Did You Hear the Helicopter Dropping Me Off That Night for Our Anniversary Dinner? No. Oh, Percussion Grenades. I was Partially Deaf That Evening

Ideally, celebrating our wedding anniversary would be as big and daring as getting married. I want us to do things we've never done before! I want to get our adrenaline pumping! I want to watch the sunrise from a hot air balloon, hundreds of miles in the air. I want to ride tall and fast roller coasters or go hang gliding over a cliff. One year Drek and I went horseback riding up in the mountains, and that was wonderful. Two years ago I had scheduled us to go skydiving, but by the time our anniversary rolled around I was pregnant so we had to cancel. Last year we had something grand planned, but Drek was on a business trip on our anniversary and by the time he got back we had to move so we settled on a nice hike. 

This year Drek and I talked about doing all those things. We finally decided to go snorkeling; something neither of us has done before. To facilitate this, Drek and I got each other an inflatable Kayak as an anniversary present. Well, in the tradition of our anniversary plans, the snorkeling didn't work out, but we still had a kayak! 

We took it out on the ocean for the first time yesterday. It was perfect beach weather. It was warm, the ocean was clear and for the first time since we moved here, the water was warm! 

The only drawback was that the ocean wasn't exactly welcoming kayaks. The waves were huge and seemingly endless. It wasn't a matter of getting over the waves and into flat ocean, there was always one more wave to get over, each one bigger than the last!

Due to a miscommunication about when were actually taking the kayak out onto the ocean, Drek and I left our lifejackets back on the beach and I was still wearing a dress over my swimsuit. We had a limited amount of time, so we decided to go out anyway and I slipped off my dress and dropped it in the bottom of the kayak.

We headed out into the waves. The thrill of a huge wave crashing toward you, trying to head into it as straight as possible and then falling down the other side; it was so much fun! We got out pretty far before Drek said he didn't feel comfortable going farther without our lifejackets. Right after a wave hit we turned the kayak around as fast as we could. The first wave hit and we rode it a little ways towards the shore. And then the second wave hit: It threw the back of the kayak over the front of the kayak and Drek and I tumbled out into the deep blue ocean. I dropped the paddle I was holding and swam for the surface. As soon as I came up I saw Drek, still holding faithfully to his paddle.  The kayak was flipped over and the waves were taking it back to shore for us. I tread water for a few seconds before realizing Drek was standing up and the water was only came up to my shoulders. We laughed and retrieved my paddle. We tried to body surf on the waves but mostly ended up going under most of them. We made it back to shore and the only casualty was my dress, which I'm sure has been picked up by a dolphin by now.

We had a blast. I can't wait to take it out again! It's not as dangerous as skydiving, but it still got our adrenaline pumping! And now that we have a kayak I'm sure we'll be able to go snorkeling sometime soon.