Happy birthday, Connor!

Mandy and Sam had invited us over today for Connor's first (luau-themed) birthday party (Connor is exactly five months older than Iver).

Unfortunately, Iver's 5 a.m. wake-up time today made for some strange naps, including a 30-min stroller snooze and a 2.5-hour (!) midday nap, and we missed most of the official party.  When we arrived, the birthday boy had, after eating a couple of bites of his cake and ice cream, retired for his own nap as he was tuckered out from the playing!

It was a gorgeous 73-degree (hot!) day in Arcata, and the other kids (and some adults, too!) enjoyed the slip-'n-slide outside in Mandy and Sam's yard while the parents hung out and ate good food. 

Here are the boys saying hi after Connor's nap.

All dressed up!

Yesterday, we attended the wedding of Julie (she and her family are friends from church) and Anthony, her college sweetheart.  We don't have too many occasions for which to get "dressed up" up here, but this was one!

Iver wore his baptism outfit again, which is still a little loose on him!

The outdoor ceremony was on the lawn of the house of their family friends in Mckinleyville, and was lovely. We got there early as recommended due to limited on-site parking and took some nice photos.

with Josh, brother of the bride and a good friend

Eric, father of the bride, holds his granddaughter Vera

Iver was able to sit still for a couple of minutes...

...and then was toted around in the Bjorn for the rest of the ceremony. We didn't get many smiles out of him!

Josh and Arlene, mother of the bride

Vera, the flower girl, got a bit shy at the top of the aisle

Julie looked stunning and so happy!

Eric also served as the officiant

They washed one another's feet ...

... and were pronounced husband and wife!

We had to leave the reception a bit early due to our little one's bedtime, but the food was great and the speeches very touching!

Blessings to Julie and Anthony for a beautiful marriage!

Library Rebel

I have a confession. I am a Library Rebel.

I am not sure I have ever been charged a late fee on a library book. I probably check out, on average, two to four public library books per month, although my reading time has been curtailed now somewhat with a busy 6-month-old (and some very busy call and clinic days).  I obviously adore to read. And I am pretty much a staunch rule-follower, and remember to return books on time (or renew them if I'm not done).

I often put "holds" on library books that are in demand, so that I get an e-mail and go pick them up when available. However, sometimes the check-out period on some of these books is unreasonably short, even for a fast reader!

Americanah, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, was on my "to read" list for a while, and it became available two weeks ago; however, I was only given a week to read a 477-page book.  With books on which there are holds by other patrons, you can't officially renew them. Although I tried hard, I was not going to be able to finish the novel before our Oregon getaway weekend.

I was pretty torn. The fictional book, set in Nigeria and the U.S., which depicts the lives of native Nigerians (who spend time abroad) and themes of love, racism, morality, loyalty and more, was really gripping me. I had spent a month in Nigeria in 2007, and it was not a book I could let go unfinished as our long weekend approached. I stared at the circulation "this book is about to come due" notice sitting in my e-mail inbox and considered my options, which I saw to be:

a) return the book, and check it out at some later date (i.e. re-request it and get back on the hold list)
b) return the book, and buy the book on Kindle so that I could finish it on our trip
c) not return the book, and pay the late fee (which I researched to be approximately $0.25 per day, up to a $5 max).

I am a bit sheepish, although glad, to say that I chose option C. This option took the least amount of up-front effort on my part, and actually made the most monetary sense, although I do recognize that it inconveniences (for a few days) one (or more) other patrons waiting to read this gem. Rather than purchase a $7.81 Amazon version of the book, half of which I'd already read, I chose to hold onto it and was prepared to incur an approximately $1 fee (which was a really good deal). Back to the library the book went, only four days late (and only one of those was a "business day"). 

Do you know the best part of this?  I called the Eureka Main Library yesterday to figure out exactly what my "late fee" was, and how I could pay for it. 
"What late fee?" asked the library clerk. "I'm not showing that you have any outstanding fees." 
I told them that I'd returned a book late, and then they told me about a "three day grace period" on all late books!
Uh oh. Knowing this now may turn me into even more of a rebel.

(However, if you don't have a very forgiving library,  Americanah is worth even more than the $7.81 it goes for on Amazon :)). Happy reading!

a familiar FP face

Huey, one of our wonderful FP faculty members from UC Davis, and his family were spending a week up in Humboldt County on their kids' summer vacation, and we got to meet up with them on Sunday. We met at Arcata Scoop to have them try some of the most wonderful ice cream there is (although they were not carrying either of our favorite flavors, Coconut or Salted Caramel), and got to catch up on updates including some UC Davis changes and our lives as "real docs" in this community.  It was so nice to see a familiar face up in our neck of the woods-- we love when visitors stop by this area! It's hard to believe that we're almost four years out of residency and pretty "established" with our patients and careers-- it seems like just yesterday that we were still residents "precepting" our Emerald Gardens (nursing home) patients with Huey!

Rogue River Jet Tour

On Saturday, we took the 64-mile Jerry's Rogue Jet "Mail Boat" tour out of Gold Beach, OR.

It was a relaxing way to spend the Fourth of July- we left Gold Beach around 8:30 a.m. and returned around 2 p.m., with a stop for lunch at Agness, which actually gets its mail delivered by boat!  The weather was great (we got our taste of HOT ~80-90-degree summer weather upriver), and we had some nice bird (not so much mammal) sightings along the banks.  Pepper, alas, was not allowed to come aboard, but the company provided suggestions of professional dog-sitters, so Pepper spent the day with miss Emilie while we were on the boat (she apparently just slept in her bed, and refused to eat/drink/pee or play with other dogs, which was about her depressed norm anytime we leave her).

The company runs longer routes, 80- and 104-mile journeys which enter into more white water, but with our 6-month-old little one, we opted for the more gentle route.

Eager to board...

A French Architect designed this pretty bridge (whose name I forgot) over the river. A major 1964 flood had waters reaching the height of this bridge.

A bunch of swallows' nests

Heron on the banks...

... and in flight

Osprey's nest...

... and perched osprey

We had good sunhats, which managed not to blow off during our trip!

The sympathetic family behind us (who had two kids, albeit older [school-age]) took these photos for us. Iver had meltdowns both in the morning, when he was due for a nap (and thankfully did fall asleep for about 45 min under a wool blanket) and in the afternoon, as he did NOT enjoy being sprayed with the pretty warm (76 degrees per our guide, Shaun) although cool-seeming river water when the boat operator playfully spun "donuts," to the delight of the other passengers. However, this family tolerated the screaming really well and even got some smiles out of our little guy :).

Turkey vulture?

Eagle's nest (I think)

Black-tail deer (and fawn, 1 month old)

 Pacific Madrone tree

We had a choice of three places to eat lunch in Agness, our farthest upstream town, and we opted for the barbeque place Cougar Lane.

My mango-barbeque pulled pork sandwich was DELICIOUS, and the corn on the cob was fall-off-the-cob amazing!

Iver thought his sweet potatoes were pretty yummy, too!

Waiting to catch the return boat...

 

Fun times on a pretty river (Happy Independence Day)!