day 2- coba

**i'm sure there will be way more information in this post than anyone really wants to read, so you have my permission to just look at the pictures**

day 2 (thursday june 10th) was a busy day.

my dad wanted us to see some mayan ruins while we were in the mayan riviera.

makes sense, right?

he actually found an lds tour guide named alma who provides a variety of tours to the various ruins throughout the yucatan.  

alma was amazing- she is lds, from mexico city, and part mayan.  

i can't even tell you how much i learned from her.

she had an amazing testimony of the book of mormon.

she knew so much about the mayan history, archeology, and anthropology.

she brought the stories in the book of mormon to life--

that was a real first for me.

if you ever travel to the mayan riviera- book a tour with her or her family. holy moly.  you will leave a much more knowledgeable person with a desire to dive into the book of mormon and learn even more.  i know i won't even come close to mentioning all the things i learned about the parallelisms between the book of mormon stories and the mayan civilizations, but i will do my very best to give you a little intro and you can go to mexico and get the full experience in person :)

almaldstours.us

the tour started bright and early (7am).  we were picked up and drove about 45 minutes to coba. 

my dad chose coba over tulum or chichen itza because it's not as excavated or reconstructed as the others, it has the highest point in all of the yucatan, you can actually climb the largest structure, the ruins are located throughout the jungle, and because you can rent bicycles and ride through the canopies to keep cool :)

 the civilization of coba dates back to 600-900 a.d. and there were an estimated 100,000 people living in its domain.

these are the rickety bikes we rented for the day.  we were so grateful to have them!  not only did they keep us from walking all over the jungle, but they kept us cool and were fun to race!

one of the first things we stopped to see are the ball courts.  the ball game played an important roll in mayan society and most cities had a ball court, which is basically a corridor of two stoned walls.  the game was played between two teams, using only their hips and elbows to get a rubber ball through a hoop.  there are inscriptions and other pieces of art to show that human sacrifice was part of the game.  

this is what we looked like for most of our excursion- everyone huddled around alma as she related the history of the mayan culture and civilizations to the stories of the nephites and lamanites in 3 nephi.  here, she showed us various stelas.  stelas are free-standing stone slabs with engravings on them.  

she then told us about stela #5 which is nicknamed "the tree of life stela".  the stela was found in 1941 and about 10 years later, m. wells jakeman (chairman of archaeology at byu) created a drawing and interpreted the stone as representing "lehi's dream".  the area where the stela was found was at the crossroads of america- an area where it is believed lehi first landed.  the stela is believed to show the tree of life which represents the love of God, happiness, and eternal life; the river representing the barrier of evil between people and happiness; the rod of iron represents the word of God; lehi is believed to be on the left side of the tree, preaching the word of God to his family; sariah is behind him, supporting him; laman and lemuel both have their backs turned to him; and nephi is believed to be to the right of the tree, heading the words of his father.

if you know the story of the tree of life, it is absolutely amazing to see this stela, which is believed to have been carved between 300-100 b.c.  the timing fits to what we believe is the time that lehi brings his family across the ocean to the americas.

the nohoc mul pyramid is the tallest structure in the yucatan at just over 126 feet.  there are 120 steep stairs you can climb to get to the very top.  the view from the top is absolutely amazing- you can see over the jungle canopy for miles and there are unexcavated temple mounts peeking above the trees.

that engraving above the door opening is a carving of the mayan god, the "feathered serpent".  they called it that because it had the ability to live on land and in the heavens.

alma finished the tour by sharing a beautiful testimony on the importance of scripture study in the book of mormon, temple work, and the atonement and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  

she then sang us a song from the children's songbook and the spirit was so strong.

How could the Father tell the world of love and tenderness?

He sent his Son, a newborn babe, with peace and holiness.

How could the Father show the world the pathway we should go?
He sent his Son to walk with men on earth that we may know.

How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death?
He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath.

What does the Father ask of us?
What do the scriptures say?
Have faith, have hope, live like his Son,
Help others on their way.

What does he ask?
Live like his Son.

after spending a few hours at coba, we decided it was time for some grub.  alma took us to a local restaurant where we had a buffet style lunch.  the food was delicious (chicken, pork, fruit, veggies) and the homemade horchata was to die for.  we also gulped down some ice cold coca-cola light.  

after lunch, alma took us to a local cenote.  a cenote is an underground body of water, a sinkhole that was essential to the mayan's survival.  how do you get to the cenote?  you enter through a narrow hole and steep steps that the mayans carved themselves.   the water is a blue green color of unknown depths and there are stalactites of blood red limestone above.  this cenote was absolutely amazing and is a sight that pictures will never do justice.  i have a video of us playing in the water, but that will have to be uploaded at a later time.

that night we had reservations to the seafood restaurant at the resort.  it was delicious and we feasted on shrimp, crab, and lobster.  i also got everyone hooked on the virgin pina coladas- they were to die for!

after dinner we were all exhausted from a full, long day in the sun. we spent a little bit of time walking around the resort, watching the ocean waves crash on the beach in the moonlight, and listening to the musical entertainment for the evening at the amphitheater.

we went to bed early because trent had another full day of mayan ruins planned for friday.

day 3 to come...

mexico in june

we totally went to mexico... 2 months ago.  

i'm just now getting around to posting about it.

the trip was amazing.

my dad organized everything-

think danny tanner from full house

when they went to disneyworld and he gave everyone an itinerary of what they would be doing (that's the same episode where dj imagines seeing her bf steve all over the park and where michelle got chosen to be princess of the day... remember?? )...

anyway,

pretty sure we have our own danny tanner

named trent bringhurst

and while there was no official itinerary, we were on a schedule everyday

up early most days (some 7am days), going here, there, and everywhere

but we're used to good old trent

and we loved everything he planned for us

and all the research he did

and we know had we planned our own vacation to the mayan riviera, we would have missed out on a lot

so, without further ado, i will start the first of many posts about our trip....

day 1:

we left june 9th on an extremely early flight (i think 6:30am?)

headed to phoenix and from there flew to cancun.

our gang was comprised of my mom and dad

older brother, 2 little sisters, 

my uncle bob,

and me and josh.

we were a very excited bunch.

after hours of traveling we finally arrived to the beautiful, sunny, and humid cancun.

an hour and a half later, we made it to our all-inclusive resort (about 15 mins south of playa del carmen).

my dad chose the barcelo mayan for us to stay at and the resort was phenomenal.

tiki huts, water fountains, greenery, flowers, cabanas, hammocks, etc.  

you name it, that place had it.

every detail was perfect right down to to the ash trays.

we felt like we were in paradise.

we wandered the grounds a bit, found our rooms, and got some grub (we were starrrrving)

then, my sisters, josh, and i decided to take a late night dip in the pool

and hung out on the hammocks and listened to the night creatures.

it was amazing and we had only been there for a few hours!

day 2 coming soon....

4 days of the 4th of july

this year's 4th of july was the bomb

we spent the whole time playing with our dear friends and family

we spent friday at the zoo with josh's cousins from cali
and pretty much everyone else in the whole state of utah

(i promise we saw more than just giraffes but all the other pictures i took were on my new camera and i somehow misplaced the cord to download my latest professional-style pictures.  so, you get iphone photos in this post)

we ate lots of fabulous bbq with both of our families

i ran the murray fun days 5k race with my sis laura and my bff chana

(note to self: deciding to run a 5k only 2 days prior and not running for over a month before there race isn't something i want to do again)

but we ran the whole thing, hammed it up and waved to lots of murray parade-goers, and got free popsicles and bagels when it was over

we enjoyed the fabulous murray parade

full of political hopefuls, local pageant queens, and clowns on crack

we got lots of tootsie rolls and neapolitan laffy taffy (my fav)

we had our traditional brunch with the sponbeck family

kent's swedish pancakes melt in your mouth

we had a massive bringhurst carwash

where all 7 cars were cleaned inside and out

and my dad was able to test out his new pressure washer

we did some dutch oven cookin

we headed to the murray park softball field to watch the fireworks

sunday was spent at church and spending the afternoon taking naps

we also had a killer mario kart competition that night

monday morning i attempted to go swimming at lindsey's pool with her, jaynann, and little emma.  little did we know, the pool was closed (maybe a kid pooped in the pool??) so we ended up in jaynann's backyard watching emma play in her cute new plastic pool.

we didn't even care.  sun is sun, and it's just as easy to catch up on the latest news whilst sitting on the grass in a backyard as it is on poolside lounge chairs.

that night we met up with laura and zac, lindsey and cameron, and lindsay, ryan, and reagan for some good old bees fun.  we decided on the grass seats and once the sun when down, the game was quite enjoyable.  best part of the evening?  catching up with my lovelies (especially lindsay because i never see her anymore!).  second best part of the evening?  the firework show.  i love love loved it.  one of the best i've seen in ages!

(lindsey and cameron... you were there, i promise!  i swear i took pictures of you!)

i think having the 4th of july on a sunday is absolutely genius and should happen every single year!

Happy Pioneer day!

We spent the day relaxing at Hyrum dam. Next time we'll bring someone who has a boat :)

winner, winner... steak and crab dinner

let me just tell you a little story...

we have some good friends named katie and rj who we often get together with and have game nights.

we usually have some great food and indulge in some spoon me.

there may or may not even be a trophy involved.

there may or may not be a list of "rules" including things such as "no making fun of mammas" and "no relationship can end in divorce as a result of game nights"

there sure is a lot of competition.

we usually play couple vs. couple....

but...last weekend the boys got the bright idea (bwahahahah) to do

boys vs. girls on Taboo.

if they won, we had to go to Golden Corral for dinner.

(siiiiickkkk)

if we won, they'd have to make us a gourmet dinner....

(a menu of our choosing)

let's just say they spent monday night shopping for groceries and tuesday night cooking away

while katie and i played on our laptops and watched trashy reality television.

the menu?

crabcake hors d'oeuvres

caesar salad

grilled asparagus

red potatoes

steak cooked perfectly

sauteed mushrooms and onions

and for dessert?

bananas foster with ice cream

(delissshhh)

we just may be playing boys vs. girls every week with this kind of reward!

bring it on boys!

"Winner, winner...steak and shrimp dinner!"

we're famous!

go to my sassy blossoms blog...

we're famous!  :)

sassyblossoms.blogspot.com

nerd alert

so this isn't really a big surprise- i am a big fat nerd.  i have always been a good student- spending a great deal of time with my head in textbooks, browsing the internet, going out of my way to get as many hands-on experiences related to my field as i possibly can.

so, when this opportunity presented itself, i was more than thrilled.

i am spending my summer doing an internship at an otoneurologist's office in ogden at mckay dee hospital.  i spent the majority of my time working with the audiologist in the office doing hearing and balance testing, but also spend a great deal of time being taught by the dr.  he absolutely loves students and goes out of his way to show me his unusual cases (which seems to be most of them) and teach me from an otoneurologist's point of view.  i have learned so much more at this off-site than i could have ever imagined.

so one day i was talking to the doctor while looking at mri scans and different case studies, and i mentioned to him how awesome i thought his job was.  he is a neuro-surgeon (and an exceptional one at that) who has been practicing for over 40 years.... he has performed hundreds of surgeries and improved his patients' quality of life... and he loves his work.  i told how awesome i thought surgery was and would love more than anything to see him in action.  

so, bless his cute little old-man heart, he told me he would go out of his way to get me into one of his surgeries.  it would take a lot of hoops to jump through and paperwork to fill out, but he wanted me to have the experience.  

this was such an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime thing for me to watch (and an absolute high-light of my graduate school training), that i thought i'd share it with all my blogging friends.  i'll warn you beforehand... it's a long one!

he picked a patient for me who's case was multi-faceted.  she was an older lady, had a variety of health problems, had dizziness/vertigo issues due to a tumor growing on her auditory nerve called an acoustic neuroma.

we went over what the surgery would entail the day before.  technically, it was called a right temporal bone craniotomy for the removal of an acoustic neuroma.  sounds crazy, right?

the day of the surgery we got to the operating room.  the patient was nervous for the surgery but knew it would be the only thing that would cause her dizzy symptoms to go away.  the anesthesiologist came in and put her to sleep and it was time for us (haha, by us i mean the doctor), to get to work!  the doctor got her head in place, shaved all the hair on the right side of her head around her ear, and marked where his incision would be.

i initially thought me being in the operating room would mean that i would stand in the corner and watch the surgery from afar.  but the doctor had other plans for me.  he had me dress head to toe in scrubs, had me "scrub in" just like he did, and had me sit on a chair right next to him throughout the entire surgery.  he said i needed to experience the full thing and needed to see everything he was doing.  every few minutes he would move over and have me look through his microscope.  he would show me landmarks, muscles, bones, etc.  it was the most hands-on, personalized lesson i have ever had.

the surgery was a long one- it lasted about 8 hours.  but this is what we (he) did:

this may be a little tmi for some people, but for us audiology folk, it is fascinating

1. cut the incision behind the ear and flapped it over.

2. performed a mastoidectomy.

(definition of mastoidectomy: surgery to remove cells in the hollow, air-filled spaces in the skull behind the ear.  these cells are called mastoid air cells).  

this procedure involved a lot of drilling!

3. exposed the middle ear tendons and bones (remember from your health classes the malleus, incus, and stapes?) and removed the incus.  no hearing is saved when this surgery is performed.

4. he showed me each of the components of the vestibular system- the semicircular canals, the saccule,  utricle, endolymphatic sac, and facial nerve (i'm sure only my audiology friends really care about this)

5. performed a labyrinthectomy

(definition of labryrinthectomy: the inner ear balance organ (the labyrinth) is exposed and the semicircular canals are carefully drilled away, exposing the nerve of balance which is completely removed.)

it was crazy watching him just drill away the semicircular canals and pull the saccule out with a little tweezer tool.

at this point i saw the brainstem!  it was pulsing with her heart beat and i also saw some cerebral spinal fluid that also pulsed with her heartbeat.

6. at this point, the tumor was visible.  it was growing right on the 8th cranial nerve (vestibulocochlear nerve) and right up against the 7th cranial nerve (the facial nerve).  aside from all of the drilling, this was the most time-consuming part of the surgery.  the facial nerve controls the muscles of facial expression, taste, and supplies the fibers to the head and neck.  damaging the facial nerve could leave her with facial weakness or even paralysis (definitely not something anyone would want).  so, the doctor was extremely careful pulling the tumor off of the nerve and making sure the facial nerve was untouched.

7. the tumor was removed and looked like a small piece of chicken fat.  it was only about 10 cm long but the doctor said it was a fairly good-sized acoustic neuroma.  the tumor was saved and was sent to the pathologists, but the doctor told me it is extremely rare for these tumors to be cancerous.  most are benign but cause such terrible dizziness and vertigo issues that surgery to remove them are often necessary.

8. now that the tumor was removed, she had a huge hole in the side of her head.  the doctor cut a small piece of muscle tissue from her temporal bone and placed it over the brainstem and the area where the tumor was.  he then cut some fat out of her stomach and stuffed the fat into the large open space.  nothing wrong with a little tummy fat removal if you're already under anesthesia :)

9. the muscular fascia of the temporal bone was then stitched together. 

10.  then it was time to close  up the incision.  it took a whole lot of internal and external stitches to close everything up!

11.  wrapped her head up in a huge turbon-like bandage.

the patient was then taken to the icu.  surgeries like this require about a 3-7 day stay in the hospital.  the doctor told me when the anesthesia wears off, this lady was going to experience some crazy vertigo (and some intense nystagmus, auds).  since she no longer has a hearing or balance system on her right ear, it's going to take her some time for her body to get used to the changes.

so, that was my fabulous day in surgery.  i am so grateful that i had to opportunity to watch it.  we spend so much time reading about these medical conditions and looking at pictures and diagrams in books, but i'm a hands-on gal and it all makes a whole lot more sense when i see it in person.  this day in surgery confirmed to me that i love what i'm studying and while i won't be doing the surgeries myself, i will be working with those who do and i need to know my stuff!