incredible India!

India was incredible! On Thanksgiving Day, we had our team day at the Konark Sun Temple and then dipped our feet in the Bay of Bengal before dinner. I took this picture after writing India 2012 three different times, the tide kept erasing my work! 

Loving the water!

The team decided to spell out "Op Smile" on the beach! I love this photo!

I couldn't help myself, but I prayed no Indian would take offense and get mad at me. I was ok, I think it's an old enough temple that not even they know the meaning of this awesome sculpture!

Qutab Minar, an amazing minaret originally began construction in 1199!

Jama Masjid, built in 1650 in Old Delhi, it is the largest and most well known mosque in India. I patiently waited for people to move and caught this man praying.

I love the peace this guy portrays as he's enjoying his friday at the mosque.

Haha, oh this guy was great! My friend Donna tried to take his picture without paying him and he got upset and put the basket back over the snake. But I wanted a picture so I paid him 50 rupees ($1) and got my picture! It was cool to see a snake charmer.

Donna and I took a rickshaw through Old Delhi, what an experience!

The Taj Mahal, or crown of palaces! Beautiful is the one word to describe it! The Taj is a white marble mausoleum located in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal. The Taj Mahal is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India and one of the universally admired masterpieces of the world's heritage".

I almost had to keep pinching myself that I was at the Taj Mahal!

The white marble is exquisite and the inlaid precious stones were the perfect touch. It just amazes me that even back then (1632), they built such fine buildings.

We saw monkeys at the Taj Mahal! I caught this guy in the sun rays as we were leaving the grounds of the Taj. It was awesome to see them just climbing around everywhere, exactly what I pictured India like.

I was excited to photograph these women carrying huge baskets on their heads. I love their bright colorful clothing. I loved the sites of India!

Smiling with Bhubaneswar, India!

I love and will always treasure my experiences on these missions with Operation Smile. Over Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to travel to India to Bhubaneswar, where I was able to work alongside medical professionals from 7 different countries (Italy, Russia, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Austrailia, and India). While I missed spending the holiday with my family, I had so much fun making friends worldwide! Overall we performed 118 surgeries (cleft lip and palates) and screened 50+ more for future surgeries. Surgery days were busy, yet I loved every minute sharing my time with the people of India!

Setting up our room to screen the patients, Karen (recovery room RN from Austrailia), Mo (recovery room RN from USA), and our two night nurses from Guwahati, India.

 My favorite little girl, she had the biggest smile!

Getting a treat during screening. We found anything to distract them would help in obtaining a blood pressure!

 I love their bright saris and smiles!This beautiful mother and her daughter are awaiting surgery.

 Our pediatrician Blegina (from Rome, Italy) is assessing a little guy to see if he's fit for surgery.

 Oh so cute!

 I love this family! The patient is on the right and has the cutest little sister!

 We all loved this mother, beautiful woman!

I found myself bonded to this family. She had a fistula repair and wasn't feeling that great the night after surgery. But the next morning, she had colored me a picture and gave it to me. We had her stay an extra day to make sure all was ok, so to pass the time she played "Angry Birds" on a nurses iphone. The morning they left, they shoke my hand multiple times in gratitude.

Mom tapping a spoon against the tile wall to quiet her baby. I love the Hannah Montana towel hanging above their heads!

I am grateful for...

Thanksgiving this year will be different. I won't be with the family I treasure most above everything else in the world. I won't be amongst friends. I will be in a strange, different country, working alongside strangers whom I will have just met for the very first time. Yet the cause is dear to my heart and that makes it all worth it. So to celebrate Thanksgiving, I will post one thing I am grateful for in my life for each day until Thanksgiving. This way I can focus on what is truly dear to my heart and why I am who I am! So, I am grateful for...

1 - My family
2 - The Gospel of Jesus Christ
3 - My education
4 - A home
5 - Temples
6 - My citizenship in the United States
7 - My camera
8 - Instrumental music
9 - My car
10 - Snowplows
11 - The life of my Grandma Hardy, today was her birthday!
12 - My job
13 - Friends
14 - Chocolate milk
15 - Medical technology
16 - Books

St. George Marathon 2012!

Way to go Dad! St. George Marathon Finisher #19, #30 overall! He finished in 4:43:52. I'm inspired by this man! I guess that's why the rest of us have followed in his steps, literally! We had a great weekend down in the sun. I love the red rocks! Emily and I are going to sign up to run it next year with him, big #20!

Hiking Timpanogos Peak!

My friend Kelli Arnesen, a friend from nursing school, asked me to hike Mount Timpanogos with her Monday. I had never hiked Timp and so I was thrilled for the opportunity to do so with Kelli. Yet, words of advice, don't hike Timp after running the Dirty Dash 10K race 2 days prior, without training. I'm sore sore sore!

Timp is the second highest mountain in Utah's Wasatch Range. Timp rises to an elevation of 11,749 feet. It is a 14-mile round trip hike with a mile of elevation gain. The fall colors were beautiful and I was excited to take a few pictures!

The weather was forecasted to be 50-60% chance of rain/thunderstorms, so Kelli and I were prepared to turn around before the summit. These clouds hung on the back side of Timp as we continued to climb.

This shack sits by Emerald Lake, Kelli is showing off the luxery of its walls!

Kelli hiking up ahead, preparing to cross the lengthy land of "Mordor", aka rock field! It was so hard to cross and just as difficult to maintain our trail.

View of Provo and Utah Lake from Timpanogos Peak! Luckily for us the clouds cleared giving us a view of the valley.

The shack, marking the summit of Timpanogos Peak. I wanted to cry at this point, seriously! My thighs were so sore, tight and couldn't bare to move upwards any longer. Kelli supplied me with pep talks and slowly but surely I summitted!

Fall colors, so vibrant and beautiful!

The trail coming out to Aspen Grove, so pretty with the yellow leaves!

Dirty Dash September 2012

Bryce and I ran the Dirty Dash on Saturday, September 22nd at Soldier Hollow, Midway. It was my second time and just as great! I dressed up with my co-worker as "Mud Medics"! My mini jacket said "Mud Medic #1 with a red cross! We got pretty muddy, yah! My face had so much mud that had hardened that when I tried to laugh or smile, it hurt. We loved every minute of it!

Temple, petting zoo, and Moab...all in one day!

I completed my goal! I attended an endowment session in all open Utah temples before my one year anniversary of receiving my own endowment, which is September 10, 2012! Monticello, UT was my last stop. My roommate Angela joined me on a journey down to Monticello, waking up at 5:30am to make the noon session. If we missed it, the next session isn't until 5pm, 5 hours later! We arrived an hour early but we made it.

Monticello Utah Temple!

I found beautiful flowers/plants to take pictures of on the temple grounds!

 Beautiful!

 The view leaving Monticello...now onto "Hole N" the Rock"!

What a site, huh! They have the most random stuff, including a petting zoo!

Angela loves Elephants!

We discovered this cute "hole" had a petting zoo and we had to do it! Tickets $3.75 plus we shared a $5 bucket of oats and carrots to feed the animals. We were so excited!

Meet Cramer! He's the camel we were told we could get a kiss from if we held a carrot between our teeth. On my first try, I ducked away right before he bit on the other end of the carrot. I was so nervous! But I finally got the guts up and was BRAVE! Results below...

First base with Cramer...the Camel! Yes, only an inch of carrot between me and my camel.

Angela tempting Cramer with another carrot. He was so greedy, he wanted our whole bucket!

Caution! Alpaca spitting zone!

I'm feeding the minature horse and donkey! El burro! :)

Angela loved this Zebra, too bad there were 2 fences between them!

 Cramer, struttin' his stuff!

I loved this sign...I may as well be a part of their exhibit!

A cactus made out of bowling balls! It's ginormous!

After our adventure at the petting zoo we drove into Moab and hiked Delicate Arch! Angela had never seen it before and so we had to do it with being in the area. We cruised up the trail and inbetween Asians and their cameras we were finally able to get a shot with the arch with no one in it!

I love Delicate Arch, I'm so proud to be a Utahan! All in all, we drove 9 hours, enjoyed a 2 hour endowment session, fed zoo animals, was almost kissed by a camel, and hiked 3 miles to the most scenic arch in Utah! What a day!