95% Certified.

If you follow me on twitter then you may have seen me post about my scuba classes last week... Although I was apprehensive to give scuba a try, I did and it was fun! Until Saturday....

All last week, Scott and I took scuba classes in preparation for our honeymoon to Honduras in April. I was nervous, excited, and ready to learn. Heck, I've never had any real issues with water so I was like why not.

Let me recap my training.

Monday: Class. Going over chapter reviews.
Tuesday: Pool. Practicing tasks like flooding mask and clearing it, taking regulators out and putting them back in, sharing air with buddy, etc.
Wednesday: Pool. More of what we did Tuesday plus practicing emergency ascent without mask, pretending like we were out of air(in the deep end), sharing air, etc.
Thursday: Class. Took our final exam.

I did all of these things with ease. I scored a 96 on the exam and felt really comfortable with the underwater tasks.

Saturday rolled around and that meant it was time to test our skills in the open water.

What could go wrong, I thought to myself... Welp, a lot.

We arrived at Reveille Peak Ranch in Burnet, Texas. We were using the quarry at the ranch for our test. It's relatively more clear than the lake and we wouldn't have to hike a mile to get in the water. Lake Travis.

Oh and I almost forgot. The water was 54 degrees... That's 14 degrees colder than Barton Springs, for those of your familiar. Basically effing cold!

We wedged ourselves into wetsuits, hood, gloves and boots and jumped in. I'd say there was at least 40 extra pounds strapped to me. I was already feeling a bit claustrophobic with all the extra gear, but nonetheless, survived the first descent, less a nose bleed.

Next up, our second descent. This time we were to descend to the platform, and do some of the tasks preformed in the pool earlier that week. We were told to flood our masks half way, and all the way. These weren't difficult for me. Next we had to take our regulators out and put them back in(all while being underwater 25 ft!!!!). This is where I had a problem. I take the regulator out, go to put it back in, and my mouth doesn't completely seal over it.

I breath in gulps of water and my mask starts to flood. Cue freak out mode.

You can only imagine how I must be feeling. Of course I panic and immediately start to swim to the top, instructor by my side. He's feeding me air bubbles at this point as I'm fleeing upward, trying to breath out the whole way up (at least I remembered that part. You can cause your body a lot of harm when you hold your breath and ascend to the surface.) But of course on the way up I'm trying to get little snip-its of air but I just keep sucking in water. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. I'm tearing up as I write this because I was so frightened!!! :(

Talk about living out a worst nightmare...

I got out shortly after that and just felt like a complete failure. Everyone else had completed all the tasks, and stayed in while I had to get out and sit by myself and warm up.

I guess scuba isn't for everyone especially me! I was really sad afterwards because I felt like I let a lot of people down that were counting on me.(Scott, instructor, other classmates). But in the end, I needed to do what I needed to do, and that was whatever made me feel comfortable. I wasn't comfortable scuba diving. My ears hurt, I had a major scare, three bloody noses, uncomfortable attire, etc. Sadly, it's just not for me.

I think I'll stick to snorkeling...

And to end on a good note...

A funny looking picture of Scott!

I'm very proud that he powered through all of the training and was able to get certified!

Maybe this isn't the end of my scuba experience, but for now, I'll say it is.

That's a fake smile.

I'm back!

After about two hours of catching up on blogs, I'm finally able to write one of my own. I actually have been missing this world while I was on vacation, but I'm back and ready for action. OH, and a very unfortunate event happened, my computer screen won't turn on. Anyone else have that problem?? For the time being, Scott is lending me his MacBook, which is taking a lot of getting used to.

I want to tell you all about my trip! If you didn't know, Scott and I went out for a mini vacation over the weekend to New Mexico. We stayed in between Albuquerque and Santa Fe... I think. We really were in the middle of no where, which is the best part about it! 

The view out there was incredible!

We spent a lot of our time out by the pool reading and getting too much sun. I brought home a sunburn and a burnt scalp, ouch! My darn permipart! There were three pools there, one for relaxing, a family pool that included a slide that we definitely went down 10 times, and a baby pool. If you can guess, we didn't spend anytime at the baby pool.

While we were in New Mexico, we ate sooo much food! But, we were on vacation. That's a valid excuse, right?! Sadly, I didn't get any pictures of the delicious food, but we ate REALLY good. From breakfast buffets, to steak dinners. I was pretty much done with eating towards the end of the trip and stuck with salads. 

We were also were able to take a hike up Sandia Mountain. Boy, was I in for a surprise. OK, my definition of hiking is walking on a flat trail through some trees. Scott's idea of hiking is much different then mine which I soon found out.  

We were just starting, and I could feel the sun starting to warm up. It was around 9:30 and I was feeling good. Fortunately, weather in NM is better than in Texas. You can actually sweat there and it evaporates because there is like zero humidity. It's GREAT! The temperature was still hot, and you become out of breath quickly especially when you're hiking at an elevation your not used to...

But the view was worth it!!! 

Here are some videos we shot on the way up. Sorry, they are shot with my iPhone and I always seem to cover up the microphone when I'm shooting a video, so the sound may be muffled a little bit.

This is Scott's video that he wanted to share...

So, I was not prepared for this, but I'm so glad we went. It was such a beautiful view and such an accomplishment to see how far we went. I was not expecting the trail to be as steep as it was. We ran into a lot of people on the trail that morning, it was a popular spot. Oh and btw, we hiked about 5.5 miles, not 10 ;)

And for the results....

...snack time :)

The hike down took half the time and we were basically running down. There were a few cuss words said, and some slip scares, but we managed to make it down with out hurting ourselves or falling down.

I was sore for three days after the hike, it really worked me. My soreness made me feel less guilty about eating my body weight in breakfast that morning ;)

Look at Scott's cute parents. We got to spend a lot of time with them, they are a HOOT!!! So much fun! I'm very blessed to be a part of their family. That night we wandered around the resort, ventured off to hopefully crash a wedding,(the guys didn't let us), then headed home to pass out. (that was the same day we hiked, I was pooped!)

Our last night we spent with Milo's business partner and his family and traveled to Santa Fe for dinner. Wow, that city was amazing. It has so much character and scenery. I really enjoyed myself there, especially the company!! We eventually made it back to the resort to prepare for our departure the next morning.

 This vacation was just what I needed! So much love, good times and relaxation! 

Peace friends!!

*Brooke*

p.s. Sorry for such a long post, I've been out of the loop for a while!!!

Stephanie & Brooke play day

Yesterday I spent the day with my good friend Stephanie. We are always out doing who knows what. We love to go on nature walks, go geocaching, play yoga, or whatever! She's an easy going gal and we get a long just dandy!


So yesterday we went to a 2:30 yoga session at black swan. Have y'all ever been there? It's really neat if I do say so myself! I'm fairly new to yoga so I've only been a handful of times. I can already tell that I love it. It's really healing, and peaceful. Love that you can go in with a mindful and come out with a clean slate, not to mention what it does for your body. Stephanie is my yoga buddy and she got me to go for the first time. I will say that as a beginner if can be a little intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it will come much more natural. After all, it is your practice, not anyone elses :)

After our yoga session, we headed down to sno beach for a snow cone... I don't usually like to go there because their tigers blood is not real tigers blood. It's a muted red color and tastes really bland! If you can tell, I don't recommend it. I went with regular, safe watermelon. Stepho chose strawberry. I will note that I got my snow cone for free because I started following googleatx on twitter. Don't have to tell me twice :)

cute stepho

Then from there we went to Barton Springs. If you're unfamiliar with the springs, it's a local swimming pool in Austin that is fed by the main Barton spring. It's located in Zilker Park and is open to the public to swim for a whopping $3. It is an Austin landmark and is definitely weird. There's always a good crowd to see, or hear. There's people playing music, "hooping" and sometimes topless... Oh and the water is about 70 degrees aka FREEZING! It's always a great time and SO refreshing, that is if you get the courage to jump in. It will take some build up to get the urge to jump in, but once you do, you won't be sorry...Ok I lied. You will be sorry but only for like 30 seconds :)

Here's to another day in paradise! I love my city.

Where are you from? What are some cool things to do in your city?

*Brooke*