I Did It

Wow these last few days were crazy days. Our first day down at the dive center I felt pretty good… until we were under water. I didn’t mind the ocean. I didn’t mind the depth. I didn’t even mind the fish. It was just the irritations with my mask. Trust me, you want to be able to see while you are under water, and getting water in my mask is just the worst thing. To top it all off, the sunscreen and salt water mixture burned my eyes like crazy. By the time we were done I felt worse, not better and dreading the next two dives with a weird kind of panic.

And then the next two came and went. Cory so kindly let me use his mask which made a world of difference. The dives were easy, I was more relaxed, and they were almost a little enjoyable. They were done, I felt relief, we finished our course. Hooray.

And then Cory decided that we should take an excursion to a nearby island and do TWO real recreational dives. Oh dear….

I swallowed hard, we booked the trip. And yesterday we spent a couple hours in the deep blue ocean.

I was so nervous! But before I knew it we were going down, down, down. We hit a depth of forty feet. And yet the top of the water always seemed to be right there. The clarity was astounding. As long as my equipment was not bothering me, I felt rather relaxed. It is a pretty neat experience, being weightless and just floating along. We saw all sorts of amazing sea life. We even touched some of the crazy animals (under the supervision and encouragement of our dive master of course).

Never in my life would I have thought that I would allow other eyes to behold the awkwardness that these pictures are. But then again, never in my life would I have thought that I would become a certified scuba diver… so there is that.

So, having said that, I am going to post these crazy pictures that Cory and I took over the week in all of our underwater adventures. It is definitely not my best look…. But few people in the world can achieve that awkward look at the bottom of the ocean. So there it is. And so, because I am actually rather proud of this accomplishment, I am going to give you a little peak at the wet suit, mask, regulator fashion statement….

April Recap

Spring has officially sprung! We have been graced by the wonderful sunshine in the mountains I call home. I know I must sound quite redundant but wow, this year is just flying by. April went by in a quick succession of happy and busy moments. It is just life. And a happy life indeed. 

Here are a few of our highlights of the lovely month of April:

-Cory celebrated his 28^th birthday. Crazy… and to think we started dating when he was a little boy of nineteen. For his birthday we stayed the night at our resort in Anaheim along with my parents. Cory’s parents met us at Disneyland and we all had such a wonderful day together.

-We spent A LOT of time driving up and down the hill for our scuba class. Still totally freaked out by this. But I am conquering it!

-I studied a lot and took my last exam before starting my teaching program. Yay!

-I bombed my parents little anniversary getaway to Palm Springs (am I a terrible daughter???) for one night. We had a lovely time talking and enjoying the sunshine.

-And last but most definitely not least…. We began our trip to the Dominican Republic!!! More on that wonderful adventure later.

A Few More Pictures of Our Adventures

We are just getting ready to head off on our diving adventure to the island of Catalina. I just wanted to post a few more pictures of the fun we are having.

 Sometimes we have romantic, quiet dinners on our balcony. 

The peacock is a resident around here, roaming around the resort all day long. There are several females, but I have only seen this one beautiful male.

This is on the "other side of the tracks". We are eating off the resort and mixing with the locals. It gets a little sketchy every now and then, but it is fun to see the culture.

And we had coconuts fresh from a tree yesterday! One of the maintenance men was climbing the trees and picking coconuts and he brought one to both Cory and I. They are totally different than the ones you find in the states. Cory drank the milk, but he couldn't even eat the flesh because it was so slimy (he is a texture person). It really was quite weird... in the picture of my eating it, you can see it hanging off my eating utensil (which was part of the shell that the guy hatchetted off for me... so cool).

This train takes people to and from the beach all day long. It is a nice little walk, but a fun little drive as well.

Hello From Paradise

Punta Cana is amazing. I am not going to take the time tonight to expound upon the amazingness (I know that is not really a word) that this place is. It is just breathtakingly beautiful, perfectly warm (at all hours of the day), and altogether wonderful. We are truly having the most wonderful time.

As of yesterday I am officially a certified open water scuba diver. It has been quite an experience. I will have to post later about all of our adventures... both underwater and above.

For now a few beautiful pictures will have to suffice to give you a little glimpse into this paradise we are enjoying.

5 Things I Love About Flying

1.Snacks. I don’t even mean the snacks they give you. I mean… whenever you are going on a plane you make a stop at Trader Joes and load up on all of your favorite snacks. I am sure the subconscious logic goes something like this, “hey, you are going to need something to do in case Les Miserables is enumerating yet again on the history of the cloister… EAT!” Am I alone in my principles here?

2.The excited feeling you get in the pit of your tummy that you are going on an adventure. You could be heading to Europe, the tropics, a wedding, or even home…. But for me, wherever I am going, it is somewhere I want to be and therefore relish the anticipation.

3.Activities. It may seem funny, but ever since I was little I have thought it was so much fun to pack all of the fun activities I was going to do on the plane. Cards, soduku, movies, books… it is just fun to have that chunk of time set aside to doing any of those things you want. And I am sure rummy is all the more fun when accompanied by the aforementioned feeling of adventure.

4.Being with someone you care about. Whether you are sitting next to each other or one in front of the other. It is fun to pop your head over the seat and catch each other’s eyes full of excitement, or squeeze the knee next to you fifteen times because you are overflowing with anticipation. Sharing the experience. All of the little things.

5.The people you see. Now I am not one who is going to enter into a lengthy conversation with a stranger. However, I do like watching people. Observing where they are going, where they are coming from, the walks of life they are in. Cory and I like to try to figure out what people’s story is. The airport is one of the best places to do that (especially when you are flying internationally).

How do you feel about flying?

Thoughts From the Airport Floor

For days I have had a weight on me. A silly one, one that I could intellectualize my way through… but a weight nonetheless.

I have problems…. I know. The other week when Cory and I were reminiscing about Europe I said, “why do we even make memories anyway?” I wasn’t really serious. And I know it sounds ridiculous. But I just sometimes feel like we plan these amazing experiences, make these great memories, and then what do we have but a memory? A feeling that a time which you loved so much has passed. A feeling of panic that the poignancy of the grand memory will fade.

It’s silly, I know. Because what would life be if we didn’t go from memory to memory?

Today I had kind of a weird feeling of deja vu. Cory and I packed up our bags, closed up the house, printed off our boarding passes, checked fifteen times for our passports, said goodbye to the family, and headed off on an adventure.

Next week marks one year since we did all of those same things in preparation for our European tour. And today we went through the same motions. We parked our car at the same place, got on a bus, sat at the airport, and, feeling giddy with excitement, talked about all of the fun things we were going to do.

Oh life. What a crazy and wonderful thing it is. These are just the ramblings of a girl from the floor of an airport in the middle of the night. Really.... its a happy place to be.