on all the stuff we have done over the past couple months that I forgot about.


We took a day trip to New York City. We like to eat in Little Italy, eat cupcakes at the Magnolia Bakery, play at the park, and, most of all, chase pigeons. Unless we have guests, we do the exact same things on every trip. The pigeon chasing was especially good this trip. Luke is becoming an expert pigeon chaser. He has become so adept at pigeon chasing that he is expanding his chasing to include all birds and even squirels. Others in NYC think that we are a little crazy, but as the video shows, Luke has been able to recruit a few other kids to his pigeon chasing club.



We also celebrated Callie's birthday. Since we were leaving for Disneyworld the next day, she had a small party at Chuck E. Cheese's with her two best friends. They had a blast.

On May 11th Callie was baptized. Papa and Susan made the trip all the way from Idaho for this special occasion. It was a great day.

Luke loves outdoor activities. He has taught himself to rollerblade, skateboard, and ride a scooter. He is amazing.

Ruth and Luke went on a recent field trip with Callie's 2nd grade class. Luke made a new friend; it appears that they found something good to sniff in this picture.

I think every boy needs at least one picture of himself flexing in his underwear. I think it is a natural instict for boys. (We won't post the one Jason made us take of him this morning.) Luke is pretty proud of his big boy undies.

Callie is playing both soccer and softball this spring. (Luke insisted on wearing the sticker on his nose.)

Fun, Fun, and More Fun

We were able to take a trip to Disneyworld from May 1st through May 8th. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge and had a fantastic time.

Anyone who has flown into Orlando should recognize this. Goofy is waiting to welcome everyone to Disney.

This is the resort we stayed at. It was just a short boat ride away from the Magic Kingdom. We loved taking the boat back and forth all day long.

This is Callie watching the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom from our hotel room. It was nice to be able to watch the fireworks right from our room.

This is Callie and Luke in the hotel lobby.

We ate at the hotel restaurant one night. The waitress brought Jason's drink in this huge jar. He had to prove that he could drink the whole thing. He complained about his stomach hurting for the rest of the trip...I wonder why?!

We ate at Chef Mickey's restaurant the first night. It was a blast. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck all stopped by our table to sign autographs, take pictures, and hug the kids. I don't remember ever seeing our kids so excited. After this meal had all of our dinner reservations changed to try to get as many character meals in as possible. They are expensive and the food is not good, but seeing Luke's eyes light up was worth every penny.

We loved the Magic Kingdom. We only spent about half a day at each of the other parks, but couldn't get enough of the Magic Kingdom. Callie went on every single ride in the park at least once. Her favorite was Splash Mountain, she rode it at least 10 times.

Callie and Jason managed to survive the Tower to Terror at Hollywood Studios.

We had dinner at the Canadian Restuarant in Epcot. This is Ruth feeling awesome because she is finally back with her people. We taught Callie to speak Canadian. She learned that she is supposed to say "eh" at the end of every sentence; she got very good at telling people to "take off"; she asked our waiter if he knew what a "tuque" is (just to make sure he was a real Canadian). It was a great time and the food was fantastic.
Callie got her turn with the camera and captured this picture of the family and one (actually about 50) of herself.

Ruth captured this picture of Belle blowing Jason a kiss (yes really). As you might imagine, it was Jason's favorite part of the trip.

NOTE: We will be better at updating our blog. We plan to update at least once a week from now on.