Hey Jude

It's a boy!! We could not be more thrilled. Marc was convinced it was going to be a girl. He thought now way would it be a boy. We are so excited. Not only is it a he. But he is healthy and growing strong. We have so much love for him already and cannot wait to see him and guess who he looks like. I can't wait to call it he or Jude instead of it. I am growing a person in my stomach not a creature.

Hiking to Sundance with Sundance

Felt a little funny calling Sundance's name when your at Sundance. We started this hike at the trail head for Timpanogos/Stewart falls and hiked to the top of back mountain. It was a lot of fun. I only fell once and got a scraped knee. Better then a scraped belly.

Spring hiking.

We are trying to get out and about as much as possibl. Work makes that really difficult but we try. Luckily we live so close and that helps. This is one of our passions. We love to hike!!

Russia and China

We are so fortunate. We have a healthy baby growing in my womb and we are also blessed to have had the opportunity to travel. I am about 15 weeks pregnant during this trip. We first went to Russia. We spent time first in Moscow. It is so amazing. You could still feel the presence of the failed communism in the brisk air. It was amazing too. We'd be walking around checking things out and it'd be totally light outside and then we'd realize it would be almost midnight. Next we hit St.Petersburg. The jet lag hit us here the hardest I think. We both passed out lying in the grass of a busy public park. We have no idea how long we were sleeping. Ha ha. But we fit in. Lots of people passed out in that park. They just had an empty vodka bottle in there hands. We then shot back over to Moscow and caught a very unorganized, dysfunctional flight to China. The flight wasn't bad. The airport was horrible. We would have missed the flight if they didn't hold the plane for the chaos trying to check in. It was very frustrating. Then we landed in the most quiet, clean, zen airport in Beijing. Such an amazing city. We toured the forbidden city climbed the great wall, ate at the same spicy noodle place every evening. Saw their food market, where people would eat live scorpions and things. UGH! Can't even think about it. Gotta be nuts!! Then we caught a train to Shanghai. WOW! Modern, funky, amazing city. So cool. For Marc's birthday we went up to the top of the second tallest building. It was so cool. We loved it. I felt like batman!

Moscow



St. Petersburg


Beijing




Shanghai

Happy anniversary

It is our 5 year anniversary. And We are celebrating it with a trip to my O.B.'s office. We are expecting a little bundle of Joy on November 30th. We can't wait. We are so nervous and so so excited. The baby was too small to pick up the heartbeat with the Doppler so we were lucky and got to have an ultrasound and see our little peanut. Which is healthy and everything looks normal right now. :) So excited. We are just holding our breathe to make it to 12 weeks. Then the risk of miscarriage goes down significantly.

There it is!! The little hamster!!

The D.R.

My good friend and coworker, also named Lindsay were able to join Dr. Harris along on his humanitarian trip with his family to the Dominican Republic. It was such an amazing experience. I've always talked about doing something like this. I am so happy I was able to have this experience. I also just took my first positive pregnancy test. :) I was extra nervous to go to a third world country. But I made it there. We stayed at a beautiful resort on the beach. It was spectacular. It made me feel really guilty taking a van ride to the inner part of the island to the poor part of town and see how these people live. At least we were able to serve them. They are beautiful people. I wanted to take every child we came in contact with home with me. Dr. Harris let me numb some people and also extract a few teeth. Then a dentist that was there didn't have any help so I hooked up with him for the rest of the service. He and his wife were amazing people. They warmed my heart and I learned so much from them. They adopted an amazing son from India that has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair. He sent them with his eagle project to deliver. School supplies for the local villages. I was able to tag along on this event as well. I have never felt more humble in my life. The kids would be sharing desks and have no shoes. We visited three villages and each one was more poverished then the last. It was heart breaking. At the last village there was a little boy there that had not one article of clothing on. he looked about 2-3 years old. He is totally displaced. This visit wasn't horribly long after the horrific earthquake in Haiti. This Village was right on the boarder. This little boy was Haitian and lost his parents in the earthquake. The village, very poorly takes care of him. I was so turned upside down with how I felt. I couldn't understand why he couldn't come home with me. Why do I need a piece of paper signed by some judge to love that child. I didn't understand it and I still don't. He roamed that dirt road village picking off scraps of other starving children. No one to hold him. No one to love him. I still get lost in my own thoughts about this little boy. He also spoke a different language then the Dominicans. I just wish I could have given him more then crayons, papers, stickers and a colorful ruler. It was a good experience though. I am happy I was able to do it. I will never forget it.

Views of the beautiful Dominican Republic



This was at the nicest school we visited.



This is the Haitian little boy. Still hurts to look at him.


When word gets out Americans are at the clinic people flock. These kids are all cramming into the bed of a small truck to come get dental care.


Busy at work.


The man that made it all happen for Lindsay and I.

India & Nepal...Wow

For the first few weeks of May Lindsay and I traveled to India and Nepal. We spent about 2 weeks backpacking around and taking in as many sights as possible. In total we took 9 flights, 4 trains and countless taxis. We started the trek in Mumbai, India. This was recently made famous by the "Slumdog Millionaire" movie and is an absolutely amazing city. to get a really good sense for what Mumbai is like please read Lonely Planets introduction. I have heard countless times that Mumbai is best described as "London on acid" and after bieng there I can see why. After Mumbai we took a night train to the capital city of Delhi. This city is made up of two parts; organized/cosmopolitan New Delhi and medieval/chaotic Old Delhi. From there we took a flight up to Kathmandu, Nepal and spent 4 days taking in that amazing country. After Nepal we made our way down (via train/plane) to one of the most unique places on earth: Varanasi, India. This city is were Hindus come at least once in their life to wash in the holy Ganges river. Furthermore, it is one of the highest aspirations of all Hindus to die and be cremated on the banks of the river in Varanasi. As a result of this you have an old medieval city on the banks of the Ganges that has a constant stream of bathing pilgrims, burning bodies, touts looking for tourists, etc. Needless to say it is truly amazing! India is the ultimate traveler destination. I have always heard that but I never quite knew why they said it. Furthermore, I would always hear people describe India as just: "incredible, unbelievable and exhausting." I now know why they say it....the minute you step off the plane you are bombarded with the sights, sounds and smells of India. After that moment, you realize how indescribable it is! Every moment you are in that country you are confronted with shocking poverty, cows roaming free, grinding traffic, kind people, dangerous taxi rides, architecture, religion, etc, etc, etc. Nepal is not that much different then India although it has much more of a mountain/tourist feel as a result of all the trekking tourist. Kathmandu however is just an amazing city! Here are just a few of the highlights from the trip: 1. Getting in 2 accidents while riding taxis in Mumbai 2. Mountain flight over Mt. Everest and the rest of the Himalayas 3. Cycle rickshaw rides through snarling traffic in Delhi. 4. The incredible and breathtaking Taj Mahal 5. Early morning boat ride along the Ganges to watch people bath 6. Chillin near Chowpatty beach in Mumbai people watching 7. Eating dinner and chillin with our buddies from Kathmandu (we meet on the street). 8. Eating lunch over looking the Kathmandu Valley at Steve's house (we meet Steve on a trek in Nepal. 9. Walking through an Indian train station...the experience is so chaotic it is unreal. 10. Getting an afternoon layover in Amsterdam! All in all we had an amazing trip...my only complaint is that we had WAY to little time! We tried to do the sub-continent (India/Nepal) in 2 weeks when it could easily take 2 years to really get a feel for it!