~Officially Certified~

Oh my gosh!!! I'm so glad that I'm finally done...ha! Yesterday I got my official certification (of course I had to go with a temporary one since I leave in 3 days...yes...3...I'm so excited!) Since it takes about a week to get the actual card, all I have is an 8X10 paper saying that I'm good to go. But as long as I don't have to do the hotel certification, I'm down. This weekend was pretty much exhausting. I had 4 dives that had to be done in order to be certified, these dives ranged anywhere from 30 to 40 feet. We had to do all the things that we learned in class, but in much deeper water. The CESA assent was pretty sweet. You start at 20 or so feet, take in 3 breaths, and have to assend to the top breathing out the whole time. You have to assend slowly, so it takes about 30 seconds or so to get to the top, and the crazy thing is, you don't run out of air. Because of the pressure difference, at 20 feet the air in your lungs is compressed, and when you assend, it expands, so the closer to the surface you get, the more air you have. So weird...but it was awesome! I also had to do alot of things that I don't like, but hopefully I will never have to do them again. The crater was awesome but I'm not a huge fan of confined spaces...which is why we're doing the cave dives after the open water stuff. We also bought Randy some good fins yesterday, since that was the thing that was missing from his essential gear. So now we're already to go. We found the dive sites that we're going to do yesterday as well...and they are freakin sweet! This trip has pretty much turned into a diving trip, we are diving 3 out of the 6 days we're there. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be exhausted and run out of room on my camera, but I think it will be worth it. Here's a small preview of what we're going to be doing...and then you'll understand why I'm so excited for this dive!!

~Anniversary~

So today is officially our second anniversary. I cannot believe how quickly time has flown. It seems like just yesterday that we were getting married, but at the same time, it feels like we've been together for a lifetime. Since we have our trip next week, we weren't able to take the weekend off and do anything to extravagant. I had to go up to midway in the morning to complete my certification for diving. I actually dove to 40 feet, which was pretty freakin amazing! Randy had to work in the day, but when he got home we decided to go to dinner at the cheesecake factory. We actually went there last year as well, so perhaps this will become our anniversary tradition. :) The food was good, and the cheesecake was even better! It was nice to spend an evening with just me and him and no interruptions. This year has by far been harder then the first year, but I think we have grown a lot closer because of the trials that we've faced. I'm excited for the future though. I'm so glad that I'm married to my best friend. I don't know what I'd do without him!

~Peter Pan~

Remember a while back when I posted about our trip to Disneyland and how disappointed I was when I found out my favorite ride was closed? Well...Randy and I bought a tribute to my all time favorite ride and after almost a year...I finally had it framed. And it looks awesome! I so love Peter Pan and I'm glad that now I can have a room that I can call Neverland. By the way...the picture doesn't really do it justice. But I love it!!

~The Regulator VS The Snorkel~

Ok...so that last post was more then what I call depressing and I'm sorry for that, so onto something much more entertaining. So the Monday after I found out that I was not longer pregnant, Randy and I went to Scuba Utah to do a Scuba Discovery. Like most people know...I'm pretty much scared to death of water, so I really wanted to test the scuba diving thing before signing up to get certified. It was a blast, and I couldn't believe how easy it was and how relaxed I was. So I signed up. Monday was my first class and pretty much things went pretty easy. The regulator I had was more difficult then the other ones that I had used, so that made things tough (it hesitated before actually delivering oxygen), but besides that, things went well. Wednesday was my second class and it was slightly more difficult. Now this time the regulator I used was perfect...but the exercises that we had to do that were more difficult. One of the first exercises that we needed to be able to do was to switch our regs out with our snorkel while under water (although still at the surface)...yeah...those of you who are thinking this sounds hard...you're SO right! So I take off, swimming across the pool, and I take 2 breaths on my snorkel. I switch to the reg with ease...however, after taking 2 breaths on the reg I go to switch back to the snorkel...and oh yeah...even after attempting to clear it I still get a mouth full of water when I inhale. I choke to the top and try again...and guess what? It happens again. Can I tell you how much fun that wasn't? I just hope that I NEVER have to do that after I certify (which I can't imagine why you would). Needless to say...I hate the stupid snorkel and much prefer the regulator!!! So after that was had to go to the deep end, inflate our BCD's (which are like life vests that you can inflate or deflate depending on whether you want to float or sink) and then take them off, sit on them, lift our hands up so the instructor could see, and then put it back on (keep in mind that your tank of o2 is attached to the BCD so it's pretty darn heavy). So I finally get it off, but because the BCD was too small for me to begin with, I had a really HARD time keeping it under me, so mostly I was sinking...bad. I'm trying to get it back on, and it's just not working, the shoulder straps were so tangled that I couldn't even find them...so I'm kicking and wailing my arms, trying not to drown, and of course the 7 people around me just sit there and watch. By the time I finally got my BCD back on I was like wheezing like I had just finished a soccer game. I never knew that scuba diving was such an aerobic sport. ha! Anyway, although some of the exercises are super tough, the scuba diving part is so awesome and I can not wait to go in Mexico! It's going to be awesome...hopefully similar to this!!