Mobile Monday

A cute boy playing Legos

Larry had two helpers while packing up the car for our trip to Hoodsport, WA

That's a Seattle sign through the rain...

The hubby doing self service gas

The dive shop in Hoodsport, WA

Scuba Certification

We did classroom and pool training for two weeks...

Then this weekend it was time for the real deal! 

We left Friday after work for Hoodsport, WA.  We stopped at some rinky dink Denny's to have dinner and were back on the road.  We ended up lost...very lost.  We ended up in Aberdeen, WA.  We finally figured out how to get to Hoodsport and got pulled over 3 minutes before arriving there.  The policeman must have felt sorry for us because we just got a warning.  Larry was going 56 in a 45.  We were so tired after driving for 6+ hours, but we finally found our hotel and went straight to bed.

Our hotel room...

On Saturday we had to be to the dive shop by 8:30.  We got our tanks and headed to Sund Rock.  It was sunny out and not as cold as I was expecting. 

Our first dive was mainly an exploration dive to get used to the water and to get used to equalizing our ears every few minutes.  Larry and I had an instructor (Curt) all to ourselves and I held Curt's hand the whole time!  LOL!  I had to tap him a few times to say that my ears weren't equalizing so he would hold me up a few feet until they did.  It was the coolest thing EVER!  Jelly fish, purple and orange star fish against the blue/green water, mushroom looking orange and white things coming up from the bottom, anchors on the bottom, a crab, and lots of fish are mainly what I saw.  We went down to around 45 feet.  When we came up, I heard Curt say something (it's hard to hear with water in your ears and a hood on) about I needed water in my mask.  I pulled my mask off and there was blood in the nose portion of it.  Larry came up at this time and was concerned.  Curt explained it was normal and that a blood vessel in my nose had broken. 

We got out of the water for about an hour, ate some snacks, and took a few pictures of us gearing up for our next dive...

In our wetsuits only

In all of our gear

Our second dive consisted of several skills we had to complete to become certified.  We had Curt again as our instructor which I was very thankful for because I felt comfortable with him.  We had to partially fill our mask with water and clear it by blowing out our nose, fully fill our mask and clear it, fin pivot (lay on the bottom and fill our BCD just a little with air to bring your chest off the bottom), recover our regulator (take the thing that gives you air out of your mouth, blow bubbles as you can NEVER hold your breath, get it back in your mouth, clear it, and breath again), and breath through an alternate air source (I have to take my regulator out of my mouth and use Larry's alternate one to breath).  I did all of these things pretty easily!  This whole process maybe took 5-10 minutes for both Larry and I to complete.  After we finished our skills, we did some more exploration and I held Curt's hand the whole time again.  We went down to about 50 feet.

After the second dive we were finished for the day.  We dropped our tanks off at the dive shop to be re-filled and then went back to our hotel where they had dive lockers for all of our gear.  We got our gear all situated and went back to our room.  I took a shower to get the salt water off, then Larry did.  We went to Mexican for a late lunch/early dinner.  We looked around at the dive shop, drove around a bit, then went back to our hotel.  We took a 2+ hour nap waking up around 7:30 p.m.  We watched some t.v. and snacked and went back to bed around 10:00 p.m.

The dive shop in Hoodsport

Sunday we woke up to do it all over again....we had to check out of the hotel and be back to the dive shop at 8:30 again to pick up our tanks that were re-filled with air.  We had to get all of our gear back in the car first!

  It was cooler and the water was 46 degrees.

 

This is the ramp we walked down to enter the water.  You can see a diver in the water and two divers getting ready to enter the water.

Our first dive of the day was doing a tired diver tow and cramp removal for our buddy which was very easy for me.  The other skills included a full mask fill and clear, a fin pivot where you have to orally fill your BCD (meaning you have to take your air out of your mouth, blow bubbles, and then blow air into your vest until your chest rises off the bottom, going back and forth from your regulator to the BCD), and a CESA ascent (we had to go up 20 feet exhaling the whole time).  I was happy to have Curt again as our instructor and I did well.  Denise, another instructor then took us out and about to explore.  I didn't care for this dive as much because I wasn't holding Curt's hand (LOL!) and it was very hard to see.  I was trying to hold Larry's hand, but knocked his regulator (his air) out in the process.  He kind of pushed me away from him so he could get his regulator back in his mouth which ticked me off, but I hadn't realized I had done that.  We got to the surface where we had to take off our weight belt and put it back on.  I'm pretty sure my weight belt is 30 lbs.  It was impossible and I was almost in tears.  I finally got it though!  Denise was a big help and calmed me down.  I had to take off my BCD too (vest with tank) and put it back on which I did pretty easily.  I was beyond tired and cold by this time so I was happy to reach the shore.

We snacked for a bit and then we had a lesson on how to use a compass.  Our 4th dive consisted of swimming on the surface with our snorkel to a point using our compass, mask removal/putting it back on/clearing it, hovering (meaning only using air in your BCD to keep you a few feet off the bottom and no kicking or arm movement), and then using a compass underwater to get to a point and come back to our instructor underwater.  While waiting in about chest deep water to do all of these skills a seal came within 10 feet of Larry and I.  Crazy and cool all at the same time.  We did the above skills with no problems.  I was most concerned with the mask removal, but I did it.  Denise helped us with our skills and then Tina took us out to explore one last time.

When we got back to shore we had paperwork to do....all the instructors had to sign our dive logs and we had to sign our paperwork to finish up our certification.  We loaded up our gear and headed home.  

We stopped at some Country Cafe in some town in Washington to eat and get gas, but other than that we were ready to come home.  Once we got home, Larry got our gear rinsed, I started laundry, and then it was time for relaxation.

Very exhausting weekend, but fun too. 

Eleven

It's our eleven month anniversary!

Here are eleven family pictures...
as you can see it's hard to get us all to look in the same direction!

Growing up too fast...

How did the baby in the picture (taken June 10, 2001) become the snorkeling boy (taken March 25, 2010)so fast?

Mobile Monday

Kitteh sitting like a human under the computer desk with his paw covering up his business...

A new white board/calendar...already extremely helpful

Scuba gear in the car

The boys were in California with their Dad last week

They are at Universal Studios here...

Cool personlized paper that my Mom ordered.

I LOVE personalization!

My hubby has gone all domestic this week.  He made this cherry pie in addition to grocery shopping, carpet cleaning, dishes, cleaning/organizing our scuba gear, rearranging furniture, etc.!

Photo book

Last night I got busy and created a photobook of our cruise.

It took forever, but I'm really excited with what I came up with. 

Here is the link to view the photobook:  CLICK HERE TO SEE MY PHOTOBOOK!

Pro pics from the cruise

Mobile Monday

We are going back a bit here to catch up a little...

Boys becoming airport professionals....

Sunburnt son sleeping on ship

Someone got another tattoo

The book I'm reading right now...

Update

I feel so behind...with everything.  We got back from vacation and I had three days before going back to work.  I thought I would be able to get caught up on laundry and get back into the swing of things, but that didn't happen.  I ended up sick....so sick.  I eventually went to the Doctor where I was diagnosed with Bronchitis and my left ear drum had hemhorraged.  I haven't been able to miss work and I've been working a lot.  I've already worked 32 hours this week and I have Thursday and Friday to go!

My boys are heading to the L.A. area to go to Disneyland and Universal Studios with their Dad.  I already miss them, but know they will have a good time.  It's kind of good timing though because Larry and I have started our scuba diving classes.  We had orientation the other night and it's exciting and a bit nerve wracking at the same time.  Later this month, we will be in Hoodsport, Washington diving in the Hood Canal!  I've booked our room so it's official...no backing out!  We have to do 4 dives in two days to become certified and one of them is 60 feet deep!  How many people can say they have gone 60 feet under water???

This is where we will be staying in Hoodsport...

The one thing that is getting me through all of this sickness (I'm pretty sure Larry has Bronchitis and the boys have had nasty colds) and craziness is the fact that Larry and I have another vacation coming up.  Just him and I.  I loved vacationing with my family and the boys, but some time just the two of us is much needed.  We were lucky enough to use our time share and find super cheap airfare!  We are considering the trip our belated honeymoon/1 year anniversary trip. 

This is where we are staying.  I look at this picture when I'm feeling especially overwhelmed...

Happy Easter!

Carson's basket with a Bakugan toy, Captain Underpants book, and candy!

Adam's basket with Galactic Heroes, a doodle book, colored pencils, and candy!

I put together these candy packages for Trish and Nate

I thought this flashback was worthy of being posted....

Carson's first Easter in 2001