Guatemala Day #2

Today was our first day at the dental clinic.  I had to leave the hotel at 7:00 am to get all the registration material set up and ready for the first group of kids that were coming.  Jon & Brianna left the hotel and arrived at the church at 9:00 am.  The dental clinic is set up at a Stake Center.  It is amazing to walk in and see the church completely set up like a clinic.  They have taken over the entire church including the chapel.  They have removed the benches and set up tables and everything they need.  It was a little hectic at times trying to get the routine down and learn all that we needed to with our different jobs.  I especially have a hard time because I don't speak Spanish.  I'm the first one they come to and I have to ask them questions and it is hard not speaking their language.  There are interpreters all over to help us when we need them.  I work with a girl named Larissa who does speak Spanish so that has been a great help.  We worked hard all day until 8:00 pm when we loaded the buses and came back to the hotel.  We saw a total of 91 patients today.

This is where I sit most of the day and check each person in.  We have to check their papers they have filled out and then send them to the right area.  They get haircuts, pictures, go to the Dr. for a physical and blood work and then they go to the dental area.

Brianna is taking x-rays.  This is set up right in the chapel.  They have 5 chairs that are all designated for x-rays.

Here is where they are trained on dental hygiene and how to properly take care of their teeth. 

Here is where Jon works all day long.  He sees the patients after they have had oral surgery.  He has to make sure their bleeding has stopped and they have instructions on how to take their medication.  Most of the patients do pretty good.  This is a boy named Henry.  He had a little bit of a rough time.  He was in the recovery room for 2 hours.  As you can see his white shirt is stained a little red.  He had some bleeding problems.  He would not bite down on the gauze like he was suppose to so he just kept on bleeding and gagging.  We will never forget Henry!

This is the view from the back of the church building we are working out of.

Guatemala Day #1

 Jon, Brianna & I left today for our humanitarian trip.  We are going to be spending 10 days in Guatemala with a group called "Smiles for Guatemala".  We are here with 125 other people preparing future missionaries for their missions.  They are able to get their picture taken, haircut, physicals & any dental work they need.  They have me working on the registration part.  Brianna is an x-ray assistant taking x-rays and Jon is working in the oral surgery recovery room. 

Waiting in line at the Salt Lake airport.  We were assigned five 50 lb. duffel bags filled with humanitarian things to check on the airplane.  We were able to just bring all of our personal things in a carry-on. 

Leaving Houston on our way to Guatemala

Getting our instructions on where to take our luggage.  They loaded all the humanitarian bags on a big truck and then we loaded on buses to go to the hotel.

We were the first ones on this bus so we got the very last row! We had to hold our luggage on our laps.

The view we had from the back seat

Junior Prom

Heidi has been serving as the Junior class secretary this year so one of the main things they have had to do is plan prom.  She has spent a lot of time making sure everything was ready and done for the night.  She was excited for the night to come and I think a little relieved for it to be over.

She looked so beautiful in her dress.  It is so hard to see her growing up so fast! 

She was so excited to get a picture of her sparkle "Toms"

Heidi and Brett

The Junior Class Presidency

Spring Break In St. George

Jon was able to finally get Spring break off with us so we decided to head to St. George with the family for the week.  We were busy all week doing lots of fun things.  The weather was beautiful and we had a great time with our kids.  Brianna even came down for a few days with her friend Cassie.  It was fun to have them for a few days with us.

One day we drove to Zion National Park and did some hikes.  We had to split up into two different groups since Caleb still couldn't do very hard hikes.  Jon took all the girls and did "Angel's Landing".  They said it was a fun hike but scary in some parts.  The pictures below show what they hiked.  The boys and I just went and did a little hike to some waterfalls and then met back up with them.

Here they are at the top of the climb!

We took our bikes with us and rode down Snow Canyon a few times.  Jack had just learned to ride a bike before we left for St. George, he was so excited to go for rides.  He rode all over the gated housing community that we were staying in.  It was perfect for him to just be able to ride around.  

We rented this Razor and spent a day climbing up some slick rock and sand dunes.  It was a lot of fun just going all over the rocks.  We even drove it to some dinosaur tracks that were in some of the rock formations.

This was an adventurous day that we spent in the car.  We drove for 65 miles on a dirt road to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  It was such a spectacular view once we got there.  Words can't describe how amazing it was.  I was a little nervous with the kids and kept a tight hold of Jack the whole time we were there.

Jon thought it would be fun to lay down on their bellies and look over the edge!  I say they were crazy!

We spent most of the afternoons that we weren't hiking or biking at the pool.  The kids had a great time running from the pool to the hot tub all day long.

The day we left was Easter so the kids had to search the house for their Easter bags that the Easter bunny had hid for them!  Some of them had a hard time finding their bags.