Skydiving again!

Skydiving. August 23, 2008

This is a video of MY MOM skydiving!!!

Well, another successful skydive!! It was mom's first time (her video is above), and I think she enjoyed it! I know she enjoyed it! When we hit the ground, she jumped up and down just like everyone does after their jump... we were trying to figure out why we all do that... maybe it's because we have so much adrenaline running through us... in addition to being so glad we're on the ground. :)

I honestly thought she'd be so much more nervous, but she wasn't! She was completely calm and collected. Dad was there to watch us crazies jump out of the plane... I think I might have seen a little more nervousness in his eyes than us jumpers... after all, both of his "girls" were going up into a plane... we put my poor Pappy through so much with our crazy adventures. Adam came just before we jumped, too. It was nice to have my two favorite guys there to greet me on the ground. :)

The jump was amazing, once again. Only 3 of us jumped this time... I think everyone else just chickened out! Mom and I went up first, then Jake went up. It turned out to be a perfect day. Thunderstorms were forcasted, but we ended up with blue skies! Mom jumped with Paul, and I jumped with Brad. Both are fun characters, and really make for a fun jump. Paul got mom on video, which you've probably already watched above. I didn't get video this time, so I asked Brad if we could do some flips out of the plane. He seemed excited when I asked... so when we exited the plane, we took a few back flips off of the platform. It was really cool! I thought I'd feel it in my tummy or something, but I didn't. I just remember seeing sky, then ground, then sky, then ground, then sky, then ground... then freefall straight down again. Then there was a little tug, and the chute opened. As we were floating down, I could see where our apartment was below... I couldn't see the actual apartment complex, but I was able to follow the road to exactly where it was... I remember thinking, "Hi kitties!" Okay, yeah... I'm a dork!

Then I looked over and saw mom floating down. Our chutes got so close I was able to yell "Hey, Mom!" to her and she could hear me! It was really neat! Brad and I made a bunch of fun turns with the chute, and then took a pretty smooth upright landing... no butt-slide!

Exiting the plane for the back flips was a little different. I had to place both feet on the platform, then grab the wing and hang on, then sort of shuffle my feet to about 6" from the edge. I had 80mph winds pushing at me, and I scrunched down into a low squat, then Brad asked me (I think twice) if I was ready... when I yelled, "Ready!" we pushed off. Amazing.

All I can say is, if you get the chance, make the jump. It's so much fun!!

And hey, mom... I'm proud of you!!!! :)