145th birthday!

 

My parents are septuagenarian-young and my sister contacted me a few weeks ago about having a combined birthday celebration for them in Virginia this past weekend (Mom is born in January and Dad in March). It is times like these when it really sucks to live in a rural part of the state, three thousand miles away from your closest family and have a job which traps you in on-call responsibilities every four days unless you request time off about six months ahead of time.

Unfortunately, on short notice, I couldn't make it work to fly back from our already long-planned trip to LA back east and home in time for Monday OB call (which probably would have not worked out anyway with the horrendous weather we've had in Cali recently-- It's snowing AGAIN a few miles east of our house and we returned home in just a small window of sun. I've heard personally from several local people whose cars slid off the road and/or were overturned last week and/or were stuck for days in various parts of NorCal, and, as a result, I am pretty averse to any road travel or travel on a tight schedule on our little highways for a while).

In any case, my sister posted and mom sent some pictures of their celebratory event held at a yummy restaurant, Kazan (where my sister's wedding rehearsal dinner was also held) in downtown McLean.  I'm thankful my sister and Marco live locally (for now-- they go back overseas this summer!) and can take on the dutiful daughter role that I, trapped here in a tiny town with poor roads and airport access, a demanding work schedule, and still-young needy kids, can't quite swing at this stage in my life.

If only the new five-year-old could have made it there to make it a combined 150-year celebration (NOT!).  Maybe we can swing it in five years...

Dino Nino's 5th celebration

We feel like we've been celebrating Niall's birthday for a month (we actually do call him "Nino,” rhyming with “do so” as a nickname)!  He actually wanted to have a few friends over for a small celebration this year and, given that he hasn't had a friend party in his whole pandemic-dominated life, we agreed to host one this Saturday.  We were going to just have a few kids (PreK besties) over to our house for informal playtime, but found out about a dinosaur event (Jurassic Empire) at Redwood acres and Niall, who is very much into dinosaurs (like are most preschool-aged boys!), was open to the adjustment (as were the other parents).  Thankfully, our travel back from LA worked out, since Kelvin had the advance-purchased digital tickets, and we didn't want to miss the event (Iver also got to invite a couple of friends to keep him company)! By our count, this is Niall's fifth (and hopefully final?!) time celebrating his fifth birthday!  (Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it work to fly cross-country and back to attend my parents' combined birthday party in Virginia also held on Saturday-- this year [Jan and March], they turn a combined milestone 145 [70, 75] years!).

We started in the exhibit hall, which had motion-activated life-size dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.

Dylan was a bit nervous with the roaring reptiles!

the little birthday crew: Max, Dylan, N, Grant, Ivan

The kids were “upgraded" by a generous ticket attendant for free to having wristbands, and got to ride some of the moving triceratops in another hall. 

They had a "dig area," which was fun for these budding paleontologists! 

Were there many tree-climbing dinos?

Snack time!

The kids probably spent the most time in the dino-themed bounce houses!

We agreed to have a few kids over for an overnight--also to help Dylan's parents have the time and space pack as they're, sadly, moving soon. We’d actually never had so many kids in our house at one time, and have only once had one kid (Iver’s friend Hudson) sleep over. 

Spaghetti dinner

A few presents, many of which were dino-themed!

Digging Dino Bones puzzle game.

Dylan is Niall’s bestie and we’ll miss him and Dominic so much. 

Nighty-night, dino-Nino! 

 We’re so glad to have kept N’s fifth fifth birthday celebration small and low-key. Niall told us that he had the best birthday ever which is so lovely to hear!  I’m sure he’s already liking forward to six… 

Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Walk

Now that the pandemic has receded from most of our daily lives/considerations (or may actually be over?), ODCHC has been trying to have clinics do regular team-building activities, funded with a small stipend. The Arcata clinics arranged a guided dune walk on Saturday morning and, following the big storm, couldn't have picked a nicer (weather-wise) day for it!

Our guide, Iona, who is interning with the organization "Friends of the Dunes," walked us through the wetland area, first, explaining some of the plant and animal life that can be seen.   Iver loves going barefoot in sand.

Niall wasn't thrilled with walking, and still required a "ride."

Iver was keen to do "dune gymnastics."

When we reached the beach, it was surprisingly calm (not windy as it often is here on our coast!) and an incredibly clear day-- we could even see small patches of snow remaining on distant hills.

We walked back through the dune forest, learning about some of the trees that can thrive even with seawater spray as well as "reindeer lichen," which is usually found in alpine or Arctic tundra but thrives here in the dune forest floor. 

Our frog whisperer found what we think was a California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii), which is apparently pretty rare (it looked different than pet "Leafy," a Pacific tree frog).

He held it briefly but then released it.

What a lovely day it was on our coast-- it's so hard to believe it was snowing just a couple of days prior (and, twenty-four hours later, it's back to raining!).