We are back!

We've had an eventful couple of weeks surrounding our wonderful vacation. The week before we left, Sierra had to add to the drama by getting a fox tail (grass seed) embedded into her foot requiring surgery the day before we left. We felt terrible leaving her in that condition, but she received great care at the Ruff House. She wasn't able to play with the other dogs as she was bandaged up and had to wear her beautiful e-collar. The stitches were taken out this last Thursday and things are looking good, although she still is wearing the collar when we're not around so she can't lick her foot.

Our trip was wonderful. We had good weather pretty much at all of our stops. Zion was a little hot, but we adjusted, and just enjoyed being on vacation. The hiking was fun, but we definitely aren't used to hiking that much that many days in a row. By Wednesday, I had a huge blister on my foot, so we changed into relaxed mode. We also did some other things such as kayaking at Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons. Camping went well and the dehydrated food we ate went well, actually tasting really well. We only had one "emergency" when the car got a flat tire. We changed the tire and went to the nearest shop and got it patched. A razor, of all things, was the culprit and we were on our way. We have a lot of pictures that are on Facebook. If you are unable to access them, let me know and I will email you the link.
The return to work was fine, but the hardest return was to the heat. The beginning of last week was well over 100 every day, but now it's more in the high 90s. We have been in air conditioning and have done pretty well. Then again...it's only July. Talk to me again in October. This next week, I have a student starting at work. I can't remember where he's from, but he will be with us for 6 weeks and it is his last rotation. It should work out pretty well. Because of the pace of our clinic, we interview all interns, so that is reassuring. It can be a pretty intimidating place to do one of your rotations, but will be great experience for transitioning into practice.
That's all for now...my birthday is Saturday and I have no idea what I want or even what I want to do. No biggie...just go with the flow. Have a good week!

Independence and Kayaking

Happy Independence Day everyone! Greetings from southern California, where it has been hot, true to form for July. That hasn't stopped us from continuing our tile project, where we are inching along, and doing a lot of other fun activities. We both had Friday off, which was a nice break. The Fridays off are becoming more and more familiar to Nick, as he now has three furlough Fridays each month. It would be nice if there was not a 20 percent pay cut that came with that. Regardless, this weekend, we took some time out to have fun.
Friday we headed down to La Jolla for some kayaking. This was our first tandem kayak experience, which, I am happy to report, did not end up in any major fights. We had a really good time exploring the cliffs and caves in La Jolla and enjoyed the surf a bit more than we had in our past kayaking experience.





Saturday we ran some errands for our upcoming trip and caught a matinee of "The Hangover." We both thought it was absolutely hilarious. It's hard to imagine a funnier film will come out this year. We then headed down to Nick's work, which happens to have a prime seat for the fireworks that they shoot off at the top of Mt. Rubidoux. The show was great and we enjoyed having a lot of space to ourselves within the gates of his office and surrounding wildlife education area. Sierra was not quite as excited about the show, but made it through all the less.
We are getting quite excited about our trip to Zion, Bryce, Yellowstone, and Grand Teton national parks. We leave on Friday and will be gone for 10 days. We will be tenting and doing a lot of hiking. Sierra will be at the Ruff House Pet Resort while we're gone. You can check to see if she's behaving herself on their web cam (http://www.ruffhousepetresort.com/outdoor-play-yard.html). Nap time is from 12-2, so you won't be able to see her between those times. For Nick and myself, we will be virtually unplugged and I am actually looking forward to it.
Hope everyone had a great fourth of July and is enjoying the second part of summer. More blogging after our trip!