Birthday Weekend and a Certification

I'm Scuba certified!

I don't have any cool pictures to show you from the actual dive.  My underwater camera is only good to 30 feet.  I thought that was plenty when I bought it, because I was planning to use it for snorkeling, and I was confident that I would never free dive to 30 feet while snorkeling.

For our final dive, we just had a few more things to pass off.  We had to simulate an emergency ascent from 20 feet (You pretend you're out of air and ascend to the top while exhaling the whole way, so that your lungs don't explode.)  We also had to take off our mask and put it back on at 20 feet.

Then he let us have about 25 minutes to dive doing whatever we want.  He said that was our final exam.  He was watching us and he told us the biggest thing he's watching is to make sure that we're aware of our buddy and things like how much air our buddy has left.

Robyn and I explored all of the fun things that are down in the depths at the Crater.  There is a wagon wheel at about 35 feet.  There's a ring you can swim through around 40 feet.

Our certification allows us to go to 60 feet, but when our instructor signaled that our time was up, Robyn and I had only worked our way down to 48 feet.  So that's the deepest I've ever been.

But it was soooo cool!  I'm so excited to do some real dives!  We told our instructor that we're going to the Caribbean next summer, but we want to do some local dives with him first.  He said he's doing a trip to Sand Hollow reservoir in a few months.  Maybe by then I'll have a camera that can go diving.

Anyway, since Robyn's birthday was last week, we decided to have a little romantic getaway at the Homestead Resort (where the Crater is located) to celebrate.  Basically, we'll use anything as an excuse to take a trip.

So here are a few of the highlights of our short little getaway.

It was pretty darn cold, but I got Robyn to bundle up and go exploring with me in the snow.  (That's how much she loves me.)  Isn't she so cute all bundled up?

These were the lights on the front porch of our suite.  It thought the icicles were epic.  Part of me wanted to break them off and pretend they were swords.  But the part that wanted to leave them and let them grow prevailed.

There is a little Mexican place in Midway that I love.  We tried to go there for dinner, but I guess in small towns restaurants just close when their owners need a vacation.

Everything was totally frozen except for this little duck pond.  I'm pretty sure it had to be heated because there was no ice in it at all and there was steam rising from it.  It was like a little duck spa.

Hidden under the snow lurked an evil that never sleeps.  That's right, there was a golf course.

These little ice tepees had little fountains on top of them spraying a fine mist so that over time it formed this coolness.  

This is what Robyn does on vacation.  It was super fun to get cozy next to the fire after being outside in the cold.

It was a pretty fabulous weekend.  Robyn's birthday and Scuba certification worked together well to give us a solid excuse to have a getaway.  It will be a long time before we take another trip.  It's nearly a full 2 weeks before we fly to California for Christmas.

Fourth Anniversary

Robyn and I just had our fourth anniversary.  Four years doesn't seem like a very long time, but somehow I can't really remember what life was like without her.

We wanted to take some kind of short trip for our anniversary.  Robyn got two days off for fall break, so we didn't have tons of time.  We decided that the time we did have should be spent relaxing and not travelling.  Thus, we decided to go to the far off land of Midway.  (The little town on the other side of the mountains from us, not the little island halfway between Hawaii and Japan.)

We drove through the Alpine Loop, on the way there.  It is a little area that connects two canyons and takes you to some excellent vantage points to oversee the many colors of the trees as they change for autumn.

Many of the trees had already dropped their leaves, but I love the golden color sprinkled throughout.
Also, you should note that Robyn's classic pose remains the same, even though it is autumn.

On the way we saw this sign.  I like to take pictures like this, so that you can all know of the dangers we faced.

We didn't get through the entire loop, however.  We saw a sign that directed us to Midway.  So, we took a "shortcut".  It did turn out to be less miles, but I don't think we saved any time.  It turns out that you can go a lot faster on paved roads.  I kept worrying that the road would end at some private property or something, and we'd have to go all the way back and around.  But we did successfully get there, even though it was a bumpy ride.

We stayed in an awesome little resort called The Zermatt.  The Swiss style allowed us to pretend we were in Switzerland. (Which is our second favorite place on Earth behind Hawaii.)  Upon arriving, the first thing I noticed was that this accordion playing bear must have had debts with Jabba the Hutt.

We got up to our room, and it was super nice.  There was a fancy bed with billions of pillows.  (You should know of my love for pillows.  Some places are severely lacking, but this place was not.)  It even had a nice balcony type deck that we could go outside and enjoy the view.  Of course, the moment we went out on to our little deck, Robyn noticed this bug:

"That bug is ruining my relaxation!" - Robyn

I took her back inside, where she was safe from being touched by nature.

During our stay at the resort, our primary job was to relax.  But we did a few other things while we were there.

We played wizard's chess.

 finishing off the king after a checkmate

We went on some walks around the area.

We had to brave all sorts of dangers.

We went to the Crater, which is an underground hot spring that you can swim/float in.

We look super precious

This child kept looking down from the hole above us.  I kept waving at him and Robyn kept being embarrassed that I was waving.

We also got massages.  This is not pictured because A)We didn't bring our cameras to the spa and B)The massages involved nudity, which would be awkward.

But most importantly, we ate lots of good food.  This is not pictured because Robyn would be embarrassed to have me admit how many pictures I took of food over our short little vacation.

It was a short, but very relaxing trip.  Happy Anniversary my love! (If you are not my love, you don't have to read that last sentence.  But you are welcome to, if you like.)