Happy Birthday Little Sis!

Julia’s no ordinary girl.

She is the only girl who can wear a backwards hat, with a dress, and oversized heelies and still looks adorable.

She is the only girl I know that can watch an entire movie while standing on her head.

She is the only girl I know who doesn’t stop talking or moving from the time she wakes up until she goes to bed.

She is the only girl I know that loves anything to do with animals (clothes, books, and movies).

She is the only girl I know who snorts when she laughs.

She is the only girl I know that almost EVERYONE loves to be around.

She is the only girl who has more friends than I can count.

Julia.. You are one of a kind girl. You have been such a blessing in my life… I hope you had fun celebrating your “New York Birthday” with us. Keep being the charming girl that you are. I am excited to watch you grow up and see all the amazing things you’ll do.

Family Time!

This hasn’t been the easiest time in my life but it has been one of the most rewarding. I guess that is how life works… what you put into it, is what you get out! Trying to keep up with these workaholic New Yorkers is hard work. It has really given me a new perspective on life. I have a passion for the work I am doing but it comes with a lot of sacrifice. Sleep, watching TV, and down time is nothing but a distant memory now. All of it is worth it when I see a student smile because she finally understands it or when a beaming 3rd grader reads a story he wrote to the class without any stuttering or mistakes.

Sometimes I keep motivated by living in the moment but also by looking forward to different events. We have been trying to see the east coast on the weekends before it gets too cold. I have also been looking forward to the visit from my family.

They came last weekend and I loved every moment. I love my family so much! I am thankful they made the sacrifice to come and see us. It was hard to let them go after such a fun visit! We took them around to see what our life was like in NYC.

Robert brought them to my school on Friday to see what it was like. I think they were shocked and worried for my life but my parents keep saying how inspiring the teachers seemed and how cute the kids were… and they ARE dang cute! I couldn’t tell what Julia was thinking but see seemed very intrigued by all the kids but wouldn’t let go of my Dad’s hand.

They stayed in our little apartment with us. They loved the view and Julia loved my “cat chair” where she slept every night! We showed them around Columbia’s campus and hospitals. On Sunday they came to our ward and meet some of our friends. My parents also spoiled us with Wicked and Mary Pippins tickets!!! It was amazing.

We were sad to see them go but hope they come and visit again and we’ll see them at Christmas! Thanks again Mom, Dad, and Julia! We love you guys this (arms wide open) much! 

Time square was so crowded this weekend. It was fun to see all the stores. I bought Julia a New York sweatshirt and hat. She looked pretty ... New York! I also took her into Sephora and put makeup on her!! She looked grown up!

Waiting for the Subway! It was so much fun just to talk and catch up on life! It was fun to be with my dad.. i miss all our daddy-daughter talks!
Hanging out with my favorite girls in Central Park. Julia loved Central Park because of all the cool looking dogs.. she is an animal lover.
My parents took us to Wicked! It is my favorite Broadway next to Les Mis! Julia knew most of the words to the songs and was super excited when they sang "Popular". She loves that song! Even Robert thought is was great!!!
Robert and Julia chillin on the subway!
Julia sleeping in her "cat bed".

Its official … We love the east coast! Fall has always been my favorit time of the year but this trip sealed the deal.On Saturday Robert and I took a train to Albany where we met up with my grandparents. We stayed with them in their time share and enjoyed the ‘breathe taking New England Leaves’. I have never seen so many beautiful reds, oranges, yellows and greens. The changing leaves stretched for miles.

We also made a trip to Boston where we visited my beautiful cousin Erin. She showed us around all the historical and must see sights of Boston. We had Monday off for Columbus day so we all drove down to Cape cod. We enjoyed the beautiful beach and ate some fresh fish.
Thanks Grandma, Kendall and Erin. We loved every minute of it and can’t wait to see you guys at Christmas!

Amtrack Train


We ate the famous Red Lion Inn. It was built in the 18th centry and has lots of Norman Rockwell paintings. It was so cute.. it looked like the house right out of Anne of Green Gables!


New England Leaves!



Boston




Cape Cod

Providence, Rhode Island

A little late but I wanted to post some pictures of our weekend get-away to Providence, RI. It was our first time out to the city in 3 months. It was a well needed trip. Providence was beautiful with all the shore lines and changing leaves. I also wanted to thank David and Laverle for a beautiful and relaxing weekend. They were so generous to give us a tour of the Prov. Between David's jokes and Laverle's incredible cooking we are tempted to go back often!!

Vanderbilt Mansion

Killer view from the Vanderbilt Mansion

Having lunch with David and Laverle

The Boys.... being boys!

Making ourselves comfortable on the porch of our dream mansion!


Loving Life!!!

The inspiring view from David and Laverle's home.

Thanks again Ward family for an amazing weekend! We love you guys.

Good Times, Good Times

So our lives have officially hit a new level of craziness. Robert had his first big test this week and studied like a mad man all day and night! But he did amazing! Not to mention he was able to accompany a surgeon on his private jet to Indiana to do a heart transplant. He said that it was an intense experience. I wish I could have gone except I probably would of passed out during surgery.. no joke! For anyone who knows Robert and his reputation for loosing things, you will be humored by the fact that when he was transporting the heart back to NYC the surgeon asked him where the cooler (heart) was, Robert didn’t remember where he put it. Moments later he remembered that the nurse had taken it to be iced. He thought it was pretty funny. I love my dear husband but should I be worried!! jk
It has been a learning and growing experience so far and we still have a lot of learning and growing to come. The longer we are in New York the more we fall in love with it. We found out that there is a pedestrian lane on the George Washington Bridge so Robert and I have been running a crossed it often. It is nice to have the view of New York City to distract you from the pain of running :)! On the other side of the bridge in New Jersey is a big park with huge trees and cliffs. When you are there you forget you are in NYC. There were even deer in the park!!
We enjoyed having Justin and Becca Hewitt out for a visit. They stayed with us for a couple of days and we loved seeing familiar faces. We went around with them to some of the cites and went and saw Greece on Broadway.. it was great …I highly recommend it!
The most excited news yet is that Robert and I were made Aunts and Uncles for the second time in 2 months! Robert's sister Sarah had a beautiful little girl. They named her Karlie Sarah Harris! We are excited to visit them in Virginia for Thanksgiving so we can love and spoil her.

Robert's First Post

My disclaimer: This is my first experience blogging. Lindsay encouraged me to stretch myself and become a more well rounded man so here I go.

Med school has been amazing and overwhelming experience. I have enjoyed everything about it (cutting open cadavers, learning about diseases, and meeting patients). Although it can also be very overwhelming when I think about all the responsibility attached to the title of MD. I guess that is why I have about ten more years of training.
Life is very fulfilling when you are helping people, doing what you love, and being with who you love. Lindsay and I have spent some great times together and enjoy being out on our own. She is really incredible. I visited her school on Friday and realized how much disparity there is in NYC. People range from extremely rich to astronomically poor. Lindsay has decided to help bridge that gap through providing a quality education to underprivileged children in Brooklyn. The neighborhood around the school is rough to say the least. There are a lot of drug busts and gang shootings in the area but amongst all the signs of failure, Lindsay has a classroom full of children with hope.
It was a touching experience to go and meet her colleagues. It is great to see first hand that people can make a difference and give back to something greater than themselves.

Here are some pictures of our weekend (Mets game with some New York Friends, Lindsay's school)

Life in the Big Apple

We have lived here for a little over a month now it still hasn’t sunk in that we live in New York City and will be…. for 4 years! I guess it is because we have been too busy to notice. But so far, so good. This is what a normal day in the city looks like for me:

5:00 am- Alarm goes off
5:05 am- Second alarm goes off and I wake up
5:23 am- My devoted, supportive husband walks with me to the subway stop
5:25 am- We say good morning to our doorman and he replies every morning the same way “you two look way too happy for 5:30 in the morning!” and we give him a polite courtesy laugh.
5:33 am- I catch the express train to Brooklyn; if I miss this train I can kiss being on time goodbye
5:40 am- Open my current reading material and read, ready, and ready (currently reading: Nobody Don’t Love Nobody; story about an inner-city teacher.)
6:20 am- Switch to the “L” train where I am accompanied every morning by a crazy guy in all white who preaches to anyone that’ll listen. He is mad but occasionally has some insightful thoughts!!
6:25 am- Get off the train and walk as fast as my legs will move down one of the sketchiest neighborhoods in New York.
6:30 am- Teach my guts out.
5:00 pm- Look at my clock and can’t believe that the day is over and it is time to go home.
5:30 pm- Return home on the subway. It’s rush hour so massive amounts of people cram into each subway car. I am entertained by peoples’ conversations… usually about politics or…. Politics.
6:30 pm- Cook dinner… yeah you read correctly… I COOK!!!
7:30 pm- Robert comes home and we usually go work and a maybe a
-walk through central park
8:30 pm- sit in my favorite chair by the window overlooking the Hudson and debrief
9:00 pm- Shower and go to bed

The weeks go by extremely fast. Robert and I both love what we are doing. He is really busy with studying and is getting involved in free clinics, research, shadowing doctors and is actually playing a little Columbia rugby. We don’t see each other much during the week but savor the weekends and the time we do spend together. It is a good time in life for both of us and we are enjoying the adventures of chasing our dreams and being on our own. We have met some amazing people that will most likely by life long friends.

Here are some pictures of out weekend endeavors :

Robert cooking me dinner



Hanging out at Central Park




This was at Jones Beach on Long Island over Labor day. It is only an hour train ride from our house and it was a beautiful beach. The waves were huge and Robert was lovin' life! We were excited to find such a great beach and so close to where we live!