Skydiving in Denver!

Two updates in one week!

That's right folks, you're getting TWO blog updates in one week! That's mostly because I don't know if I'm going to have/take the time to update next week... But we'll get to that a little bit later...

Since nothing exciting has happened this week... I'll tell y'all about my skydiving experience! That's right... I've said I wanted to do it forever, and now I actually have! I flew out to Denver to go, because Aaron was the only one who I could figure out that wanted to do it with me, and would actually follow through... Until I found out that Dennis wanted to go, but by then my trip was already planned and booked. (I should have just assumed that Dennis wanted to go skydiving... He's always up for something extreme.)

My weekend in Denver started out really relaxing... Just lots of hanging out, time to read and even get a nap or two in! I also finally got to see Up! for the first time. I thought it was really good, and quite enjoyed the movie. (SQUIRREL!) After the movie, we also got to walk around an outdoor mall for a while, listened to a really not impressive oldies cover bank, and walked around Borders. I don't know how well you know my obsession with books, but Borders is a very dangerous place for me. Any any given point, I am in the process of reading 2 or 3 different books. I almost always have a book in my purse to pull out and read while I'm standing in a line, waiting for something to start, eating, just about anything. I escaped Borders with only buying 2 books, which is really good. Trust me, I could have bought a cart full.

So, Sunday morning finally came. After a skydivers' breakfast of bagels, fruit and yogurt, we were headed off to meet Kristen, Aaron's older sister, at the Longmont Airport. (on a side note, we tried to google what skydivers eat for breakfast, but to no avail. Aaron decided that Norwegians are hard core and they have a spread similar to what we ended up eating, so that's how we decided what a skydivers' breakfast actually had.) We got there and filled out all of the paperwork, signed I wouldn't sue if I was injured or killed... Then waited, and waited and waited, and waited. Finally, they called our names and we started suiting up in purple and black jumpsuits and fantastic harnesses. I wish I had a picture of any of this, but we had to empty out all of our pockets before we could jump; there wasn't any place for me to leave my camera that would be locked up, and I wasn't really in the mood to leave my camera unattended and possibly get stolen. After that, I was lucky enough to be the first one to meet my instructor/jumping partner- his name was Nick. I was actually really glad I had the instructor that I did. I was the only one who really got any instruction on the ground. After Nick showed me the positions and everything that I'd need for jumping, we were headed to the truck to take a ride out to the plane.

Soon, we were all aboard the plane, and headed up to 12,500 feet... At 6,000 feet, we levelled out for a couple of minutes while 3 single jumpers went. Then we continued up to our altitude. When the guys jumped out at 6,000 feet, Kristen's fear jumped up as high as we were. All morning Kristen was talking about how nervous she was. Her boyfriend told her that she could back out and he wouldn't make fun of her. That's probably true... but she knew that Aaron would make fun of her forever. So, she was there. We decided that on a more positive note, if we did die skydiving today, we wouldn't have to go back to work on Monday morning. :o) So, when the singles jumped, Kristen realized what we were really doing, and went totally white. After, she said she didn't know we could all tell she was really that scared... Trust me, the whole plane knew how scared she was.

If you think a sitting by the engine on a commercial airplane gets loud, you should try a little unsealed airplane. :o) At 12,500 feet, we finally levelled off again, and our tandem group started going! Kirsten was the first one out of the plane... I wasn't so sure that she was going to go after how white she turned. But she did it... and you could hear her scream from inside the plane.

I was the last one out of the plane. Up until that moment, I had been a little scared/nervous, but nothing too bad. I don't know that it had really sunk in that I was about to jump out of a plane. I was all attached to Nick, and standing on the edge of the plane ledge, looking down at the ground and everything, and I started to wonder what the heck I was doing! But, by then it was too late. I was all attached to Nick, and before I knew it, he was pushing us out of the plane. I'm not really sure how my mind did it, but I actually went through all of the steps and positions that Nick had gone through with me on the ground. If I thought that the plane was loud, free falling was that much louder! Imagine driving at, what I later found out was, 142 mph and sticking your head out the window... That's about what it was. After free falling for nearly a minute, Nick pulled the cord and we got to drift down. It was absolutely amazing. I got to look at the mountains, and just the land as far as I could see in every direction.

Now, for future reference, if you ever go tandem skydiving and the instructor asks you if you like roller coasters, the answer is no. He asked me, and not knowing why, I answered yes. He then directed the parachute so that we started spinning really fast in circles! YIKES! If you know me, then you know that I DO NOT like spinning. I always skip the Tea Cups and the Orange Stinger at Disney. This was by far the closest I got to losing my breakfast... Once we were all back on the ground and were talking about our experience, Kristen and I agreed that going on a roller coaster and rapidly spinning in circles at 6,000 feet in the air are two very different things.

As soon as we landed on the ground, Nick checked our stats. Like I said before, during free fall, we got up to 142 miles per hour. Nick told me that tandem jumps usually only get up to between 120 and 130 mph. Nick told me I'm just really good at making myself aerodynamic. :o)

After leaving the airport, we all headed to Pearl Street in Boulder to get some lunch. After having an enjoyable lunch together, we decided to just walk around Pearl Street for a while. There was an art festival going on, so we got to walk around and look at all of the art and make some comments on it... Kristen and I agree on a lot of things I noticed... One of them is that we don't like modern art... Apparently we just aren't cultured enough. There was also another booth where a woman was selling 'fun' art... In other words, it was bright colors and child-like subjects like rubber duckies and horses. I would definitely not pay her for that... I'd rather pay Marlene to draw something for me. It would come out a lot better. I'm sorry, I'm being mean.... Either way, her art was not for me.

Later that night, after nearly missing my plane home, or so I thought, I got to have a whole new flying experience... But we're not going to talk about that one. I get frustrated thinking about it all over again... It was unbelievably obnoxious and not fun... I was really wishing I was falling out of that plane rather than sitting on it.

So... Onto the happier news of why I'm not going to be around next week to blog! I was surprised and able to get ALL of next week off of work when I got back!! I also received my Rapid Rewards free flight on Southwest for all of my travel over the last year... So, since I had a whole week off, and a flight that was free no matter how far in advance I booked it for, I called Russell and Jodee to see if I could come visit, and they said YES! So, tomorrow afternoon, I'm off to Phoenix to see Russell, Jodee, Calvin and Wesley until Friday night! I'm so excited to be able to go see them, spend some time with Jodee and the boys, not have to share the twins, and just relax. I can't wait! I'll get some picture of the boys while I'm down there and post them when I get back.