'Diving' through the sky! = coolest thing EVER!

My parents came in town over the fourth of July weekend. For awhile my dad and I have talked about how fun it would be to go skydiving, and how we seriously wanted to do it. Well my 25th birthday came up in April and I thought, what better way to celebrate being half-way to 50?!

I called him up in Mexico and told him my plan of going for my birthday while they were in town. His response was, "Seriously?!" He was as excited about it as I was, and I was absolutely thrilled to say the least!

Our jump time was 9am so we drove out to the airport early and signed our lives away as my mom snapped pictures and watched Jayde. We watched a short video about how we are harnessed, how to kneel as you 'jump' out of the plane, how to breathe when you have air coming at you so fast it's like drinking from a fire hose, where to have your arms and legs while free falling, and how to land... and that was it, no training or practice or anything.
While we were getting our gear on my dad and I were joking around the entire time... my tandem guy (who I was jumping with) responded this to one of my dad's comments, "ya this is my first tandem jump with someone else so we'll see how it goes! Hopefully it'll all turn out alright."

Haha Riiiiight.... So as we were walking out to the plane we watched this pair totally biff it as they landed and they both rolled over each other and made a big poof of dust fly up. Me and my dad both looked at each other with raised eyebrows - that's definitely not how they showed us landing in the training video! My guide was like, "ya... that's what happens when you don't follow the instructions...."

Note to self - MAKE SURE you lift up your legs when landing! I really didn't want to break anything when we got on the ground.

Here is our plane taking off. They left the door open most of the way which was freaky. It was fun riding up to altitude with my dad. We were all just joking around the whole time. It was a very quick ride up!

{You can click on the pics to make them bigger}

They had me go first so my videographer could jump out right before me. I honestly wasn't nervous to jump out of the plane... the most nerve wracking thing about the whole experience was watching the training video, and seeing the 'jump' sign as we pulled into the lot.

As I looked out of the plane getting ready to free fall, the only thing that was going through my head was "Holy Crap!!"

Everything I had learned about scooting to the front, putting your toes on the edge, kneeling as you 'jump' went right out the window obviously before I was flung out of the plane!! They do a flip in the air right after you jump/fall out which was awesome. It was a total rush! I did however, remember "chicken wing" as your arms and "banana" for your legs.

Above is my dad. I remember it being difficult to breathe while we were free falling. It's amazing how fast the air is rushing out at you! My dad said he could breathe just fine though. When they pulled the chute there was a huge pull as your were flung up into the air, and then everything was perfectly peaceful. As we glided down our guides had my dad and I together for a good part of it and even touched parachutes which totally freaked me out, but I guess it was totally safe. We tried to talk to each other a little bit, and were both just laughing and saying, "This is soo cool!"

We did some steep turns while we were gliding which was really fun. It's amazing how much control you have over where you want to go. Part of it my guide let me steer which was neat.

It was neat floating through the air and watching things slowly come closer to you. The view was amazing! I could see Tyson and our family on the ground looking up at us, and the landing spot. I made sure to lift my legs so we wouldn't tumble over each other and biff it like that other person did. We slid on our butts to a stop and I was able to watch my dad land after me.

Jayde on the ground waiting for us to land had fun playing with her family.

He also landed 'smooth like butta' haha. I ran over there and we were just talking about how awesome it was. Seriously THE most awesome thing I have EVER done!!!

Glad to be on the ground and kiss my little one again!

My dad is awesome and I'm so glad he wanted to do this with me! Tyson just said there is no way in hell he would EVER jump out of a perfectly good working airplane haha. It was so much fun and I recommend it to anyone who has been thinking of skydiving. Totally worth the money!

Fee: $180

Time watching video that you'll forget: 30 min
Time getting geared up and in the plane: 20 min
Ascent: 10 min
Thrill of skydiving with your dad: Priceless!