Skydiving!!

My co-worker, Mike, won a free skydiving pass at a Christmas party my work held last December, and decided to use it this past weekend with his Mom. At the last minute, she backed out due to a wind surfing accident and since I was planning on meeting up with him to watch, and he had already put down the deposit, he asked if I wanted to fill in. I had made plans with Chelsea to do some shopping until he was ready for us to meet up to watch him, but she was fine with switching up the plan and coming along so she could watch Olivia for me, and then we decided to do dinner instead. She's so sweet!!

When you first get there, they have you sign and initial a bunch of papers saying that you won't sue if anything happens, that you understand you could die, and that you have made arrangements for your spouse and children, if anything bad should happen. I think that was the scariest part about it. Then, they take everyone into a room and show you what position to be in when you fall and how you land. After that, we just waited around with Chelsea, Olivia, and his Mom for a couple hours until they called us to dive. I kept waiting for the butterflies to come, but they never did. Then, they geared us up, introduced us to our partners, and had us step into a fenced area to wait for our plane to pick us up.

These were the first pics his Mom took when we stepped out:

(Of course, Mike is being a comedian)



Then we were introduced to the photographer (Mike) who was going to be filming Mike dive. He was SO enthusiastic and pretty funny!

Then the Mike the photographer noticed Mike's Mom taking pictures and started making fun of our paparazzi.

He took one last pic of me on the airplane before we dove. (Yah, the head gear is a little embarrassing) You can kind of see my partner behind me... or at least his hair. When you get on the airplane, they have two benches and everyone sits in a line kind of straddling each other. I was still waiting for butterflies, but there was nothing.... even as we got higher and I was looking out the window, I was just really excited!

Then all of a sudden the door opened and before I could even process what was going on, they started pushing people out like rag dolls and then I was in the air. It was AMAZING!! Words can't even describe the feeling. I imagined that you would fall so fast that you wouldn't be able to see anything but the free fall actually seems pretty slow and it felt like we were falling for a while before he pulled the chute. Then we just glided for a good couple minutes. He pointed out a few places, taught me how to fly the parachute, and then we landed perfectly. (I was most nervous about the land) It was SO fun, and I can't wait to do it again!!